Wash and reuse?….Yeah, right….

So my post titled “The ‘Yuck’ Factor” covered some of the details of dealing with dirty cloth diapers, but what about wash day?  This is often the point where I lose people in discussions about cloth diapers.  “I already have enough laundry and can’t keep up.  Why would I add more loads?”  they say.  I’ll have to hand it to them, there is no getting around the fact that with cloth diapers you will be adding a couple of loads (sometimes 3 depending on how many diapers you own) to your ever growing pile of laundry each week (unless you use a diaper service).  But I personally feel the benefits outweigh the losses, and once you get the hang of it, it is so routine you don’t really even think about it much.  I will admit though, that with the exception of putting AWAY the clothes, I really don’t mind laundry all that much in the first place, so I might be a bad case study.

If you have already gotten past the having extra laundry hurdle and have already decided to use cloth diapers, the rest of this post is for you.  If you are one of those who still aren’t convinced, you might not want to read on, as this might scare you off….just kidding.

Washing cloth diapers is not exactly the same as washing a regular load of clothes.  There are several reasons for this, one being that diapers are obviously dirtier than a load of clothes.  The biggest reason is that you want to avoid detergent build up in order for your diapers to function properly and continue smelling pleasant.  For those of you that ordered diapers from me, you should have also received washing instructions, in which case the below will be somewhat of a repeat and you should move on to my post “Troubleshooting Cloth.”  But for anyone else looking for some help with washing their diapers or just wondering what is involved, here’s an example of what I do to get my baby’s britches clean:

• After a diaper change, I put solids into the toilet.  I spray the diaper off with my mini-shower sprayer (mentioned in “The ‘Yuck’ Factor”) There is no need to do this if your child is exclusively breastfed.  I store my diapers in a dry pail lined with a trash bag until wash day, but some prefer a pail filled with water.  I prefer a dry pail partly because there is a child drowning risk involved in keeping a container like this filled with water around the house, and partly because I don’t really like the idea of the yucky water.  Most people say this helps with stains, but I have another solution that seems to work well for me.  Read on.
• Dump contents of pail in washer.  If you are using a wet bag (a washable liner specifically for diaper pails), put this in the washer as well.
• Cold Rinse.  This is somewhat optional, but I notice a difference in how clean my diapers come out.  This is also the extra step I take to help stains come out and it works great for me.  I occassionally include 1/4 cup baking soda if the diapers are extra smelly.
•  Hot wash with water level set to high and 1/4 the regular amount of detergent.  You might wonder if this leaves the diapers not fully clean, but will be surprised to find that you probably don’t even need as much laundry detergent as the bottle recommends in your regular clothing loads.  Using less detergent in your diaper load will help keep detergent buildup to a minimum.  Very occasionally I add a couple capfuls of bleach in the wash, if my diapers are just not coming clean anymore.  This is not recommended by any diaper manufacturers I have come across, and I don’t even really recommend it for the diapers I sew because it will definitely shorten their lifespan, but if you want an occasional laundry boost and don’t mind loosing any warranty your diaper has, you could do this.  Just make sure to rinse thoroughly (until you don’t smell bleach anymore) so as not to cause burns on baby’s bottom.
• I run two extra rinses to get the soap out.  Two is not always necessary, but one is definitely recommended.   I usually add about 1/4 cup vinegar to the first rinse.  Vinegar kills germs (I’m sure not all, so don’t try this in your kitchen to sanitize your counters, don’t eat off your diapers and I’m sure you’ll be okay!).  Vinegar also helps remove soap buildup and odors.  You can use too much vinegar though and cause a bad reaction when your child wets in the diaper, so be careful not to use too much!
• I dry on high heat because it is quicker, but some diaper manufacturers give different directions on their particular diapers.  

That’s my basic routine, but occasionally there will be something that needs a little extra attention.  See “Troubleshooting Cloth” to get a look at the possible wild cards you might come across.

January 2011 update: I wrote this post before I discovered a most amazing product and feel that I would be doing you a disservice if I left it out.  The above wash routine is what I used for 2 years with my son, Isaiah, and it worked well enough.  When Glory was born, I had a cloth diapering friend who recommended Charlie’s Soap to me and I decided to give it a try.  I will never go back.  Don’t be deceived by the name, Charlie’s Soap is really not soap.  It is a detergent that is 100% bio-degradable and rinses cleaner than anything I have ever tried.  Clean rinsing is an important part of cloth diaper care because build-up=odors and leaks.  In the above routine, I mentioned bleach, vinegar and baking soda.  All of these had a place in my cloth diaper care until I tried Charlie’s Soap.  I was constantly trying to balance the use of all three above wash ingredients to get the desired result.  I have never had to use any of them since trying Charlie’s Soap and my diapers still smell wonderful!  Actually, once when Glory was fairly new, I threw in some vinegar thinking that it was just time to do it (I wasn’t having any trouble, I just thought I should try to kill some germs or something).  My diapers had a funny smell after that and when I returned to only using Charlie’s Soap, they returned to normal.  For more info about Charlie’s Soap, go to their website. http://www.charliesoap.com/  (I am not getting anything for sharing this, I just really really think they have a great product.)  Another plus to using Charlie’s Soap is that you can use it for all of your laundry and you use the same amount for each load (with other detergents, you are supposed to reduce the amount you use in your diaper loads to 1/4, but with Charlie’s, it is a tablespoon per load, period).  That means no confused husbands and mother-in-laws who use too much detergent on your diapers and cause you to have to strip them (a major pain).

So here is my tried and true routine for my diapers now:

• Cold rinse.
• Hot wash with 1 tablespoon Charlie’s Soap.
• Extra rinse.

The only other thing I have been doing regularly, that I didn’t really do as often with Isaiah’s diapers, is putting the diapers out in the sun to get stains out (it really works!).  They come in pretty much stain free and smelling like fresh air.  Nothing better.

*Note: If you have hard water, Charlie’s Soap has some suggestions about how to get more desirable results with their detergent. For that, visit their website.