First, for the rinsing. When a child is only breastfeeding the diapers do not have to be cleaned out before washing them, but once they start eating solid food the dirty diapers have to be dunked or sprayed off. Right now I only have a toddler and so I have to rinse off all of the poop before going to the next step in the washing process. What I personally do when my toddler has a bowel movement is dunk the diapers in the toilet to get off all of the solid pieces and then scrub the diaper in the sink or bathtub to get the rest of the poop off. Now, this is not the only method to cleaning off diapers. Right now there are several diaper sprayer systems out there, and if you have ever heard of a bidet they are quite similar. The diaper sprayers attach to the toilet and have a on/off valve, then when you want to use them all you have to do is take the dirty diaper, put it low into the toilet (to avoid any type of spattering), turn the valve on, take the wand of the system and spray off the poop into the toilet. This is much easier than dunking and scrubbing the diapers, and makes cleaning them easier. I personally do not have one of these systems yet, but I do look forward to hopefully getting one soon.
Next, storing the soiled diapers. I use a plastic trash can that has a cover on it and a diaper pail liner in the can to help keep the smell of the diapers out of my bathroom.
This is where I keep all of my soiled diapers, and unless it is absolutely stuffed I do not smell the diapers. I also put an Arm and Hammer deodorizer into the bottom of the can just to make sure the diapers do not make any extra stink (the people who live in my house do not like dirty diaper smell :-)).
Next, washing all of the stinky diapers. I take my diapers, can and all, to the laundry area in my basement. I then set my washing machine to a super sized load and hot water and run the machine on a rinse without anything in it. Since one of the people using the washing machine uses about two times as much soap as needed, sometimes it leaves a residue in the machine after he has used it. I had been skipping this first step, and after a couple of weeks my diapers smelled like ammonia and were starting to burn my toddlers bottom (not a good thing). Cloth diapers are not meant to be washed in regular detergent, they need a detergent that has no extra chemicals in it like: Nellies All Natural Laundry Soda or Rockin' Green Detergent. After I get my machine ready, I put my diapers in with half a scoop of soap on a hot regular wash with an extra rinse. Even tho I do not have enough diapers to fill a super sized load, I go ahead and leave my machine on this setting to soak the diaper a little bit before they start washing. That, along with the extra rinse makes the diapers come out of my wash smelling and feeling extremely clean.
The last step to my cleaning process is drying. I do this one of two ways. The first way is to toss the diapers into the dryer and dry them on high heat for about an hour. The second way I do this is by hanging my diapers on the clothes line outside in the warm air.
However, I live in Michigan, so this is not always an option. My preference is to hang my diapers out on the line because the sun naturally bleaches them and takes out any and all stains that my diapers might get. Also, it saves me some money because I am not using the electric dryer. :-)
The one other washing that cloth diapers need every few months is called stripping. What happens with cloth diapers is they loose their absorbency over any continued washing time just because (no matter how hard we may try) chemicals get into them. chemicals are everywhere, and whether it is from the water we are using or from extra unneeded soap in the washing machine, it happens. Stripping cloth diapers is really easy, all I do is put all of the diapers in the wash on a full load setting, then I stick a couple of squirts (not too much or this will make too many suds) of dawn dish soap in with them and let the washing machine do the rest on a normal cycle. After I wash the diapers with dish soap I then run the washing machine on two more rinses without any type of soap or detergent (or until I see no more suds). Ta-dah! The diapers are now stripped! Very simple. :-) Like I said before, it is good to do this every few months so that the diapers will stay absorbant and ammonia free.
So there you have it, my whole cloth diaper washing routine. If you have any questions about this I would love to answer them for you, so please ask!
~ Kym
Todays Bible verse: 1 John 4:7-8
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