If you’re just joining, you may want to go back and read “To Cloth Diaper or Not?” Part 1 & Part 2 of this post.
Otherwise, let’s talk routine!
We’ll start at the beginning (a very good place to start…)
Once you’ve ordered your cloth diapers and they arrive, you’ll need to pre-wash them.
Pre-washing
Your diapers will come with instructions, but I will say my instructions were to wash the covers and inserts six times before use.
So I did.
What did I wash them in?
I use Charlie’s Soap and love it. I use it not only for cloth diapers, but for all of our laundry (you kinda have to after reading their instructions…) It works great on everything, so I don’t mind this at all. AND it has solved my crunchy dilemma with fabric softener (another thing that’s not good for us ) because you don’t need fabric softener with Charlie’s Soap. I now have three cleaning items in my entire laundry room – Charlie’s Soap, Clorox Green works Bleach, and a spray bottle full of Clorox Green works Bleach for pre-treating. Simple and I love it.
Drying
Do not.
Well, not in the dryer at least.
I hang mine on plastic hangers in my laundry room or if the weather is good, outside. The sun acts as a natural whitener, too.
Putting them on
This step is pretty self explanatory, but I will say how I love that you can adjust the Flip diapers by snapping it different sizes. If you really want to know more, watch this video 🙂
Taking them off
I think this is the part that loses people on the cloth diapering train. But read on, brave one; I promise it’s not as bad as you think.
So when it’s time to take a diaper off, my approach depends on what I’m working with…
#1 only:
This is simple. If only the insert is wet (i.e. it hasn’t soaked through the to the cover), then just remove the insert, put a fresh insert in the cover, and snap baby back up.
As for getting the insert to the washing wait station, I just fold it in half onto the changing table as I’m removing it from the cover. After little miss is in a clean diaper, I put her down to play and pick the insert up by a corner to deposit it into our bag in the laundry room. If the thought of this grosses you out, you should know a few things…
1. as a mom of four, I have had all bodily functions on me at one time or another and a side corner of pee doesn’t faze me
2. These things are really absorbent so it’s not like it’s dripping wet
3. I wash my hands thoroughly after every change…and I even have hand sanitizer right at the changing table, just in case
#2:
This, as you can imagine, is a little more in depth! I use the wipes like I would with a disposable and then get little miss into a clean diaper and down to play. At this point, the diaper is laying open on the table so I pick it up from underneath, kind of cupping it in my hand (you’re going to have to visualize because neither of us want pictures of this, right?) I take a clean wipe and do one of two things depending on the…um…consistency I’m dealing with.
If it’s solid, I use the wipe to pick up the specimen and dirty wipes and throw them away, like a disposable, in the trash. Then I take the “clean” diaper to await washing.
If it’s not solid, I use the wipes as a sort of tool to get the substance into the toilet and flush it down (do NOT flush the wipes). I throw the wipes away and take the “less messy” diaper to the wash tub in the laundry room, rinse and fold up to await washing. Some people have sprayers to assist in this, but I am far too cheap to deal with all that. Also, please see point 1 & 3 above :).
See, I told you it wasn’t so bad.
You’re probably wondering at this point about wipes…
Yes, you can make your own and it’s super easy. You just cut up an old receiving blanket into wipe sized pieces, put them in an old store bought wipes container and add your cleaning solution. There’s lots of “recipes” online and I made one involving coconut oil, water and her baby shampoo that worked well.
If you’d rather go the traditional route, I highly recommend Honest Wipes. They’re very durable and work well and of course pass my “is that safe to put on my baby?” test. You should also know that if they accidentally end up in the washer, they won’t hurt anything.
The truth is, I use both because it’s convenient to have traditional wipes around the house.
Where do the diapers go until I’m ready to wash?
A recycled grocery bag. Seriously.
I love to sew and I love a good DIY project but after looking at the wash bags I thought, why not just hang a plastic bag in my laundry room until I wash? You can see it if you scroll back up to the drying picture. It happened to be a Target bag that day.
I wash every 1-2 days and never have a problem with smell – even after entering the world of solids. My laundry room also has a door so I can close it, just in case.
Washing
**I have a top loader so if you have a front loader, read this**
When it’s time to wash, I dump the whole bag in the washer and my hands never touch anything gross. Then I do two loads…
1. You’re wanting a long, vigorous wash in warm water. For me that means setting it to 10 on normal in warm water. I add 1 Tbsp. Charlie’s Soap to the tub and 1 Tbsp. Clorox Green Works to my bleach dispenser.
2. After that is done, set the water temp to cold and add 1 Tbsp. Charlie’s Soap to the tub. Run the cycle again (no bleach this time).
When this is done, dry them as we talked about earlier.
PRINT THIS from Charlie’s website to hang in your laundry room!
Storing clean diapers
This is what my diaper storage looks like.
I know – not Pinterest worthy, but it is super easy and works for us. I could get fancy and buy a basket one day – maybe I will :).
And that’s it.
Wait, what about stripping!?
I know, I haven’t mentioned boiling the diapers or anything. Because I haven’t had to. That doesn’t mean I’ll never have to, so I’ve pinned this great Q & A post on cloth diapering from someone who’s been doing it much longer than me. You should check it out.
What’s your cloth diaper routine? Is it daunting? Or way easier than people realize?
This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclaimer in the footer.
Leave a Reply