So I have been cloth diapering for about 6 weeks now, and let me just say I love it!! It is so easy, convenient, and cost efficient! I don’t have one single complaint as of now. So I thought I would share our steps on how we have been washing our diapers. We have an HE Frigidaire washer and dryer. So the first step I do is like a rinse cycle I put the machine on a quick wash, with a cold wash, cold rinse so cold/cold. I set the spin cycle to no spin, so that the washer will leave the water in making the machine think there is more in the washer for the second step. I do not use detergent in this first step. This step is basically used to get all the poop off of the diapers so it is like a rinse. This step is takes 21 min wash time.
The second step the settings I use is a normal wash, hot wash cold rinse so hot/cold, I set the spin cycle to maximum spin, I use the stain, extra rinse, and extended spin settings, and a heavy soil. The extra rinse is to get any extra detergent out of the diapers and the extended spin is to get any extra water out of the diapers so that my drying time is lowered. I use 1 tablespoon of my homemade laundry detergent, NO bleach and NO fabric softener. This wash cycle takes about an hour.
The third step is to dry the diapers very simple I use the bulky setting, and I do NOT use fabric sheets. The drying time is about an hour.
The fourth and final step is to sun bleach on a nice sunny day. Because you can’t use any bleach or fabric sheets, I use the sun as a natural bleacher! This gets all the stains out of my diapers YES it really works! This also helps freshen the diapers up and make them really soft!
This may seem like a long process but it really isn’t. When you think about all the money you are saving, these few hours feel more like minutes! I usually wash my diapers every 2 to 3 days just depending on how many diapers we went through. I normally wash every 3 days regardless because we have such a large family. Have a question feel free to ask!!!
Tanyell Cole 