I have recently had several friends who were interested in cloth diapering (yay!) and were looking for the nitty gritty of diaper laundry. I've typed out the process and tried to add as many high points as possible, but I decided that a picture walk-through might be the best way to share some pretty vital information.
Before Wolfie was born, we were weighing disposables vs. cloth. I read a million blogs (okay, maybe 20,) and I swear every one of them had different advice. There was information about detergents, stink, what you can do, what you can't do. It was a huge, boggling mountain of a task to sort through. Then there are the types of diapers. This might not sound like a big deal, I mean how many can there be? Well...a lot. Prefolds, flats, pockets, fitteds, hybrids, all-in-ones, all-in-twos, hybrid fitteds...probably something else I'm forgetting. Well, I don't plan to cover all those right now, but I do in the next blog post. So check back.
Back to laundry. I was warned by naysayers that my laundry was going to take a zillion hours a week and make me want to pull my hair out. Cloth diaper manufacturers recommend a prewash, a regular wash, and an extra rinse to get any lingering ickies out. On the diapering forums, I came across women who were doing a prewash, four regular washes, and six extra rinses, I kid you not. I was afraid, I was very afraid. But I took the plunge anyway. And here is my wash routine. This won't work for everyone, but it will for most people.
1. What do you do with dirty diapers? Don't they stink?!
I store them inside a trash can with a pail liner. That blue part is made from a magical waterproof material known as PUL (polyurethane laminate.) It is completely washable and nearly completely waterproof. I unstuff dirty diapers (I mainly use pockets) and toss them in. Poop goes in the toilet, diaper gets a rinse in the tub, then goes in the trash can. No, it does not stink.
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| Inside the pail |
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| A second view of the dirty diaper storage |
I turn the bag inside out inside the washer. I never touch a dirty diaper. Then, I toss the bag inside and voila.
3. How long does it really take to wash, sort, and fold diapers?
I calculated it today, and it took a grand total of...wait for it....less than 15 minutes.
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| First, I dragged my bag of dirty diapers out to the wash (15 seconds) |
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| Then I placed them in the washer (15 seconds) |
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| Then I added detergent. Tide in my main wash with some Calgon, and a scoop of Biz for my prewash (30 seconds) |
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| Then I set my machine to do all the hard work for me. Cotton/Normal, Pre-wash, Hot water (because I like to), extra high spin, heavy soil, and extra water (10 seconds) |
Two hours later I moved them to the dryer. Then I removed this warm, fuzzy, soft pile of diapers ready to be sorted and reused. I also line dry when it's not cold, and I'm not lazy.
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| Approximately half my stash. Mostly Bumgenius 4.0 |
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| I sorted them into piles of inserts, doublers, shells, wipes, and a fitted that was in there | . It took me 3 minutes |
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| Then, I stuffed all of the diapers while I watched TV. Took me 9 minutes fighting a toddler. |
I store all my diapers on the changing table at the top of this post. Everything is within grabbing distance. Do I feel diaper laundry takes forever? No. If I had to drive to get disposables, I'd be driving to Target which is an hour round trip. If I run out of cloth, two hours and I have fresh diapers. I only do my diaper laundry every third day, now that my little guy is older. In the early days, you will probably have to do it at least every other day. Still, that's 3-4 loads a week. 45 minutes-1 hour of your time. Or your partner's, because they can be very good at laundry too!
I hope this sheds some light on how simple cloth diaper washing can really be. You can use a normal detergent, you can dry them, and they are sturdy. Using a normal wash routine can save your sanity and the earth one diaper at a time!
For more information, check out The Cloth Diaper Compendium on Facebook.
