I had a Keeper, then moved to the Diva Cup when the Keeper passed its prime. No leaks, no odor, no discomfort like with tampons. I’ve never had qualms about using it in public- probably b/c I usually don’t have to, since you can leave it in up to 12 hours if your flow’s not too heavy. I’ve had to use tampons a few times since, and only after using the Keeper/Diva Cup did I realize how awful they are and how much I HATE them.

I also use cloth pads from http://www.lunapads.com. Lunapads are awesome (the best I’ve tried), don’t leak (and I leaked often with disposable pads), don’t irritate me like plastic ones, control odor, etc. I love love love them. Haven’t used plastic pads for years. You can also make your own cloth pads if you’re gifted in that way- just make sure to sew in a PUL layer (buy online if not available locally) unless your flow is super-light.

We plan to use cloth diapers for our baby (coming this fall!). I WILL NOT use disposables, just can’t do it in good conscience.

We use canvas bags we get at the store and garage sales. We also get lots of napkins at garage sales, I got a big lot of them in a basket for 50 cents last summer. I always look for napkins, yarn and canvas bags at yard seles.

Carol from Pueblo

@Rachel – the kind of cloth diaper can definitely make a difference, and different diapers work well on different babies. And when we cloth diapered, diaper duty was all on my shoulders, as well.

@Nancy – Thanks for the link, and I’ll go check out your post.

@David – Thanks for the hydrogen peroxide idea for bleaching. I hate the smell of bleach, anyway. But how does it work? Do you just put HP directly on the stain and let it sit for a while? Or do you add a cup to your laundry like you would bleach? In the summer I line dry my clothes, and the sun helps with stains too.

@Frugal Babe – you have just described my ideal office. Someday…. And good for you!

And about the “white cloths are great because you can bleach them” – that kind of defeats the purpose of going paperless to help the environment, as bleach is a very toxic chemical that then ends up being absorbed into our skin from the cloth and finds it’s way to our ground water. A better alternative would be hydrogen peroxide, if you have to “bleach” cloths.