Cloth Diapers-III

Laundering cloth diapers was by far the thing that made me most uneasy! I don't enjoy dealing with poo and pee (no big surprise), and I would prefer to keep my hands clean.  But I realized, that whether I was using cloth or disposable, I was going to have to deal with these things anyway.

When we first started, we only had 6 diapers in the rotation, so we were doing a small load of diapers every night.  We kept the dirty diapers in a bucket on the floor of the bathroom, and because it was emptied every night, we had no smell problems.  I disliked having to run such a small load because it felt wasteful, and if I forgot to do the laundry we were out of luck (mainly because I prefer to air dry whenever possible).  Now that we have 17 diapers, we run a load every 2-3 days.  (It would be more, but we still use disposables occasionally-mostly when I bring her to work and rely on others to help take care of her...I feel guilty asking other people to deal with cloth diapers when we're not at home.)

It's really quite simple.  Remove a dirty diaper, pull out the insert and place both in the pail/bag.  If there are any solids in the diaper, just knock them into the toilet.  I may occasionally rinse a very dirty diaper in our utility sink, but mostly I just knock out what I can and throw the rest into the bag.  Usually, I can remove the dirty insert without soiling my hands at all, but occasionally, I have to touch a pee covered piece of cloth with my thumb and forefinger...really no big deal!

We use this AWESOME dirty diaper bag, and I find it very easy to use with a front loading washer. We just keep it on the door handle and have not had any smelling issues.  I do use the "add essential oils" feature, but I'm not sure that really makes a difference one way or the other.  I just happened to have oils on hand. So far, we have not had any staining problems...but I hear that leaving them out in the sun can "bleach" out any stubborn stains.

Just so you know, you do have to be careful cleaning the diapers.  If you use too much soap, they will start to repel liquids, which is NOT what you want in a diaper!  Use half of the recommended amount of soap, don't bleach, and don't use fabric softener.  Click here to visit the Charlie Banana website and read more about cleaning these diapers.