Wanting to try cloth diapers, and have a washing problem

MWagner10

Hey everyone! So hubby and I have decided to cloth diaper to not only save money but to be green to our environment. I have tons oodles of research so much that my eyes burn and I have tried to read through some boards on here to see if anyone else is in the same boat as me. Here it goes! I have recently relocated and we have a laundry facility in our apartment, this is very new more me and the washers are very basic. They are front loading HE machines but have only 4 wash options: normal hot, normal warm, perm press, and delicate cold. No rinsing options, no sizing options. It costs $1.40 per load (this does not include he dryer)no matter what option we choose. I am also trying to only do laundry 2 times per week at most, again to save money. When reading through how some people wash the diapers it looks like I would have to do at least 3 loads and that kinda defeats the purpose of saving money by cloth diapering. The option I am currently considering is maybe getting a diaper sprayer and getting the nasties out, and maybe even a per soak in a bucket before they enter the wash. I am hoping with this to get away with only 1 wash cycle. I am planning to line dry the covers and AIOs but do want to dry the prefolds and any bags. Anyone else in my same situation, or just any advice in general? I still want to cloth diaper because the benefits for your baby are simply amazing! I just want to have a good experience. TIA!!

MWagner10

Wow I did not proof read that at all... Sorry for all the typos. Score one for me I guess... Ugh!

zaraceligon

I also live in an apt, and the machines from the facility are similar like yours,but I don't wash any of my diapers in there. I got a portable washer and is very convinien to have it just for diapers, i also got some cloth lines and umbrella pins to hang dry my diapers. I think if you really wants to safe money,I recomend you to consider getting a portable washer. Is some one that used to be here that has her own web side,she has some pictures of the portable washer if you are interesting check the accidental wallflower.com. Good luck.

ElleBeeDub

I think you could *probably* get away with not doing an initial rinse (wash) cycle by spraying every diaper to get out as much urine and poo as possible. You'll still want to find a way to do a post-wash rinse, though. That rinse makes sure you don't end up with detergent residue. 

You might also consider using flats and covers (or flats as inserts for your pockets). I know there are people who hand-wash their flats. You could also probably hand wash throughout the week, then do a load in the washing machine once a week if you wanted.

As far as the load size goes, since you can't set it on the machine, if all of your diapers are already wet (from being pre-rinsed), you'll probably be fine, but if you're worried about not getting enough water per load, some ladies have recommended adding a wet towel to the load to fool the machine into thinking there's more in there.

freezorburn

Is there a utility sink in the laundry facility? Maybe you could do the initial rinse in the sink -- that's what I did when we recently went to a campground with laundry facilities. I had flats and pockets and rinsed in the sink and gave each piece a quick rub on my washboard. Worked great. But I wouldn't want to do that with a newborn, every minute is so precious, and there's a big difference between being able to just set your rinse cycle and go, vs. spending 10-15 minutes rinsing diapers out, when your baby might be crying or you need to be resting.

A portable washer is a great idea.

AlwaysForgetful

IDK if this will help or not.

My mother had this issue. She cloth diapered us all. Although back then it was prefolds and a plastic cover. At one point she had 3 of us in diapers for half a year till my older brother potty trained.

She said she use to buy extra prefolds to allow her to go longer between washes. She had 2 diaper pails. One for pee and one for poo diapers. All pee diapers were rinsed and wrung get as  out before they went into a wet pail. Same with the poo diapers. She made sure to get as much off as she could. Then before wash, she re rinsed the poo diapers and wrung them all out before she put them in the wash.

She said they had a balcony and she said she got one of those sweater hangers and used that to hang diapers outside. She used clothes pins to attach them. In the winter months she said she had the diapers drying inside by the sliding door.

She said some weeks they just hand washed the pee diapers to save a little money. I guess the initial rinse, then wring it out,  used the double sink in the kitchen, and then hung them to dry. She did warn that it took longer to dry when hand washed because you can not get as much water out by hand.

Eventually they did get a mini washer to use in the apt (it hooks to your sink) and then she used that.

MWagner10

Thanks ladies:) there is no utility sink in the facility so pre washing will have to be done in the apt. Looks like I have more research to do, but it is worth it. I'm just a worrier and I like to know every little detail before things happen, but I know that is next to impossible with a baby! You can't have your whole week planned out with a little one:) I guess the really good thing is I live in southern Cali so hanging to dry wont be an issue at all, and at least for the first year I am planning on mostly prefolds and covers. At this point I have a few AIOs that were gifted to us.

zaraceligon

There is two diapers store in SC, and they offer the 101 cloth diaper class,they have a lot of information about different subjects. One is granola babies, is on irvine,and the other is Rosie posie is on garden grove. I don't know if you are close to this areas,I just want you to know about it.

hst

I know this sounds gross, but when my DD was an infant I was in a similar situation, I only had a few options on our buildings machines, I chose "whites" I have no idea if it did a pre rinse, but I doubt it. My diapers came out fine. If you go with prefolds or flats they are much easier to take care of.

belladonna11307

Check out the diaper info on Abby's Lane's website.  She has a ton of info on washing in different situations, there might be some info you can glean from there.  Good luck!