I use the Diva cup and I love it. However, I bleed quite heavily and it sometimes leaks a bit before I can make it to the toilet.
I hate all of the pads on the market presently. I am working towards being "money-free" (that's what my husband and I call the week after payday and we are trying to get to the point where we don't need to work 40 hour weeks), so I am unwilling to spend on the expensive organic cotton pads on the market. Plastic is also brutal against the sensitive skin there, so I have sworn off the junk thin pads in the grocery store.
I learned from some Amish friends that you can use washcloths or hand towels instead. Because I use the Diva cup, I very rarely bleed through the towel. Yeah, the hand towels are a little diaper-feeling, but I live in the middle of nowhere (BFE), so don't care what I look like. I use them in the day or so before my flow is serious enough to use the cup. That way, I'm ready for a sudden gush, if it comes.
And because they are washcloths (or even bits of old towels--I use dark colors), I don't have to suffer the responsibility of staining some adorable pattern on some cloth pad lovingly made by a woman who thinks I want Siamese cats on the fabric of my pad. Okay, maybe rude, but I am deeply practical.
As mentioned by others, I rinse them out after I take them off and wash them with my other clothes. Never had an issue and I've been doing this for 7 years or so.
Also, I do not have running water, so this can all be done being a water miser. I don't actually rinse my Diva cup every time I use it. I don't have water in my composting outhouse, so I wash it at the end of the day in my wash basin. I know that is not suggested, but, again, I have been doing this for a very long time and I have never had any trouble.
In living close to the land, I have become very comfortable with my menses.
