Diaper Genies Make Diapers Stink More

Short subject that I've been meaning to talk about.

Chances are if you use disposable diapers, you have a Diaper Genie.  Throw it out.  You are making your diapers more stinky.  A Diaper Genie, for those of you not in the know about useless baby products, is a plastic container with a plastic bag inside of it that you put disposable diapers into and you turn the bag so that the diaper is essentially locked up air tight.

Great! You are thinking.  No.  If this Diaper Genie actually worked like a Genie and transported them to the garbage on garbage day without you having to do anything, then maybe it would be worth it.  But here is the reality: eventually you have to empty the Diaper Genie.  And at the rate young babies go through diapers, possibly you will have to empty them on a day that's not garbage day.  Or if you work at a day care center or something like that, chances are you empty it every night. 

And here is what happens to diapers that have been locked in an airtight space: they get really, really, really, stinky.  I have had to empty a wet bag that had a poopy cloth diaper kept in it over night accidentally.  It was pretty bad.  Even ones coming home from 8 hours of day care are getting to the unbearably stinky point. So imagine what a whole week or a few days worth of diapers that have been trapped inside of a Diaper Genie must smell like.  And in my experience, the smell escapes when you empty them.  Or maybe the plastic bag catches on something... it's just a thin piece of plastic after all.

How do you keep them from stinking?  Let air get to them.  We put our dirty cloth diapers in to a plastic bin without a top, they don't stink up our bedroom.  When we use disposables, they go into a paper grocery bag that we use as a trash can, also in our bedroom, no top, no plastic, and they don't stink.  We use some disposable wipes and these also go in the paper bag, again, no stink. 

Who ever invented the Diaper Genie really is an evil genius.  Because I think nearly every parent has one and it does the opposite of what they bought it to do.  A great example of a convenience item that makes things less convenient.  I could do a whole series, maybe I will.