So, you need to know the best cloth diapering wash routine? The world we live in changes with unprecedented speed. Information moving at the speed of wifi now is helpful, but also a hinderance! No one knows how to do anything, but everyone can know how to do everything!
The first mass marketed disposable diaper wasn’t even released until 1948! So back then, people didn’t even have disposable diapers as an option. Two out of my three grandmothers were cloth diapering in the 1970s. The disposable diaper once was a luxury consumption item, not the expectation.
Now, if we say, “I’m cloth diapering!”
People just laugh and say, “No you aren’t!”
So no wonder you’ve found yourself here on my blog, searching for the best cloth diapering wash routine! No one does it anymore!
Finding this information is the discovery of a limited resource.
Hi, I’m Meghan! I’m a mommy, military spouse, finance enthusiast, and homemaker here to write about it all! I have one baby with another on the way and I have been cloth diapering for 9 months. I’m here to help you walk through this journey without failing!
I am here to walk you through my cloth diapering wash routine: schedule, detergent I give 5-stars, the settings I use in my washing machine and how you can apply that information to yours, what diaper creams to use so you don’t ruin your diapers, and resources that helped me not screw it all up.
Cloth Diapering Wash Routine Schedule
Developing a schedule for washing is integral to your cloth diapering success! You need a general plan that provides and accounts for margin of error.
In order to plan your schedule out, you need to first consider what is sustainable for you, and what is affordable. It may be worth investing in a few more diapers upfront so you can save more water along the way if your main goal is to keep your budget reigned in.
If you’re a working mama, more cloth diapers may be an absolute necessity so you’re able to cluster your chores on your days off.
I personally came to the conclusion that I needed about 28 diapers. Read about why I decided this in my Cloth Diapering for Beginners post.
I originally was washing my diapers daily. One small load every day kept me from ever running out.
I realized that this much washing was probably wasting tons of water and detergent when this frequency of washing was unnecessary for a collection of 28 diapers.
I feel firmly that to encourage your success, especially if you are a busy mama, you shouldn’t plan to have to wash diapers every day.
I have settled on a cloth diapering wash routine that works really well for me. Washing diapers Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
This routine keeps me from having to wash on the weekends is crucial to my success for cloth diapering. My husband and I keep very busy on most weekends so its to our benefit to keep all the major chores to weekdays.
BEST DETERGENTS
I personally love powder detergent.
I use Tide Powder with my cloth diapers and I feel the need to point out: it works.
I personally prefer using powder with diapers because it is abrasive. Powder detergent rubs up against your clothes in the washer and literally scrubs them as they cycle. With diapers, this makes a huge impact.
You’ll want to ensure that you aren’t using too much water in your load in order for this friction to occur. Too much water will dilute that detergent and it won’t be as likely to come into contact with your clothes.
And your clothes won’t make as much contact with each other..
So, nothing really gets clean this way. Friction is a key factor in producing a clean load.
We are so disconnected from how these days because we have machines to do so much of the work for us that we no longer understand the baselines of how all these systems work.
Knowing the details of how laundry works made me choose Tide’s Powder detergent for my cloth diapering wash routine. I also like to add in baking soda once a week to help with odor absorption.
I have used Tide Powder Free and Clear (the unscented version) and can vouch for this one as well. The only reason I switched from that is because it is slightly more expensive and my child doesn’t have sensitive skin.
I know Tide powder is full of chemicals, and I know it’s full of fragrance. I find myself comfortable with using it even though I am semi-conscious of chemicals in my home. Here’s why.
If the detergent were to start building up and a lot of it were getting into contact with my baby’s skin, I would know.
If your diapers stop absorbing fluids, and suddenly they smell intensely of detergent, you can bet you’ve got detergent build up in them that’s repelling baby’s pee.
I’ll tell you how I avoid this problem in the next section!
The Settings on My Machine and How This Helps You
One of the most intimidating aspects of perfecting your cloth diapering wash routine is figuring out your cycle settings.
I’ve been there.
It feels like really high stakes because for the first time in life you’re washing something truly dirty. Pee soaked, poop covered diapers that have been up against baby’s bottom.
Now suddenly, laundry is harder. More stressful. High stakes.
The diapers must get clean!
If they don’t, that yuck is going to be up against your little bundle and they could develop a UTI.
No item you’ve ever washed has ever needed to be this clean. How are you going to do it?
I am here for you.
I’ve been washing diapers for about 9 months now and here’s what you need to know.
With diapers you’re going to need to run two cycles. I do this to prevent the detergent build up I was discussing earlier.
And to help prevent staining and odor.
I start my machine off with: cold water, a spin cycle, set extra rinse pre-soak on my dial, and I add a tiny scoop filled to the one line of detergent. If I’m adding extra baking soda, I do a heaping half of a cup now. Then, for my next cycle, I set the machine to hot water, a regular cycle, add extra rinse to my settings, and add a scoop of powder to the line with the four.
What this does is allow the diapers to soak first with an odor absorber for about a half hour and most likely let most of the material that would stain your diaper seep out into the water. Then, with the hot full cycle the diapers actually get the friction needed to get really clean because they have a true wash cycle.
You most likely have a different machine than I do, but here’s the bottom line.
Soak in cold water with a little detergent and extra odor absorber if desired. Let the machine drain. Then, start a full cycle with hot water at the appropriate water level. You don’t want too much or they won’t get clean. Use your normal amount of detergent, and set the cycle to have an extra rinse to wash away any excess detergent.
Boom. Clean diapers.
Here’s something I see a lot of women do that I wouldn’t recommend to you and why.
Setting the temperature as hot for their first cycle.
Hot water from your water heater doesn’t sanitize I’m sorry to say. You need your water temperature to be 149 degrees before it actually kills bacteria. Even then, it needs to maintain that temperature for a while to actually do anything.
Great things take time.
So, unless you have your water heater set to 149 degrees (an incredibly bad idea with little kids in the house, also bad for your energy bill), there is no actual sanitizing property provided by using a hot cycle.
But, when you soak your dishes, I bet you do it in hot water. That’s because you are an intelligent homemaker.
Why is it that you do that if it’s not killing any bacteria?
Because it loosens up the food stuck to your dishes quicker than cold water!
Same concept. Now why wouldn’t I do that hot cycle first if that loosens up the material more effectively than cold water? And why am I telling you not to do this?
Hot water sets stains. Period. It doesn’t sanitize at the temperature you’re using it, but it will lock in stains.
So, unless you’re good with having poop stains all over your diapers, I would highly recommend against using it in your first cycle.
Give your diapers the chance to soak in cold water first, then wash them with hot water to quickly loosen up any lingering material that wasn’t shed in the soak cycle. This also helps a little to melt any diaper cream away that you shouldn’t have used. We’ll dive deeper on that in the next section.
You’ll thank me later momma.
Now let’s discuss the drying process.
My preference for drying my diapers will always be my line drying in the backyard. If you do have any stains in your diapers, the sun is now your best friend!
The sun bleaches and kills bacteria. Stain and odor removal all in one place! I always do line drying in the summer months. In the winter I use my dryer more often and I have to note that I notice a difference.
My diapers definitely don’t stink in January (because I have a great wash routine), but they simply look cleaner in July. The sun works wonders to pull any lingering smell or stains out.
If you’ve been using hot water in your first cycle: the sun may be your only hope in getting that out.
Use what God provided and save yourself on your electric bill.
Diaper Creams that Won’t Sabotage your Cloth Diapering Wash Routine
I have been through some creams. I have messed up.
I don’t want this for you!
Let’s talk about the ones I’ve used first, which one I recommend, and then let’s talk about what to avoid.
I have used lanolin, Boudreaux’s Butt Paste with aloe (green tube), and Boudreaux’s Butt Paste Extra Strength (red tube).
I recommend Boudreaux’s Butt Paste in the green tube. It is petroleum jelly free and won’t make your diapers repel liquid.
Boudreaux’s Butt Paste in the red tube includes petroleum jelly which you want to avoid. Have you ever put vaseline on your hands and then run water over them? That’s why you want to avoid it. It repels water.
Which is the exact opposite of what you want diapers to do.
I knew to avoid this ingredient and still accidentally bought it after looking on a list of approved diaper creams and seeing it listed. I didn’t realize there were different varieties of the formula! Luckily I didn’t ruin any diapers in the process.
Lanolin is also a product I have used and this worked well for soothing baby’s bottom. It is cloth diaper safe but similar in consistency to petroleum jelly. I liked this product and still use it on occasion, but it is a contact sensitizer. I really don’t want to deep dive into the details of why that is a problem here, I don’t have a thorough enough understanding of this topic to explain it well.
Read more about it here.
How to Keep from Screwing up (a lot): Resources that helped me develop my Cloth Diapering Wash Routine
There are three major places to visit to get all the information: Fluff Love University, YouTube, and Pinterest.
I’m sure there are helpful books on the topic out there but I can’t say I recommend purchasing any due to the abundance of free resources the internet provides us with.
Fluff Love University is the most complete resource center I have seen, but it is a bit dry to absorb the information in that format. It is basically the cliff notes. But, if you don’t have any familiarity with the topic, it’s probably not the best place to start.
I would recommend starting on YouTube and listening to a bunch of “Things I Wish I Would’ve Known” videos on cloth diapering and going from there to your preferred written format.
Here are two links to videos I found to be astoundingly helpful when I started my cloth diapering journey!
You can click here to go to a blog post on the money management side of cloth diapering.
I hope after visiting my blog today you’ve found more information and more confidence in your knowledge and abilities moving forward.
Leave a Reply