One of the problems with having a teeny, tiny apartment when you’re expecting is that there isn’t a lot of room for, well, anything. We were definitely at a loss for what to do about a changing station, especially since we’re cloth diapering, which comes with a lot of accessories. I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a changing table. I also wanted it to be light-weight, portable (so if we needed to hide it in a closet or something we could), have multiple uses, and have storage for all of our diapering accouterments.
Enter the Baby Diego Bathinette.
Okay, so it seems like a sort of kooky contraption, and I know absolutely no one who has one. Still. It looked like a really good solution for us. The bathinette is a 2-in-1 stand-up bath tub (the perfect height for giving baby a bath without giving yourself a back-ache) and changing table, with tons of storage to go along with it. The changing table rests on top of the bath tub, and when you need to use the tub, all you have to do is flip the changing table back, plug the drain tube, and fill ‘er up. It’s very light-weight, which means it’ll be easy for me to wheel back and forth between our bedroom and bathroom, but still sturdy enough that I don’t worry about putting a little human on/in it. The wheels lock to ensure stability, and the water proof changing pad has a strap to help keep baby secure.
In terms of storage, the plastic cubbies that hang off the front are perfect for things that might drip or leak: shampoos, lotions, diaper creams, diaper sprays, etc. We picked up a few cheap plastic containers from Fred Meyer (4 for $5) to make the most of the space beneath the bathinette. You can see how well that’s worked out for us:
All of our cloth wipes and prefold covers easily fit into one bin, as will all of our prefolds. All of our inserts fit into another bin, and we can get an entire day’s supply of AIOs and pocket diapers (our one-size diapers that we’ll start using after Isla hits the 10 lb. mark) into a single bin. Considering we’re only planning on getting 2 days’ worth of those, that leaves us with one additional bin for medical supplies or whatever else we might decide to use it for. It honestly might end up getting used for inserts, and the medical stuff will go into a separate bin under the bathroom sink. We’ll have to see how it goes once she’s in her big girl diapers.
I think the best part is that it fits perfectly in our bedroom right next to Kellen’s dresser, where we can put a wipe warmer and maybe some more bins if we find that we still need more storage. This means that for middle of the night changes, I won’t have to leave the room, which was initially a concern since our room doesn’t have much space in it to begin with, especially once we put in the cosleeper. I’m also excited about not having to bend over to get to the bath tub or having to find a place to store a bath tub, since the only place we could think to put it before was either up in one of the closets or sit it on the washing machine, neither of which sounds particularly appealing.
In all, we’re very satisfied with our kooky little bathinette. It’s solved our storage and logistical problems surrounding both bath time and cloth diapering.
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