Well, now that I've used cloth diapers (a few varieties also) for the past 8 months or so, I can respond better to many of the questions.
SMELL- You need to use FREE & CLEAR (or homemade) detergent, no dryer sheets, no fabric softener, etc. Even on your other clothing. It will leave a film on your diapers and THAT is what causes the smell. And dryer sheets, etc on your other clothing will "infect" your dryer, so-to-speak, and cause the same problems. Smell in a house can also be caused by soaking wet diapers routinely...as in, having a wet collection bucket instead of a dry one for the dirty diapers before washing.
Vinegar- It is used as a fabric stripper (to get the above film off the diapers) and will throw off the PH of the diapers if used too frequently. If you are using PUL you should definitely only use it when you need to strip the fabric, not routinely, or it will cause unwanted wear and degrade the fabric's waterproofing layer.
Spraying - All my other cloth diaper friends swear you need a sprayer like this one:
http://www.pottypail.com/learn.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which can be made yourself. I actually bought a hand-held bidet from Sanicare for a dual-purpose bidet, but in the days before it's arrival I found it wasn't needed at all. Pellets and clumps just fall right off into the toilet. Softer or gooey-er ones fall of (mostly) when turned inside out and shaken. Or I'll use one end of the diaper to gently smear the majority of the goo off. My friends all can't imagine that, but the washers (I've used both a front-load and older top load) have never had a problem with removing anything left over. Ever.
Soaking - If it is done as a pre-wash, great, but soaking the diapers as a means of dirty diaper collection will cause more smell and likely stink up the house.
Wipes - We are lazy and use the kirkland Signature brand wipes from Costco. They are a natural fiber so we can wash the wipes with the diapers and not have to worry about it. They make great fire-starters later! But, my friend did make me some cloth wipes that we use as tissues!
She uses the thinner/softer terry from baby washcloths and the like and serges them together with reused velour on the other side. So the terry is the abrasive side and the velour is the "wipe clean" side. She gets all kinds of fun colors and designs by upcycling. Same goes with her wool covers, sleepsacks, and longies. I've been buying wool sweaters at garage sales lately...If our off-grid plans work out, I'll be making the switch to wool somewhat at least.
Collecting/containers --We use a simple 5 gallon bucket, no lid, in the bathroom. When a diaper is dirty or wet, we take it to the bucket and drop it in. We use pocket diapers now with the 3 boys being bigger, so we also pull out the inserts at that time. This allows us to simply drop/toss them in the washer and not have to worry about whether we're going to get poo on our hands from other diapers, etc. The bucket is dry. The bucket will smell, depending on how long you wait between washes (not that the entire thing will smell nasty, but the bucket itself will get some wet smell to it), and I simply put some vinegar and hot water to soak in the bucket in the bath tub (empty bucket) after I've started the load of diapers.
Washing - We use free and clear detergent (Tide's is STILL NOT a good option, has smell to it AND makes my kids break out), wash them on hot, and try to do an extra rinse. You also use THE SMALLEST amount of soap necessary to actually clean the diapers --maybe 1/10th the usual detergent? Otherwise, if you wash in the full amount or even half, you'll end up with soap residue on your diapers and they'll smell. If your kids wet their diapers and it smells nasty instead of simply wet without much smell (unless you've left them to sit in it for hours), then you've got a residue problem. Pretty easy to tell. We can smell them down the church pew when there's film on them, can't smell them on your lap if there isn't. Use vinegar and a couple of washes on hot WITHOUT detergent/soap if you have that problem. Front-loading washers are A#1 for cloth diapers, they'll cut the wear on the diapers drastically and extend their life.
Don't go the pre-fold, vinyl cover route, there are SO many different, better, kinds of diapers! We've just recently (okay, that was November, I guess?) bought 40 diapers from a seller on ebay (goodseller_003 I'd use the "Make Offer" option.) that my friends here suggested and had bought from. SUCH a good price (under $5/diaper including shipping and inserts, though it takes a good 3-4 weeks to arrive) and also a good quality. You do have to get more inserts or make your own (prefolds, hand towels, flannel, anything you want, really) to supplement them for the bigger guys (12 months and up, I'd suggest). We bought some microfiber car washing towels (same material as the inserts) and fold them up and add them in. Or you can just order more inserts from them. They are nice diapers because they are PUL (waterproof fabric that breathes, NOT vinyl) pocket-diapers and they are totally adjustable, so by means of their snaps, they fit my 6 month old (when we first bought them) all the way up to my 3 1/2 year old. We ordered bulk and got 20 diapers and their inserts for under $100, which is a good price. My friends swear by the minky fabric ones, which I don't have (they are really fuzzy).
Fleece can be used as a waterproof layer as well, though if you leave them wet with pressure it will leak...like in a car seat for an hour while wet.
I've found cloth diapers are actually MUCH easier than disposables and work twice as well at controlling leaks. I didn't know the last part until we switched to disposables while on a trip --leaks ALL THE TIME! You will need a wet-bag (PUL is again what I'd suggest) for the dirty/wet diapers on the go. I have 3 boys using 40 diapers and do a load of diapers a day. Seriously, not much more work! That's the extent of it. One load of laundry a day and it has saved us HUNDREDS, maybe thousands by now? We made up the cost of the diapers within the first two months, and my electric bill didn't change more than maybe $20/month for a load a day, if that. We were spending way more than that on diapers.
Okay, that was long, but hopefully it'll be helpful?