Diaper Pails?!

I cleaned out the sink drain in the hallway bathroom this morning.  It took me an hour because of the rust on the sink stopper lifter.  Once I got it out, I had to scrape and knock off rust in order to make sure it would fit back into the hole on the drain stopper.  My hands looked terrible after I finished. I cleaned up, then put away the knife, the wrench, the paper towels, and the brown plastic basin I used to catch the drips under the sink as I worked.  And I remembered.  That brown plastic basin is left from my first, and only, diaper pail.  Seven children, but only one diaper pail.

Do you remember diaper pails?  I do.  I was the oldest of six children, and I remember the awful smelling diaper pails where the diapers would soak in bleach water after being rinsed in the toilet, waiting in the pail for the next batch of laundry to be gathered up.  It was very important to have white diapers, as that showed that the bacteria was gone, and that the diapers were CLEAN.

When I married and had my first child, I decided not to do the bleach water because I remembered the pail tipping over.  Besides, I could bleach the diaper load in the laundromat washing machine, as now there was a specific dispenser for it.  So I went to the store and found a good-sized round wastebasket, and for a top, a round, brown plastic basin that fitted down inside and over the top edge.  Sitting on top of the wastebasket, it blocked out the smell of the rinsed cloth diapers, and gave me a basin to hold any rinsed out baby clothing as well.

I used that diaper pail for our first three children over several years, until paper diapers became cheap enough for our budget.  I think the wastebasket eventually developed a crack in the side, so it went into the trash.  But the round, brown plastic basin is still here in my garage, under the mop bucket, waiting to be used.