Before my son was born I read an interview where Kourtney Kardashian recommended the Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail because the powder-coated steel helped cut down on stink. I saw the interview before we created our baby registry, but I ignored her advice because A. I didn't think she had changed that many diapers so she wasn't someone I would turn to for advice B. The Ubbi diaper pail is more expensive than some of the others on the market and C. The other diaper pails get just as good of reviews.
However, here I am more than two years later encouraging all of you new moms or moms-to-be to listen to Kourtney and invest in the Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail. She knows of what she speaks!
My son is 19-months-old and over the past year and a half we have gone through three different diaper pails. First, we had a Playtex diaper genie that we had to throw away because the stink was getting so bad AND because the pail we had was discontinued so we could no longer buy the correct bags. Then we had the Dekor Classic Hands-Free Diaper Pail that we tossed after about a month because the stench was horrifying. We most recently invested in the Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail and it has been a game-changer!
Unlike the first two diaper pails we had, the Ubbi is the only one that's made out of steel and has minimal openings. You put the diapers in from the top and you also remove them from the top. With the two plastic diaper pails you put the diapers in from the top but then each had a large panel in front that you had to open to remove the diapers. Let me tell you… more openings equals more opportunities for the stink to escape! Not only that but the plastic just begins to smell rotten after a while and there's absolutely no way to mask the putrid stench.
As I mentioned above, the first pail we had required special bags that were discontinued. This basically made that pail unusable once we ran out of bags. One of the nice things about the Dekor is that the pail could be used with disposable or cloth diapers and I had purchased it back when I thought I would be going the cloth route. When we decided against cloth, I got the Dekor Bag Refills and I've literally never seen a more confusing contraption in my life. Believe me: When you need to replace the diaper bag you will want to do so as quickly as possible. The Dekor refills made this impossible because their bags aren't pre-cut. Instead, you have to tie and cut the bags everytime you need to change them. Yuck!
We have been using the Ubbi Diaper Pail for about six weeks now and even in that short time it stands head and shoulders above the others. Some of the things I love:
- You can use your own garbage bags! No more investing in weird bags that were designed to only fit one device.
- The sliding opening makes it really easy to deposit soiled diapers quickly.
- When it's time to replace the bag you open up the pail from the top, so you can pull the bag out fairly quickly. (Unless you tend to overstuff it like I do. Oops.)
- The opening features a thick rubber seal, which helps contain the stink.
- There's a lock on top of the pail, so you can prevent curious little ones from opening the pail.
- The Ubbi diaper pail comes in a bunch of fun colors and patterns, so you can get one to match your nursery.
I highly recommend the Ubbi Diaper Pail and only wish that we'd gone with this one first instead of our trial and error of trying all of the other ones. Diapers smell nasty. If you want to contain that stench as much as possible, go with the pail that has the fewest openings and where the material won't absorb the stink. You might pay a little bit more, but the savings from not needing to replace the pail every few months and/or buying special bags will more than makeup for it!
The Ubbi Diaper Pail typically costs $69.99-$79.99 at Amazon, although earlier this summer we were able to get our white pail for $49.99. They also sell them at Buy Buy Baby, so you can take a 20% off coupon to save on one any day of the week.