No frills, no fuss, a SIMPLE cloth wash routine!

This post is part of the Cloth Diaper Blog Carnival! The topic of this carnival is, "what is your wash routine".

When people find out that T wears cloth diapers they often look at me like I have three heads. They then follow up with, "isn't that a lot of work?". I'm not gonna lie, when I first began contemplating the idea of cloth diapering I was pretty overwhelmed with the vast amount of information all over the internet. At first it did seem to me like it was going to be a lot of work. There were so many diapers to choose from, how would I know which was the right choice for our family? In reality, deciding what diapers to use was actually a piece of cake compared to figuring out how to wash the diapers (or so I thought)! I was so intimidated with the various wash routines I found recommended online. Many of the routines seemed so complicated and time consuming. I knew that I would never stick to cloth diapering without a super simple routine. Simplicity became my mantra. I found that cloth diapering doesn't have to be overwhelming and time consuming. It can be as easy as using a disposable! Here is my simple, no frills, no fuss routine...

1. COLD rinse cycle with NO detergent

2. HOT wash cycle with detergent (I use Tiny Bubbles detergent), one scoop in a HE front loading washer and two scoops in a top loader.

3. Additional cold rinse cycle No detergent

4. SUN, SUN, SUN, on sunny days I dry all my diapers in the sun and then fluff them in the dryer on a 20 minute setting. The sun acts as a natural bleaching agent, kills bacteria, and leaves the diapers smelling fresh. In the winter I do one dryer cycle and then finish drying the diapers overnight on the radiators.

Once I had conquered the laundry routine I thought everything would be smooth sailing... Until my diapers started to have an awful stank. Ugh, now my diapers needed to be stripped and the stripping techniques I read about were even more daunting than the laundry methods I first encountered. In the past year I have had to strip my diapers once. Which, I think is pretty good since I have read that many people have to strip their cloth diapers every month or so. In my search for the simplest method to strip I found that the main reason for needing to strip diapers is due to detergent build up. It doesn't make much sense to strip diapers with detergent when the issue is due to detergent. Therefore I found that rinsing, and rinsing, and rinsing with NO detergent in HOT water pretty much did the job. I also added 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle of the final wash (followed by one additional rinse). The vinegar helps to:

• neutralize the urine in cloth diapers
• equalize the pH balance
• eliminate soap residue
• deters the setting in of stains
• can help keep colors from bleeding
• acts as a natural fabric softener

I believe that the reason I needed to strip my diapers was due to a build up of detergent. When I first began cloth diapering I used detergent in both my first and second wash cycles (I was also using a different detergent). I was just using too much soap. It's funny how using too much detergent can cause diaper stank. One would think that more detergent would lead to fresher smelling diapers, boy is that wrong! Since I have changed my routine, I have not had an issue with build up or with stinky diapers.

And there ya have it, that's it. That's my simple wash routine. There are no frills, no fuss, and it gets the job done! I don't think it can get much simpler than that, and if it can PLEASE comment and let us know how!

Click the link below to find other blogs in the cloth diaper carnival and read about their laundry routines!

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