The disposable diaper was a marvelous invention. I did use cloth diapers part of the time with all three of my children, but disposables were so convenient, especially when they were tiny babies and filling their diapers constantly. The disposables weren't really great when I first began using them. They didn't have the elastic around the legs like they do now, so they still tended to leak. I sometimes put plastic pants over the disposable, just to catch what leaked out.
Three times, once with each of my three children, I went off on vacation for a week and accidentally left dirty cloth diapers in the diaper pail. I came home to a stinky, moldy mess, and had to just throw the diapers away. That wasn't much of a savings! I am still rather embarrassed to admit I did it three times! A mother's brain just gets over loaded sometimes, especially when packing for herself and all the children and trying to make sure everything is ready for a trip.
I used to soak cloth diapers in the toilet for a while if they were really disgusting. My second child flushed one down the toilet one day. I heard her saying, "Oopsy!" and that's what she had done. Of course, my husband was out of town. I called a friend and asked her husband what to do. He said to just run plenty of water down the drain and flush the toilet a few times and hope it would just wash all the way through. I don't think it did, because we had problems with water backing up in the drains in the basement after that. Disposable diapers don't get flushed down the toilet!