Updated January, 2022
In the first year of your child’s life you can expect to go through around 2,000 diapers. That’s a lot of money to throw in the trash. This is just one small part of why I highly recommend cloth diapers. One of the biggest questions I receive when I make this suggestion is how to wash used cloth diapers and generally maintain them. This handy little guide is here to help you with just that. Because there is no getting around that diapers are an essential supply for your baby, but it shouldn’t have to destroy your wallet and the environment.
Preparing
Before we even get to how to properly wash and dry your diapers, we need to talk about preparing them for the cleaning. The up front cost of cloth diapers is pretty high, so you want to be sure that when you do wash and dry them, we aren’t damaging them or making things worse.
First let’s talk about poop. So many people say that they don’t want poop in their laundry machines. Well, this makes sense. A laundry machine is where we put our clothes to get clean, not stained. But no washing method I have ever managed is miraculous. Before you drop that dirty diaper in its hamper, dump any large, solid poop right into your toilet. Got those breast milk poops still? You can try getting an attachment to rinse them off, or you can get the liners that are easy to remove and throw away. Whatever method you go with, you just want to be sure you are minimizing the solids you put into your washers.
Next I want to talk about tearing. Be sure to remove all boingos, snappys, or safety pins from your diapers before washing. Those little teeth hook impressively well and if you wash diapers with those you are going to shred the fabric. Additionally, if you have diapers with Velcro on them, you will notice they often have a soft flap that the Velcro can stick to on the ends. This is because, just like snappys, if you put it in the wash with the Velcro open, it’s going to grab your diapers and destroy them. It might not ruin them on the first round, but it will over time, I promise.
Washing
Personally, I really did not want Monster’s diapers in the same washing machine that my clothes went in. I was worried about weight, stains, and poop. The three together made me decide I simply had to have a separate machine for diapers. As time went on, my attachment to that idea has waned, but at least for the first year of both Monster and Sprinkle’s lives, we used a separate machine. We also learned rather a lot along the way.
Things We Learned
- Filling it with a pitcher took a lot of time and it was easier to get an attachment for our sink. We also learned the hard way that if you use this method, you can forget that you started to fill it up and it will flood your bathroom (twice for those of us that don’t learn the first time).
- This works if you have time to do diapers every day. Especially in the beginning when we were going through one every two hours. Only a once a week laundry person like me? This won’t hold enough diapers.
- The spin cycle was useless. We just hung them out to dry.
- Draining into our bathroom sink was a terrible idea. The lint from the diapers clogged the sink quickly. Drain it outside or into a toilet.
Final Call
Ultimately, the counter top washer didn’t work out for us. Something about me flooding the bathroom twice made my partner more reluctant to continue that method. Also, I didn’t want to do laundry every day. Some people are used to that, but I am not.
I definitely was not a good candidate for using the Panda washer. I had to do laundry too often and I couldn’t (wouldn’t) pay attention to the machine the way I needed to.
Attempt 2: Bucket and Plunger
Things We Learned
- If you are doing diapers closer to only once a week, this bucket may get small. Look at upgrading to a larger option.
- This method works especially great in the summer. Turns out, I don’t like standing outside and plunging in 2 degree weather and a snow storm.
- This is a time commitment. To plunge and rinse, plunge and rinse, plunge and rinse is not a short process.
Final Call
If you have the time for it, this is one of the best ways to get diapers clean. If you need to do more than wash diapers on your weekends, you may want to explore other methods.
Attempt 3: Old School Washer
Our third and final method was an old school washer. This is the method that ended up lasting, including once we both returned to work and when the weather turned cold. My partner found it online (check Craigslist I guess), put some effort into fixing it up, and now it lives on our back porch. We fill it with our hose, turn it on, set a timer inside, and come back to it after 30 minutes. We also like the wringer because it gets so much water out that the dry time on the clothesline is much shorter.
Things We Learned
- If you accidentally forget to turn it off and leave it running for 8+ hours, it will eat your washcloths and you will have to unclog it.
- In the winter, if you leave the drain hose connected and it isn’t fully empty, it will freeze, making it difficult to drain the next time. Also, don’t let the drain hose freeze in a kinked position. Same problem.
- Minimal rinsing and such is required, but find a place out of the way to drain it in your yard.
- You do have to take the time to drain and rinse still.
Final Call
This one was fun and easy. Honestly, it was basically like having a second washer just for diapers, but less expensive. I still have this washer and would use it again if I had another kiddo in diapers for a long time.
Both of my children are potty trained now, but my youngest still gets diapers for nap and bed time. But we aren’t having anymore bowl movements in diapers at this point. So now, admittedly, I just take the bag of diapers and toss them in my regular washer. I suppose time and the reality of diapering for 4 years has won out in the end. But I still prefer cloth over disposables, I just use an option that is more convenient at this point in my life. It seems to bother me less as well. Also, #singlemomrealities.
Things We Learned
- Don’t leave snappies on diapers on accident. It will shred everything in the load.
- Baking soda makes a world of difference for smell. Get one of those giant Costco sized bags and just drop a few spoonfuls in every load.
- These puppies are made to absorb. Avoid over filling the machine.
Final Call
Honestly, once I got rid of all my weird hang ups, putting the diapers right into my machine wasn’t that big of a deal. If I ever had an infant again though, I probably would still use the outside, old school washer. But for your solid eaters (and thus solid poopers), it really is fine to use your regular washer.
Drying
Once you’ve washed your diapers, you then have to dry them. If you can get them wrung out enough, it’s pretty easy to put them in the dryer. Drying them that way makes them soft and fluffy again. I am a stickler for line drying though. Not just because it is environmentally friendly and saves money but also because the sun will bleach all the stains out of the diapers. So that worry that the diapers always look kind of gross after they’ve been pooped in a few times? Not a problem at all with line drying in the sun. If you really care about your diapers looking stained, this is definitely what I would advise. I also use line drying for sun bleaching my own white clothes. It works like a charm.
The Diaper Bag
Final Thoughts
Drying outside in the winter was difficult. Often we would end up with frozen diapers instead of dry ones. It was definitely important to be open to drying them in our dryer on occasion.
In order to wash once every two weeks, we needed enough day diapers (20), night diapers (10), shells (10), and wipes (a lot). We definitely had to increase our stock on occasion to end up with enough, especially with wipes as Monster got older.
If you get shells with Velcro, Velcro those before you put them in the wash or they will stick to and damage your diapers.
Be careful putting shells with buttons through the wringer. It may damage them over time.
Having liners for poop as Monster aged was helpful so we didn’t have to spend a lot of time unclogging machines or rinsing off dirty diapers.
We really did save money and the environment by going the cloth route.
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