Washing Cloth

How often you need to wash your cloth diapers will depend on how many you have in your stash and what system you use. If you only have enough diapers to make it through 1.5 days you will need to wash every day. If you have built up your stash you will be able to go a matter of days between washes. I mainly use pocket diapers, so I end up doing a load of diapers every 2^nd or every 3^rd day, depending on how many Baby “S” uses. Most of the time I wash every other day but only to keep the load at a reasonable level. Allow me to walk you through the steps of washing your diapers:

1. Toss diapers with only pee right into the machine. If there is poop in the diaper, rinse the poop out as best you can before tossing into the machine. You may rinse either in your utility tub or get a diaper sprayer. These are rather expensive gadgets that attach to your toilet and rinse right into them. (Separate post about sprayers coming soon).

2. Run a rinse cycle on cold. You must set your machine to a large load but do not fill the machine more than half full with diapers. This is because you need lots of water to get the diapers thoroughly clean.

3. When the rinse cycle is complete, open the machine and add in a very minimal amount of diaper safe soap. You may need to play with this a bit to learn how much you really need. In general, you need half the soap that the manufacturer says you need for a small size load. Run a wash on the Hot/cold setting. The hot will get your diapers nice and clean and a cold rinse is all that is truly necessary.

4. You MAY need to run an additional cold rinse cycle to get all the soap out of the diapers. It is very important to get the soap out so you do not get a buildup on your diapers and need to strip often. This cycle is only necessary depending on your detergent.

5. (may be completed prior to step 4, and after step 4 if step 4 is necessary). Take out a diaper and smell the inside (where the baby’s bottom touches). I usually repeat this with 3-4 diapers and 3-4 inserts just to make sure. If the diaper smells like water it is clean. If it still smells funky, you need to rinse again.

6. If the diaper smells like soap, continue rinsing until the soap smell is gone. If you add another rinse and the diaper still smells funky, I recommend starting over again on step 3. Next time try adding a bit more detergent the first time you get to step 3 and hopefully you won’t need to get to this point again.

7. Hang all covers and AIOs to dry (if it has Velcro or snaps, it counts as a cover). Inserts and prefolds may be put in the dryer on a medium heat cycle. Do not put your covers in the dryer because it will cause wear and tear. The Velcro will pill, the snaps will become more difficult to use, and they may melt in some places (personal experience talking here)

For a list of diaper safe detergents, please click here. I highly recommend Rockin’ Green Detergent. It may be used for all your laundry, but is especially designed for your diapers.

DO NOT use stain removers on your diapers! This will cause a buildup on your diapers and you will need to strip frequently (check my Cloth Diapering page for the post about stripping diapers). Instead, hang diapers outside on any sunny days (even cold and sunny days). The sun is a natural disinfectant and also naturally removes stains from diapers.

Cloth Diapers, Dirty Diapers and Diaper Sprayers....Oh My!

Happy New Year, Everyone! To kick off the new year I'm going to discuss using diaper sprayers on your dirty cloth diapers. I spent 5 months without a diaper sprayer where I simply tried to rinse the diapers prior to tossing them in the washing machine. Finally, I decided it was time to look into diaper sprayers. So I looked. And I found that you need to spend a minimum of $40 for a diaper sprayer!! What?! So I started to think....you must be able to simply make one right? Its just a glorified kitchen sink sprayer. When looking into that, I found that it would cost me about $25 to make one and attach it to my toilet. That's when I realized: we have a removable shower sprayer in our master bathroom and the toilet is very near the shower....why not just try that?

I was smart enough to see if the cord would reach all the way to the toilet first. It was about 3 inches too short. However, I decided to try anyway. I thought that if I aimed just right that maybe it would work. The good part of my silly plan was that all the diaper nasty made it into the toilet. The bad part was that my floor was covered in water. I had to mop it all up with a few nice big towels. After much looking and too long a story, I finally found a new shower sprayer with a 6 foot cord instead of a 5 foot cord. It works like a charm!


I find diaper sprayers to be one of the best inventions ever created for cloth diapering! (Even if you improvise and don't buy an actual "Diaper Sprayer"). It is very easy to rinse the poop right into the toilet and then flush. No need for disposable liners, wiping with toilet paper, rinsing in a utility tub or swishing in a toilet by hand! Simply turn on the sprayer, rinse the poop, flush the toilet, and off you go to wash your diapers! Diaper Sprayers make diapering one million times easier if you wash your own!

Long story short: A diaper spray is essential when cloth diapering. I wouldn't want to be without one! If you want to spend at least $40 for an actual "Diaper Sprayer" be my guest! If you'd rather save yourself some money you can either make one yourself (just google "DIY Diaper Sprayer") or if you're lucky enough to have your toilet close to the shower head you can get a shower sprayer (which is the cheapest option if you find it online)

Happy Diapering in the New Year!

How To Wash Your Cloth

How often you need to wash your cloth diapers will depend on how many you have in your stash and what system you use. If you only have enough diapers to make it through 1.5 days you will need to wash every day. If you have built up your stash you will be able to go a matter of days between washes. I mainly use pocket diapers, so I end up doing a load of diapers every 2^nd or every 3^rd day, depending on how many Baby “S” uses. Most of the time I wash every other day but only to keep the load at a reasonable level. Allow me to walk you through the steps of washing your diapers:

1. Toss diapers with only pee right into the machine. If there is poop in the diaper, rinse the poop out as best you can before tossing into the machine. You may rinse either in your utility tub or get a diaper sprayer. These are rather expensive gadgets that attach to your toilet and rinse right into them. (Separate post about sprayers coming soon).

2. Run a rinse cycle on cold. You must set your machine to a large load but do not fill the machine more than half full with diapers. This is because you need lots of water to get the diapers thoroughly clean.

3. When the rinse cycle is complete, open the machine and add in a very minimal amount of diaper safe soap. You may need to play with this a bit to learn how much you really need. In general, you need half the soap that the manufacturer says you need for a small size load. Run a wash on the Hot/cold setting. The hot will get your diapers nice and clean and a cold rinse is all that is truly necessary.

4. You MAY need to run an additional cold rinse cycle to get all the soap out of the diapers. It is very important to get the soap out so you do not get a buildup on your diapers and need to strip often. This cycle is only necessary depending on your detergent.

5. (may be completed prior to step 4, and after step 4 if step 4 is necessary). Take out a diaper and smell the inside (where the baby’s bottom touches). I usually repeat this with 3-4 diapers and 3-4 inserts just to make sure. If the diaper smells like water it is clean. If it still smells funky, you need to rinse again.

6. If the diaper smells like soap, continue rinsing until the soap smell is gone. If you add another rinse and the diaper still smells funky, I recommend starting over again on step 3. Next time try adding a bit more detergent the first time you get to step 3 and hopefully you won’t need to get to this point again.

7. Hang all covers and AIOs to dry (if it has Velcro or snaps, it counts as a cover). Inserts and prefolds may be put in the dryer on a medium heat cycle. Do not put your covers in the dryer because it will cause wear and tear. The Velcro will pill, the snaps will become more difficult to use, and they may melt in some places (personal experience talking here)

For a list of diaper safe detergents, please click here. I highly recommend Rockin’ Green Detergent. It may be used for all your laundry, but is especially designed for your diapers.

DO NOT use stain removers on your diapers! This will cause a buildup on your diapers and you will need to strip frequently (check my blog for diaper stripping information). Instead, hang diapers outside on any sunny days (even cold and sunny days). The sun is a natural disinfectant and also naturally removes stains from diapers.

Diaper Stripping!

I stripped my diapers tonight! What's that, you ask? Basically, stripping your cloth diapers will "reboot" them. It strips all of the chemical buildup off of them and you get to start over again. Stripping isn't very hard, but it is time consuming. Fortunately, you don't have to do it very often.

How you know you need to strip:
*diapers are less waterproof/you notice more leaks suddenly
*diapers smell a little funky even after a good wash and rinse
*baby gets a diaper rash and you can't pin it on anything else
*thy just don't feel all that soft anymore

Personally, I noticed Baby "S" getting a diaper rash but nothing had changed for her, my diapers smelled pretty good, but not great after a wash, and suddenly we were having crazy leaks through nearly all our diapers. I stripped them and not only did my inserts come out soft and fluffy for the first time in months, but we are waterproof again!! Woo!

How to strip:
*start with clean diapers (or put them in and wash as usual but don't dry them...just leave them in the washer)
*run a Hot/Cold or a Warm/Warm load without soap. The idea is to get the water as hot as possible. Some people even add in steaming water. Mine gets hot enough so I didn't add anything in.
*run a second Warm/Warm cycle
*During the rinse cycle, check to see if you have any soapy bubbles (not aggitation bubbles, soapy ones...soapy ones won't go away easily and quickly like aggitation ones will)
*Continue to wash without soap until there are no more soapy bubbles during the rinse cycle.
*Dry as usual (hang dry covers and pockets is best, inserts may be put in the drier)

Stripping is something you will have to do at some point if you cloth diaper. However, there are things you can to do avoid stripping as long as possible. This is, of course, better for the life of the diaper as well as better for baby's bottom.
*Use an all natural detergent such as Rockin Green (review of this detergent coming soon)
*Don't use any stain lifters/removers
*Avoid diaper rash cremes if possible
*Wash diapers in a lot of water with not a lot of diapers in each load

My diapers and inserts are so much nicer now that I have stripped them! I also made it 6 months without stripping and hopefully I will make it longer next time!

Helpful links:

Stripping cloth diapers
How to strip cloth diapers


ready for a wash with Rockin Green!

Look! agitation bubbles but not soapy bubbles!