Cheap Diaper Pails

by Hannah Walton aka The Cheapskate Mom

 When my husband and I had our baby , we didn't have much money. The last thing we needed to do was run out to the store the week before our son was born to buy a diaper pail (but we didn't know that at the time! I thought it was SUCH a neccesity…). If only I had taken to the internet to read about cheaper diaper pail alternatives to the diaper genies, champs and dekors of the world!

We dId buy a diaper pail. It uses regular trash bags (and we change the trash frequently!) and works well but – I've decided that diaper pails aren't all that neccessary … in fact, I think they are far more convoluted than they need to be. I mean really – the situation is this : you need to dispose of poopy diapers in a sanitary way. I will say this first: If you are going to buy a diaper pail diaper pail – make sure you buy one that takes regular trash bags … I mean …. diapers are expensive enough and special diaper pail trash liner bags are absolutely crazy to this cheapskate mom!

I've come up with a list of diaper pail ideas that are cheaper and maybe more practical than the big box baby store solutions. Be sure to check out my other post Skip The Diaper Genie: Cheap Alternatives.

Enjoy

1. The Regular Trash Can Diaper Disposal Method
Here's the deal : you save your plastic grocery bags or you can buy those special diaper disposal bags . You take more than you need from the store. You keep these plastic bags near the diaper changing station. You dispose of diaper in plastic bag and tie it off. You dispose of plastic bag in regular trash. The plastic bag keeps the stink in. This method works great. Amazing, right? You can store plastic bags in a kleenex box for an organized and chic look !

2.  The Paint Bucket Diaper Disposal Method
Buy a paint bucket like this one with a lid. Use grocery store plastic bags to be extra cheap. Diaper pail for less then $3.00 bucks. Cheapest diaper pail on the market …. seriously. The fact that paint bucket lids fit so well makes this a winning diaper pail because it really keeps those gross odors in. My personal favorite idea ….

3. The Foot Pedal Bin Diaper Disposal Method
One of the things I don't like about my pretty simple diaper pail is that i've got to touch the handle to dispose of diapers. YUCK. I blow through SO much hand sanitizer it's ridiculous! Why didn't I think of buying a straight-up garbage can with a foot pedal to avoid the whole yucky touching the handle thing?!

4. The Bio-degradable Diaper Disposal Method
For the environmental set – skip the fancy plastic diaper pail and buy those biodegradable pet poop bags for wrapping up individual poopy diapers – then , as then follow the steps in The Regular Trash Can Diaper Disposal Method above!

5. The Pet Food Storage Diaper Disposal Method
Pet food storage containers are a cool idea for diaper pails because they are air tight – read : no smells. I think they might get a bit cumbersome with trying to fit the bag in and for the ocd person like me – annoying to fit the lid back everytime. But hey – if you've got a no longer used pet food storage container laying around the house – give it a try.This would work till baby is more mobile – after you'd want to make sure baby couldn't accidentally get trapped.

6.The Regular Storage Bin Diaper Disposal Method
If you've got a regular storage bin lying around , this would make a decent diaper pail because it has a lid. Cheap but not chic – but hey… cheap is chic ! This would work till baby is more mobile – after you'd want to make sure baby couldn't accidentally get trapped.

7. The Any Trash Bin Diaper Disposal Method
If you want a special pail for diapers – you don't have to get fancy or use any of the ideas above. Any old trash can, changed frequently, will work just fine