When I first told my husband I was researching cloth diapers, he was pretty skeptical.  

In fact, he echoed a lot of my very same fears.  Would it really save money?  Could I really stick with it?  And then there's the ick factor--the poop factor.  We all worry about that one before we start using cloth diapers.

But for a little while, he was more concerned than I was and he wasn't ready to spend the money to invest in my little project.  I had to work a little bit to convince my husband to use cloth diapers.  But eventually, he came around and we were both happier for it.  

1.  Show him the money.  
There are a dozen cloth diaper calculators out there.  Use one and show him just how much money you can really save.  I might be wooed by the cuteness of cloth, but my husband finds the data convincing.  

2.  Minimize the investment.  

Choose a budget and stick with it.  You can try to find as many inexpensive new cloth diapers as humanly possible to stretch that budget.  Or you can buy someone's used stash for a cheap price.  And countless websites offer try before you buy services, which is nothing short of brilliant.  By saving money on the upfront costs, you are making the investment less risky.  Remember, data is always convincing.

Initially, I only bought 7 cloth diapers.  Yes, you read that right!  What can you do with just 7 diapers?  Well you can wash them every. single. day. until you can afford more cloth diapers.  I would put my baby in a 'sposie for bedtime and start the wash routine as soon as she was in bed.  It didn't last long though.  In a matter of weeks we were convinced that cloth was for us.  

3.  Simplify the diaper routine.  
I wasn't willing to let him off the hook for all diaper changes just because we were using cloth, but we came up with an agreement that would work for us.  Daddy uses pocket diapers only.  Yes, prefolds are definitely the cheapest way to go, but they're not exactly user friendly.  

Pocket diapers, all-in-ones, or similarly designed diapers are far easier for husbands, babysitters, and grandmothers to manage, so even when I'm using prefolds, I have pocket diapers on hand for my husband to use.  He knows that no matter what kind of diaper our baby is in, he can always put the baby in a user-friendly pocket diaper, and that makes it easier for him to figure out.

4.  Take away the ick factor.  
Another part of our cloth diaper agreement was that I would handle poop.  Now he really doesn't mind changing a poopie diaper--that's just part of parenthood.  But I handle the poop dumping and diaper spraying.  I also handle all diaper laundry.  I make these areas my job alone because it keeps him super happy with cloth diapers.  I'm the one who wanted to do this, so I can handle the not-so-fun parts.

5.  Ask him to simply trust you on this one.  
In the end, I just asked him to trust me with this decision.  And he did, even though he wasn't 100% on board.  

You know what?  Three babies later, I can tell you that he really loves our cloth diapers.  We are both so glad we made the switch.  

Was it hard to convince your spouse to switch to cloth diapers? How did you get him to go along with it?