I get asked a lot of questions about laundry by people wondering about cloth diapers. Personally, I think the whole how you wash your diapers is made way way too complicated. And just for the record (because I was discussing this with someone recently) I've never touch poop.
Just be warned… I break a lot of rules in this department. If you are concerned about keeping a warranty on your diapers then don’t listen to me.
The biggest deviation I’ve taken is with laundry is detergent. When I started, I ordered Charlie’s Soap online and use it in to wash all clothes & diapers. Looking back I think that was silly. I wanted to follow the rules, but I didn’t see why I had to order detergent online and sometimes our clothes didn't seem clean. I now use whatever I can find at the grocery store that has the least amount of additives. I don’t stress if it has a brightener or a fragrance. I try to avoid it, but I just need to wash poop off of diapers not spend 55 extra minutes in the grocery store stressing over laundry detergent. We now have clean diapers and fresh smelling clothes. Honestly, (this is just an opinion but) I think some of our yeast issues can be contributed to not using a strong enough detergent to wash diapers. I may not be right, it’s just a theory, but I feel better about the way we have been doing laundry for the last 7 months or so.
So how do I do laundry?
1. Pre-rinse. (makes sense it removes solids… you or your dishwasher pre-rinses your dishes before washing them)
2. Wash.
3. Extra rinse. (protects against detergent build up. Detergent build up messes up absorbance.)
4. Dry.
-I do 'generally' spray off soiled diapers in the toilet before putting them in the diaper pail. I say generally because I don't always do this even though John is formula fed and I'm supose to do it all the time... we haven't had any issues so I break the rule sometimes.
-I do wash on the largest load setting, even if the diapers only fill up a third of the machine. The extra water helps them get clean.
-I don't fill my machine completely up with diapers. I leave extra room so they can swish around in the water and get clean.
-I don’t wash on hot. Overrated. Drying will kill germs. Washing on hot waste money.
-I do add the amount of detergent that the laundry detergent bottle suggests. Based on actual load amount not the load setting amount.
-I do bleach. I talked about this yesterday. I don’t do it with every load, but I’m not afraid to use bleach if needed. (This will void your warranty and fade any cute diaper patterns you have, so if you are concerned about that then don't use Bleach)
-I do use vinegar… but not with every wash. Vinegar helps rinse out any extra detergent and it disinfects.
-I do machine dry my PUL (Not recommended if you want to keep your warranty). Usually on low, but I’ve dried them on high before when in a rush. Truth be told, I hate line drying.
-I don't use drier sheets. I hated these before cloth diapering but I thought they were just a part of doing laundry. You don't actually need them. We haven't used drier sheets in 18 months and we don't have static-y clothes. We have three tennis balls that stay in the drier, instead.
There are a lot of do & don’t out there, but the only two that matter are that you do what works and don’t get overwhelmed. This is what works for me. Something I have to remind myself is that I’m maintaining diapers, not John’s college fund. It’s more important that I actually use my diapers than it is to stress about how I'm going to do laundry.
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