Skip to main content

Washing routine, expanded

This is an expanded version of a part of my earlier cloth diaper evangelist post, and part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers Carnival.

carnival2 copy



Today, I'm writing about how we wash diapers at our house. Everybody does it differently. I think that for many people, the washing itself seems to be the most intimidating, difficult part of cloth diapering at first. It may even prevent many people from trying cloth, but my experience is that it very quickly becomes part of your normal household routine. We've tried a few variations, but fairly quickly learned what worked for us, and what was unnecessary for us.

Step One:
Toss wet diapers into a pail with a screw-top lid. We didn’t use the lid at first as her pee and poo didn’t smell much. Now that she is stinkier, we are more inclined to use the lid. Although I’ve heard that enclosing the dirties can make the smell worse, you do at least trap it for the most part. Most of the time, we spray off poo diapers with a sprayer attached to the back of the toilet before tossing them in the pail as well. This isn't strictly necessary, but also helps to keep the diaper pail smell down, and makes me more comfortable waiting a few days in between washings.

Step Two: Once the pail is full, I carry it and whatever wet bags are full into our "laundry room," which is actually more like a walk-in-closet attached to our kitchen.

Step Three: I run a rinse-only cycle in the washer on cold water, then a regular cycle with a small amount of powder, additive-free, detergent on warm, then sometimes an additional rinse cycle with white vinegar as a fabric softener. I use Arm & Hammer Free laundry soap (click here for a review/comparison).

Step Four: We either dry diapers in the dryer or on the line outside. Sometimes it takes and additional 20 minutes in the dryer to get all of our extra thick diapers dry. I have three tennis balls in the dryer that help things to dry more quickly, and collect hair off of the clothes.

Hanging them outside is nice because they smell fresh, and the sun gets out any stains, but it isn’t always practical. Covers always get laid flat or hung to dry. This picture of my clothes line was an entry for a diaperswappers.com contest. Can you believe I didn't win?!

Step Five: Fold and put away. You can just grab clean ones out of the laundry basket, and end your chore there, but I think folding diapers is actually kind of fun. Also, I like to have my different types sorted into piles so that I can easily grab the kind I want for different situations.

We don't do pre-soaks, hot washes, special soap, or any scrubbing. It's just like regular laundry, but typically one more rinse cycle. Sometimes, if I don't have a full load but want to get some clean diapers, like when packing for a trip, I will just add some regular clothes to the load after the initial rinse cycle to avoid wasting water. Easy peasy!

Powered by MckLinky

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

Comments

  1. I might have to try the tennis ball idea. Isn't it loud though? Well, if it gets them dryer quicker then I am up for it!

    and I love that pic of the rainbow of colors of you AIOs - so pretty!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The tennis balls are louder than the normal dryer sounds, but not too bad I think. I searched the Web and couldn't find any recommendations against it, only positive comments, so I tried it. My laundry seems to get dry about 10 minutes quicker than it used to, before the balls (70 minutes before, 60 minutes now).

    Thanks! I couldn't resist organizing my dipes by color one day when I was folding. I decided to make it my "favicon" (that little button by the URL) even though it's a bit hard to see what it is in the little format.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer 2020 - Life in a Pandemic

I'm in my final week of summer before work as a middle school teacher begins again. This time of year I'm always in a reflective mood.  I look back and feel so lucky to have had this time with my kids. We went camping, biking, boating, golfing, and hiking. We celebrated my sister's wedding, we did projects together, watched movies, and just hung out at home. It really was everything that summer is meant to be. There were many events and plans that we canceled due to Covid, but we did all the most important things. We missed friends, but I also reveled in the togetherness with my little family unit. Today, I spent time registering for fall childcare and activities. It's less than usual, but still I can see the pace of our lives picking up. As we move into a season of more busy-ness, more work, and likely more stress, this poem sums up the feelings I'm experiencing.... Vacation End by Leslie Pinckney Hill From the charm of radiant faces, From the days we took to dream

Win a Year of Childcare!

I recently discovered this website when I was trying to figure out average rates for childcare in my local area. I even forwarded the URL to the members of my parenting group. Then, yesterday I got an email from an employee of the website asking if I would mention their giveaway in my blog. Sure! I think this is a good site for information, and for connecting with care providers in your area. So, here it is: Care.com is hosting a giveaway for $12,455—that's how much the average family spends on child care each year. To enter, all you have to do is sign up for a free membership to the site. This is for people who don't even have kids, too. They list services for childcare, pet care, senior care, special needs, tutoring and lessons, and housekeeping ! Probably anyone could use at least one of those services, right? Good luck! Contest ends October 9 .

Dresser Painting Project Update

The weather here has been extra cold over the last week, so my dresser painting project is on hold for now. I had been painting in the garage with a heater, but the heater can't get the temperature high enough for the paint to work well (55 plus) with our freezing temperatures right now. Overall, I have really enjoyed using the paint sprayer, even though I have had a few frustrating times. Like, when I realized that not enough paint was spraying out because the air hole into the canister was clogged, after nearly an hour of working on it. So far, I have put on three thin coats of primer and two thin coats of paint. The original stain color (shown here <-- )underneath is still showing through a little, even with all of that paint, so I have a few more coats to go, I think. The color comes through the most on the parts where I sanded all the way through the top finish, but didn't sand down to bare wood. It seems as if the stain is able to seep up through the paint in these ar