Diaper Genie II Elite Refills

Aside from the wedding industry, few sectors manage to be as overpriced and overblown as the baby industry.  Both industries capitalize on high emotions and raging hormones to trick people into paying way more than necessary for things they don’t even need.  (Can anyone say, “Ice sculpture swans?”)  Alas, despite our best efforts to cling to reason and frugality when preparing for our first baby, we caved.  We bought this:



This little plastic monstrosity, also known as the Diaper Genie II Elite, really does its job in containing diaper odor, which is key since we live in a townhouse with a greatroom, and 99% of diaper changes occur in our living room/family room/office/dining room/kitchen.  It wasn’t terribly expensive, but we soon realized it was like one of those deals that sucks you in with a free printer that requires pricy ink cartridges.  Every time I’d shell out $7 a pop for a refill bag (basically a plastic tube-shaped bag), my frugal self took another step in its slow, painful death march.

Little did I know that you can make your own Diaper Genie II Elite refills.

Supplies:

• an old empty Diaper Genie II Elite refill ring


• a tall garbage bag

Instructions

Insert the garbage bag through the center of the ring

Tuck the edges of the bag into the ring



Insert the ring into the Diaper Genie and thread the bag down the hatch



If the bag doesn't quite reach the bottom, stick an object at the bottom so the heavy diapers don't fall down and pull the bag out of the ring.  We used an old quart-sized yogurt tub, but you can improvise with whatever you have: a small box, coffee can, crumpled newspaper, etc.

That's it!  So cheap and easy that I'm kicking myself for not doing this before.  We’ve since moved on to cloth diapers, but for the occasional festering disposable diaper that comes its way, the DiaperGenie and its homemade refills remain.