The Daily Diaper
The most useless, yet costly, nursery item you can buy.
Your friends are about to throw you a baby shower. You are so excited and hop off to your local baby supercenter to register. Maybe you go to two or three places, after all this is your first, second, or fifteenth baby and YOU NEED STUFF. It is an exciting time – a time for planning and implementing, and if you’re like the majority of us, a time to save where you can.
This is where I come in and offer you one piece of sage advice. The most useless and costly nursery item you can register to buy is a Diaper Genie®, or “like” contraption. I know, I know, you’re thinking, “Where will I put all those stinky, smelly diapers?” No worries, I’m here for you – hear me out and you’ll find this advice to be a blessing for your checkbook and meaningful for the environment your child will grow up in.
If you are considering a Diaper Genie®, most likely you are NOT considering cloth diapers. So, let’s talk money first. Diaper Genie’s® are NOT cheap. You say, “Well, I’m not buying it – my Aunt Martha is buying it for me.” I get that, but who do you think will purchase the refills? Right – that would be YOU.
Diaper Genie® refills are not cheap at around $6.00 each (and this is if you buy online in multiples of 3 or more). I realize there are things called SALES and opportunities here and there to get a “steal”, but for the most part, you are going to outlay the cost of a matinee movie ticket each time you purchase a refill. Each refill, according to the Playtex website, holds more than 30 small diapers. How much more? Well, the Diaper Genie® is not a large contraption, so you can be assured, NOT MUCH more. With that bit of knowledge, let’s do the math.
If the average newborn needs anywhere from 12 to 18 diaper changes/daily, a single refill will last somewhere between 2 to 3 days. You will need no less than 2 Diaper Genie® refills/week at about $12.00/week. That is around $48.00/month on refills alone. That is $48.00 going straight to a landfill. Even if I wasn’t concerned about the environment, the money outlay alone would cause me to reconsider this nursery item.
It might not be heavy on your mind, but give me a second to touch on the environmental issue of disposable diapers. The basis of the Diaper Genie® system is to wrap up your diaper and seal away odor. I’ve been in many nurseries that use these, including my own with my first child, and I can certainly dispell that myth right here. It doesn’t matter if you have an atmospheric vacuum in your nursery – when you change a soiled diaper, the air is going to stink for a while. And if you seal a soiled diaper inside a pail of any sort, when you open that lid, it will release a stench strong enough to burn your eyebrows right off.
Read what a pro-disposable diaper, Diaper Genie® owner wrote:
“My guy friends with Diaper Genies had warned me about the smell (the pro and con Diaper Genie factions seem split by gender), and they didn’t exaggerate. On warmer days, parts of our house smelled like the Tenderloin District in San Francisco. The Diaper Champ itself reeked like a dog had chased a cat that was chasing a rat inside of it, and they all died. Even when it was empty, the smell was almost as strong — to the point where cleaning or even bleaching wouldn’t matter. All this comes from someone who has broken his nose two or three times, and hasn’t smelled much of anything since 1989.” ⇒The Diaper Genie: Great invention or instrument of evil?
Disposable diapers full of bodily waste WILL STINK no matter where you put them. I say “disposable diapers” because cloth diaper pails are full of cloth diapers that have been rinsed free of any bodily waste before being placed in the pail. Not to say cloth diaper pails do not retain their own smell, but the odor is significantly less acrid.
Disposable diapers contain a layer of waterproof plastic on their outer shell. By placing a disposable diaper inside a Diaper Genie®, you add yet another layer of plastic – plastic that, if you have the original version, twists the diaper up into little poop sausages. Then, when you empty the long string of poop sausages from the base of the Diaper Genie® and place it in yet another plastic bag to set at your curb for pick-up, you have successfully entombed that poop or pee diaper under three layers of plastic. Whether or not it takes 500 years for a disposable diaper to break down in landfills becomes irrelevant, because the factors necessary to break down that diaper (sun, air, etc…) will never be able to work.
If it is your desire to use disposable diapers on your child, I would encourage you to peruse online cloth diaper sites such as ours for more information on why cloth diapering is a viable alternative to disposable diapers. No matter what you do, remember that the Diaper Genie® will do you no favors and make a wiser choice in a diaper pail.
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I totally agree with this article. I had a Diaper Genie with my first child-a gift from my mother-in-law. I was very excited when she gave it to me. That changed so fast it would make your head spin. The stink was horrendous!!!! The ‘poop sausage’ was the worst smell i have ever experienced. You just couldn’t get rid of it. We soaked in liquid lysol, borax, everything. Even leaving it out in the sun for a couple of weeks couldn’t get rid of the stink. I try to talk everyone i know out of buying them.
I’ve never used or been near a diaper pail that didn’t stink. It doesn’t matter the brand or type of diaper in it. If you don’t want the stink of poop, practice elimination communication. Baby poops in the potty, you flush, life is smell free.
I couldn’t agree more. People make so many negative assumptions about cloth diapers.
You can purchase bags for cloth that really do hold in the smell. As long at the top of the bad isn’t wide open, you can’t smell the diapers. Then when it is full, we simply empty the bag into the washer, throw in the bag, and wash with vinegar and baking soda – no smell, and everything comes out clean.
Anyone who owns their own washer and dryer should really consider cloth diapers. The environmental savings are huge, and the financial savings are huge – there is no down side.
I have to first say how proud I am of your photo! LOL I love it! Honestly one of the main factors in switching to cloth for me was the stinky diaper pails! And then stinky garage all week waiting for garbage day! Now if I smell something foul in the diaper bin I know it’s time to do laundry! Easy! Solution! I am ashamed to admitt that I to have invested waaaaay to much money on diaper pails. Now all I use is an open rubbermaid storage container that I got on closeout for a buck!
I agree! We have a diaper genie and it’s a big waste of money! It fills up SO fast and it’s a pain to change the refills. I don’t bother to use it anymore.
My first run-in with a genie was after I had my 1st. A girlfriend had one & a champ and a ….well you get the idea. They smelled, all of them, horribly. Litter boxes have No comparison on the way these things smell! And this was with a primarily breastfed baby that was just getting really into solids, not a formula baby! Cloth is so much easier, part me NOT from my Happy Tushies hanging pails if you know what’s good for you! oh & no diapers left “conveniently” in out of the way places like bus benches and the like, no sirree, once I started taking my disposables home to dispose of as the packages requested (& the city, lol) cloth became the clear winner! No contest.
I absolutely agree! I used to be a nanny and part of MY job was to empty the Diaper Genie. Twelve years later, that smell memory still turns my stomach. My daughter is now on solids, a lot of them, and her diaper pails still don’t smell that bad after 3 days and I am not the best at rinsing diapers out.
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had recently herpes virus found in my blood. what I haveto do??? I’m in panic…
Blog liked, a good theme and correctly selected content
I thought I’d love my diaper genie, too. For some reason it’s on that mental list of things you think you can’t live without. First of all, it’s a horrible two-handed adventure to get the diapers in there in the first place (meanwhile baby is just laying on the changing table), you have to change it like…EVERY TWO DAYS…and the refills cost a million dollars and forty-two cents. When we switched to cloth I bought a simple, cheap trashcan with a lid and wa-la. Done.
Good post. I like hearing from a guy’s perspective. Cloth diapers are great, and not that I am biased since I am in the biz, but they can save you money in the long run and help you do your part to save the planet! :)
I have the diaper genie II and although it’s not as stinky as the first one (from what I’ve read anyway) it does still cost you an arm & a leg in refills. We started just putting a kitchen trash bag in it!
Since we’re switching to cloth, we’re keeping ours & putting a pail liner in it rather then buying a trash can (additional money) to put in our two babies rooms. The only two advantages I’ve seen that the diaper genie has over a trash can are that it is skinnier so it fits in little places I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of otherwise, and also the little flap that is under the lid helps to keep more of the smell (disposable diapers) in than just a trash lid could. However, yes, it is totally not worth the money! This is just why I am keeping mine & repurposing it! It’s already cost me enough to last a lifetime!
If you are a new parent thinking it is the best invention ever, take to heart this article & the comments on this page. They are so right! Although, if you still think you just HAVE to have one, get one used (Craigslist for $5) and just put trash bags in it! But seriously, you sooo CAN live without it!
Глушитель альфа ромео – автоуслуга реализуемая в специализированных автотехсервисах по оптимальным ценам.
Poop sausages – hah!
Hear, hear. Totally agree. We got two 5-gallon buckets with lids – one for wet diapers, another for soiled diapers – and that’s worked great for us. Total investment: $6.29 (+ tax)
Vorrei comprare n. 7500 cartoni di Genie II system. A quale prezzo?
Consegna porto Napoli