“Seriously mom, can you stop talking about my diapers now?”
“Sorry, Bubbs.”
I’ve had some questions about how I do what I do lately, so I thought I’d post it up. Keep in mind that this is not the ONLY way to do it. It’s just the way I did it. I tried to include some helpful links to other sites in case you want to look around at other options. This whole post is ridiculously typical of cloth diapering mommy bloggers…so feel free to come back tomorrow if it’s not your bag. Unless you’re just curious. Then, enjoy!
For me, diaper washing begins in the bathroom. Where we change the child. I have a diaper sprayer that I use to remove his gross poos, and make sure to shake any shake-able poos into the toilet. (This is sometimes very exciting, as we say, “Goodbye Poo!” and wave. Yes. This is my life now.) I even wring the diapers out to remove all excess water from the spraying, and constantly amaze myself at how not grossed out I am by the whole deal.
The diapers go into our Wahmies diaper liner (all diapers and liners bought here), which has a small square of fabric inside where you can put a couple drops of essential oil. I use tea tree oil (you can get it at GNC) which honestly, took some getting used to. The smell is a little strong, but now it just smells clean to me. It has some natural somethingorother properties that make it great for sanitizing stuff. For real. (You know, before I started putting it on everything. Including my feet.) I only use a TEENY TINY BIT of oil, because when I throw the diaper liner into the wash with the diapers the oil gets dispersed into the diapers. This is good AND bad. It makes them smell kind of nice and fresh, but can eventually build up and cause absorption issues. I’ve never experienced a problem, but I think it’s because I use such a small amount and because my diapers are mostly made out of bamboo. Oils and detergents build up less on natural fibers than they do on fleeces and synthetics.
Now on to the washing!
The first thing that got me all muddled in washing my diapers was the fact that my pail liner would fill with water. (You know…waterproof bag…) I fixed it by simply turning it ALMOST inside out before throwing it in the wash. So basically you go like you’re going to turn it inside out, and then leave the job half done. I find that the water doesn’t get trapped as much. Everything goes in together, bag, wipes and diapers. I wash every two or three days and use 1/4th of the recommended amount of detergent on the bottle.
I know, gross, right?
Well apparently you need to use just enough detergent…but not too much. I use Purex Free and Clear right now. Here’s a chart on what kinds of detergents to use and which ones to avoid. Like the oils, detergent can get into the diapers and create a gross film that makes them actually dirtier over time. To amp up the measly amount of detergent I use, I either use 1/4 cup of Borax or baking soda added to the beginning of the cycle. i haven’t decided which I like better. I just throw it in at the beginning of the wash with the soap, directly onto the diapers.
So…I live in a place where water is a flat rate. You use as much as you want. (At least, that’s what I’m told anyway?) It’s nice, it means I can use a bit more than I would if I were say, back out west. So I set my washer to do a cold rinse and wash, a hot wash, and then another cold rinse. We have the basic top loader type machine. *If you have side loading HE machine *MAKE SURE THAT THE DETERGENT IS COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR DIAPERS.* That means that during your final rinse, take a look. Do you see suds? You need another rinse. Also, very important, the water MUST get HOT. Not warm. Make sure your water heater isn’t set too low or you WILL have smell issues. I also poor some indeterminate amount of vinegar into the rinse cycle fabric softener container thing every so often (I hear it’s not great for the diaper covers and pail liners) to act as a natural fabric softener and to strip out any extra detergent/oils left in my diapers. (Again, less of an issue for cotton and bamboo. If you are using non-organic fibers, you might have to do the vinegar thing more often.)
For tougher stains, you can SOAK your diapers in borax and cold water (remember, hot water sets stains in, cold water rinses them out) for half an hour or so before you wash. It also helps to set them out in the sun. Magical magical sunshine. If it still won’t come out, you can try something called BacOut, which I’ve never used. I hear it works.
I always hang my diaper covers to dry, since it takes them about 5 minutes. I have 5 or so of them and seem to wash them each once a week. They don’t go in with the diapers every time because really…they don’t need it. I have no idea why but they don’t. You’ll sustain the life of your covers by NOT exposing them to the same rigourous wash routine as your diapers.
Now for the drying…living in New England means that I can use the dryer…or I can wait three days for things to dry. I do a bit of both. I usually send my diapers through one complete hot dry cycle, and then hang the ones that don’t get dry. My favorite diaper takes for super ever to dry (I was warned) and I always end up hanging them. But my AIO’s dry really nicely. You can hang your diapers to dry competely if you have enough to wait, or live if a dry place where they’ll dry more quickly. Just make sure they hang in the sun so that they get the nice germ killing stain removal action. I try to make up for the extra dryer loads by putting my other clothes in for half the time I used to. (And um…they still get all the way dry most of the time. Check THAT out.)
So there ya go. That’s how I do it. In a nutshell: cold wash/rinse, hot wash, cold rinse. I’ll keep this updated as I find other methods I enjoy or helpful sites.
