A while ago, I did a review and giveaway of Sarah Wells’ Lizzy pump bag, and when I was poking around on Amazon reading the reviews, I noticed another of her products – the Pumparoo. It looked pretty useful, so I bought one, and I think it is awesome.
(Transparency note: I did not receive any free products or compensation for writing this post; I bought it myself and just really liked it.)
What is the Pumparoo?
The Pumparoo is a bag where you can put your pumping gear when you’re not using it. It is insulated, zips shut, and it comes with a pad that you can use as a staging area when you’re setting up or taking apart your pump parts.
In the past, I have recommended putting your pump parts in a Ziploc bag and storing them in the refrigerator between uses, and then washing them just once or twice a day instead of after every time you pump. The Pumparoo performs that same function as the Ziploc bag, except that it’s reusable, so you’re not constantly buying Ziploc bags or awkwardly trying to wash them. Also, it’s opaque, which means that you can put it in your office fridge without having to deal with other people’s weirdness and not feel awkward carrying it around in shared spaces.
One thing to note – in 2017, the CDC issued guidelines regarding the washing of pump parts that states pump parts should be washed as soon as possible after each use. Here are my thoughts on those guidelines and tips to be compliant with them without losing your mind if you decide to follow them.
What can you use the Pumparoo for, besides putting pump parts in the fridge?
Is the Pumparoo still useful if you decide to wash your pump parts after each use?
Yes, especially if you pump or feed your baby outside of the house. You can use the bag to hold your clean pump parts before you pump, and then when you’re done, you can put them back in it until you can get home to wash them. Additionally, the fact that it’s insulated makes it useful for transporting bottles; you can fit several bottles and an ice pack in it, and it’s easy to throw in the diaper bag.
I also used the Pumparoo to help my haul my pumping stuff back and forth to work every day. I have two pumps, and I leave one pump at work and have one at home. I commute back and forth with just the Pumparoo in my (large) handbag. In it I have three bottles, three caps, the blue Medela freezer pack, pump parts, and (on the way to work) a yogurt for my breakfast. It’s a little tight with the yogurt but it all fits. I really prefer carrying the Pumparoo back and forth than the larger Medela cooler.
Also, when you’ve weaned from the pump, you can use it for any number of things that you would have used a Ziploc bag for. Putting wet swimsuits in, packing your lunch, etc.
What are the downsides to the Pumparoo?
The only one that I have identified in months of use is that you can’t dry it in the dryer. I put my first Pumparoo in the dryer by mistake and ruined it. (It was my fault – I knew better, but just forgot to pull it out when I was moving laundry from the washer to the dryer.)
Additionally, line drying isn’t ideal, because it takes about 24 hours to dry when I hang it up, and obviously I need to use it every day.
So what I did was buy two. Every day, I wash a big batch of bottles and pump parts, and I wash the Pumparoo in the sink while I’m at it. I hang it up to dry and then use the other one until the next day, and then switch again.
What’s the bottom line?
If you’re exclusively pumping or pumping and working, I think the Pumparoo is great investment that can help make your life easier. It’s definitely worth trying out!
What about just using a Tupperware that you can easily wash every day?
That totally works too if you’re mostly pumping at home! The bag is just helpful when you need to transport parts or are using a public fridge.
How is this better than a wet bag?
I think it’s pretty much exactly the same. I had to google wet bag because I had never heard of it before your post, but from what I can tell there are no differences. If you’re using a wet bag already, there is no need to buy this.
I agree that the Pumparoo is an awesome product! I was doing the same thing – storing pump parts in plastic bags between pumping sessions – and it did feel really wasteful. The funny thing is, even though I was looking for an alternative to my plastic bag system, I still didn’t find the Pumparoo for quite a while. I eventually treated myself to one, but at that point only pumped once or twice a day, so it was nice to have but not as much of a necessity as it was when my son was younger and I was pumping at least 3 times a day in the office. Anyway, it was nice to see this post about the Pumparoo and I hope more women can find it before they go through loads of plastic bags like I did (and yes, I did try washing my plastic bags and reused them when I could… but they started to look dirty pretty quickly and I got worried about them really being clean). I have germ-o-phobe tendencies!