We thought you might want to know that our specially imported Indian prefolds have been marked down for even greater savings. These are first quality diapers! We’re just passing on our savings to you.
Not sure what to buy? You may want to consider combining an Indian prefold with an Econobum or Flip one-size diaper cover. Be sure to pick up a Snappi while you’re at it!
By the way, prefolds have a great “after life” in the cleaning closet at your house. We have even heard about prefolds getting snagged out of the baby’s room so a certain member of the family can wash the car!
Do you have a fun story about how prefolds have been used at your house? Share it with us in the comments. We’ll pick a random commenter and send you six free prefolds!
Have a great summer afternoon and spread the word…
About the Author
Jenn is the founder of Cotton Babies & creator of bumGenius, Flip, and Econobum, worldwide leading cloth diaper brands. She has four children (Andrew, Oscar, Elsie and Louis) and holds an MBA from Washington University. When she's not working full time, she enjoys teaching business leaders how to implement sustainable economic & social change.
Comments
64 Comments
I stick the infant size ones on my swiffer and dust my hard wood floors.
You can get one wet and freeze it as an ice pack. Works really well with the flips for head aches.
We love them for burpers, for wiping up spills, for tying in knots to teethe on, but my oldest tries to lay them on our cats while they’re sleeping, insisting that they’re capes that “give them super powers” and (when he’s not wearing them on his bottom) the youngest loves them as a cushy, slightly warmer, non-slip mat in the stainless kitchen sink on hot evenings.
dakotaring at yahoo dot com
my mother-in-law uses her old prefolds for cleaning. her youngest child is 30! so they have been put to good use.
I used all my infant prefolds for cleaning after my baby grew out of them. I LOVE them, they are so absorbant my son said he couldn’t use them with the mop pail because they suck up too much water LOL
Last weekend my 11 week old was going through a growth spurt. I was sitting in bed with her being a breastmilk buffet. I use prefolds on a daily basis to wipe up spit-up and drool from the baby, as well as to keep her face cooler when she has it rested on my arm. So I had plenty around me.
Suddenly I wake from a nursing nap to the sound of the cat horking something up. *ahack ahack huckhuck* He’s on the foot of the bed. I see my king-sized comforter (which won’t fit in our washer) in mortal peril. I don’t have time to put the baby down and grab the cat and get him off the bed.
Without thinking I grab a prefold and shove it under the cat’s face. I catch the hairball and save our sheets. And the prefold can just go in the diaper laundry!
That is the story of how a prefold saved the day.
Prefolds truly last forever. I just started cloth diapering and am using the same prefolds that my mom used on me!
Ive used them on picnics as placemats. Easy to clean and the food stays off the dirty table! My daughter colored one with a crayon, we then ironed it with a newspaper on top so the color stayed and the wax stuck to the paper. Instant personal placemat or baby doll blanket!
THE WINNER IS:
Mom of a Half Dozen Kids @ 3:17 PM
Congratulations, mama! You’ve won the prefolds! Please send me your email address (jenn@cottonbabies.com) and I’ll get you the information you need to claim your prize.
Thanks everyone for all your great comments and awesome ideas for other people reading this blog entry. I know that I learned something reading all of your thoughts. Have a great evening!
I read on here that someone used them as a little blankie for their child, so I tried it. He cuddles one now!
I use my prefolds for literally everything! I use them for facewash cloths, spare diaper wipes, cleaning rags, dish towels, bath mats, cleaning the cars, emergency clean ups on the road in my diaper bags, emergency blankets in the car, under my dish drainer to absorb water, diaper doublers, cleaning up messy art projects.. etc literally everything!
I also like to sew strips of pretty fabric on them, to make decorative burp cloths for friends. They’re really an awesome purchase!
I’m still using my prefolds as doublers behind the BG inserts at night. They work fabulously! Right after birth, when I was super engorged, I would lay them all around me to soak up the milk I leaked all night long.
jennyvangy at gmail dot com
I tie dyed 9 of our old prefolds and sewed them together for a lovely soft blanket for my DS.
My FIL bought us our first PFs and covers and he requested them back when were were done – he says they make great shop rags lol. Our infant prefolds now have a new life as pocket stuffers over a year after I went away from cloth (when we grew out of the first PF covers). We are back and here to stay this time 🙂
I’m loving all these ideas! Winner to be chosen Monday!
I’ll let you know once I get my first set! Can’t wait. This is baby #3 but our first time trying cloth out. yay!
In a pinch, prefolds have come to the rescue in our household as a: puke catcher, spit up soaker, pee target, muddy face washer, spider catcher, hornet swatter, runny nose blower, tear wiper, gallon of chai mopper, window de-fogger, car washer, bottom tapper (in jest), ice pack holder, and last but not least, a special gift wrapper!
prefolds are the best! we dont do anything terribly exciting with them, but they do get scattered all over the house to catch drool wherever it may fall. we also use them to put under our daughter’s bum when she lays in bed with us just in case of a leak and under her head in case of spit up. im gonna save them for the next babes before using them to clean the house, but they are really such a great reusable buy! tamipearson at gmail dot com
i love prefolds so much!!! the smaller ones that baby has outgrown now live in the kitchen and have completely replaced paper towels for us! we use them for everything from cleaning windows and mirrors (with vinegar water solution- works great), to countertops, and wiping baby down after a messy dinner! how is that for a second life!? the preemie one’s are in the bathroom and are used as washcloths. i might be buying more just to use them around house!!
Prefolds really buff up a granite countertop!! I love Kailey b’s idea.
if only i knew how to sew, haha
I LOVE them as towels to dry the dishes. Nothing else works as well.
My husband steals them to clean his electronics. He says that if they’re soft enough for a baby’s behind, they’re good enough for his laptop!
Goodness, besides the more normal uses (diaper, insert in a diaper, changing pad) our prefolds have cleaned up every possible kind of bodily fluid and quite a few non-bodily ones, protected carseats from damp clothes, padded wet picnic tables, covered cold toddler arms when she had to have a blankie instead of a jacket, been frequent peekaboo rags, been nursing covers, been tucked into the body and straps of my meitai for an impromptu sleep/sun hood and so far we’ve only been cloth diapering for under 3 months!
My daughter “stole” a prefold from her grandmothers stash (which were used as burp cloths) and is her peek-a-boo toy now!
I have use premie prefolds as Cloth napkins when my son grew out of them:) they were a great size for a Dinner:)
Nothing unique but, we use our old prefolds for dust rags or burp cloths! 🙂
This isn’t funny or unique…but they are my favorite thing to mop up spills. They were a ‘must have’ as we potty trained my lo. Can’t tell you how many of those messes got cleaned up with a prefold! 😉
Lesse… what have I used these for…
– diapers (big surprise, huh?)
– burp towels
– dust rags
– mop up from spills
– nursing cover (when baby tries to pop on and off and I don’t want to flash someone 5x/min)
– tied to a stick to clean cobwebs off a cathedral ceiling
– blanket for baby in car seat
– baby shower gift (new ones, of course!)
… and come this summer, my mom’s giving my the prefolds she used on *me* 30-mumble-mumble years ago (that were in good, usable condition) to use on my daughter.
My mom sewed the old prefolds she used with my older sister into a big absorbent sheet for my son. It works great, we put it under his fitted sheet. It doesn’t make the crinkly noise since no plastics are in it. Which is really importnet since my son’s autistic and cannot deal with that sound. It works better then the store bought ones to be honest.
Kaileybowser1 at live dot com
When I first tried out cloth diapers, I used gerber prefolds that I had used as burp rags. After I bought better prefolds to use for diapers, the gerber ones became household rags. As we were fixing up our house to sell my husband told me that his new favorite rags were “the ones that look like diapers.” 🙂
The are also great for when you are in labour, put one underneath you in the car incase your water breaks on the way! 🙂
We used prefolds during potty training. They work great to clean up the potty mess on the foor or put on a chair or in the car seat so that if there happens to be an accident, it does not ruin whatever the little one is sitting on.
My daughter likes to chew on the stiches. Gross. Weird. Babies…
I rarely used the cheap walmart prefolds (I think Gerber makes them) I got as gifts, and eventually gave them all (24) to a mom who was using those exclusively! She felt blessed and I had room in my closet to store clothes my baby had grown out of! My CPF I used for EVERYTHING when my baby was little, and after she grew out of them, continued to grab them for nose rags, to protect her from ‘unknown’ surfaces, as burp rags, and pretty much always had one with me until she got into the crawling stages. They got stored when we moved. When we are done having kids, all our prefolds, inserts, etc will get use as cleaning rags! I’ve already considered using some of my worst stained 3.0 inserts and sewing them together for a swiffer pad replacement but haven’t gone through with it yet!
Our prefolds are diapers, changing mats and puke catchers when the kids get sick. I love them!
I’ve cut off the seams on prefolds and pulled them apart, then cut them down to washrag size and sewn them together. We use these little rags for everything and they are so soft.
I use old prefolds in the garden for weed control and compost! I layered on newspapers, leaves and old torn up prefolds. It made rich garden soil that worms stayed cool under and they ate away happily and I gardened happily!
I have a few prefolds, the rest are BGs- but, the older prefolds are awesome for everything! From burp cloths, to rags to clean the house/car, you name it!
Old prefolds make great cloths for drying dishes. I also use them to dust the furniture.
I love using prefolds with both our flip and thirsties diaper covers! We also use them for just about everything else around the house, doll diapers, rags, and my 2 yo daughter likes to mop the floor with them.
I keep one in my purse all the time for surprise uses… to sit on if the picnic table is dirty, to clean up after a ball game, to mop up spills, etc etc instead of keeping a small plastic container of baby wipes in my purse.
bethanyhaid at gmail dot com
I remember in high school my Mom still used the last few prefolds from my babyhood as dust rags. I’m expecting my little one in October and can’t wait to use them as diapers first and then see what else they are used for.
something I like to do for baby showers is to take several prefolds and sew a pretty/cute piece of fabric down the center to make the general, utilitarian burp cloth much cuter. It is usually a big hit with the Mamas and if you pick the right fabric baby will love to look at it too.
Chris – cmjacobs76 at gmail.com
We use prefolds for everything, small ones as inserts for pockets, burb cloths, dust rags. But my favorite is I use them all the time as breast pads at night. They work great and stay in place when little breast pads don’t.
We just used a prefold to clean the glue residue off of our wall after we removed the wallpaper!! It wasn’t a nice indian prefold, just a cheapie big block store prefold–but it worked well!!
My mom generously gave me a package of prefolds that were still in the package from when I was a baby. 1984! They were fraying all over the place and not worth using on my little guy. I decided to use them cleaning my kitchen. They work so well! Very soft and gentle on my countertops!
My almost 5 yr old likes to use Sissy’s prefolds as a super hero cape (tucker it into the back of his shirt )… they really are magic 🙂
Ours have been used for everything. Burp cloths, dish rag, dust rag, emergency towel to clean up a spill, a super hero cape!, blankets for dolls and stuffed animals, a game of peek a boo..
oh & they have also been used as diapers! and stuffers for pocket dipes.
I use a prefold with the regular insert in my BG 3.0s at night. I also use them when I am in a resturant to clean up my son’s baby food face.
In a pinch, I have used a prefold as a nursing cover (when my son had a hard time latching). Luckily now he is a good latcher and I don’t have to use a cover!
stephanisesumpleby at gmail.com
We use them for burp cloths when Mr Pukey was at his worst. They out performed any “burp cloth” you can find.
Now we use them for dust rags, to pick up spills, general cleaning purposes.
In the past we used one under the baby in his carseat to protect from baby poo blow outs on long car trips. Worked like a charm! Also used them as mini mattress pads under his bum in the crib when he was a newborn, easier to change than all the sheets in the middle of the night!
After my little brother was in diapers, I used to use his “retired” prefolds as towels when giving my guinea pig a bath.
Jen – dvanti77 at gmail com
I put prefolds under my son’s crib sheet, instead of plastic waterproof sheet protectors. I use them as a swiffer mop pad, instead of the disposable pads. I lay them over all the buckles in my car and the car seat, so we don’t burn ourselves in the summer heat!!
michellelfarr@yahoo.com
my two favorites: when my daughter was tiny she snuggled a purple prefold as a “wubby” my mother in law told me later on that my husband did the same thing till he was five- calling the diaper his “baby”. My other favorite is keeping it under my pillow as a lovely snot rag when i’m sneezy! hehehe
My 4yo son LOVES to cook/bake and he has really become a fan of the shows “Cake Boss” and “Ace of Cakes”. His latest thing is to make a cake out of a toy and use one of his little brothers ubic prefolds as the fondant. He is so careful to roll it out and place it straight so the “cake” comes out just right! 🙂
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I have not tried prefolds yet, but I’d like to on my 19 month old! We love our stay-dry flips and would love to try them out with the cover! So…I don’t have any fun stories about them in my house, but I do remember using them as dust rags when I was growing up from my mom’s CDing days when I was a baby! So glad we don’t have to use pins these days!
We use our prefolds in the kitchen when we hand wash, as a liner in the tub for the baby to sit on and this is kind of funny, our cat had her kittens on 3 of them that slipped down behind the toy box. We love our prefolds.
Growing up, the prefolds from my own babyhood were used as dust rags. I grew up not even realizing those were actual diapers, I thought they were special dusting cloths.
We’ve used them as burp rags and as inserts for BG dipes, lol.
I once had a utility truck in front of me on the highway lose a bucket of paint. I couldn’t swerve to miss it due to traffic and it exploded all over the left side of our 3 month old brand new car. I pulled into a Walgreens parking lot and whipped out one of my son’s prefolds and used it to wipe white paint off my blue car. It worked, thank goodness. I had nothing else to use and that prefold saved me! LOL
I love prefolds and don’t know how I ever lived without them!
I use the infant ones in the kitchen as dishcloths, I use the larger ones to wipe the dishes. The bigger ones are PERFECT for when the baby is running around sans diaper and decides to pee on the floor. Instant absorption.
And recently I used them to block the bottom of my leaky washer so no water ended up on the floor.
I also used the infant one to make my daughter a diaper for her baby doll. 🙂 She loved having a “real” diaper and not a “paper” diaper as she calls them.
well, of course we use them for burp cloths as many people do!
but I have also learned that I can put a prefold INSIDE the pocket of a BumGenius 3.0 around the microfiber insert to make a nighttime diaper!
My cousin used prefolds as her “blanky”. We made sure to get new ones for her to carry around and sleep with. 🙂
The prefolds that are no longer deemed butt worthy in this house are demoted to my husbands rags for when he is working on his truck.
I don’t know how “fun” this is but I’ve been trying to convert my prefolds to Mama Cloth 🙂 I have also used them as a puke barrier between myself and my son when I babywear him. They’re so thick that nothing soaks through!
My older daughters use our sons outgrown newborn prefolds for blankets for stuffed animals all the time. I constantly find prefolds all over the house & backyard!