Washing baby items in cold water

DSteed-to-be

We can't wash in hot water...it cost an extra $10/month to pay for hot laundry water, and we didn't sign up for it when we moved in last fall, so it can't be added to our lease until it renews as of 8/1 if we add it when we renew.

Maybe I'll just have to run everything twice to get it clean in cold?  What would you suggest?

njkitty

most detergents these days work just fine in cold water.  i think i'd wash poopy stuff twice, but otherwise you're probably fine.

KatieRL1979

We do all of our laundry in cold water, even the baby stuff.  If it has a poop stain on it or something I'll hand rinse it first in the sink and put shout or spray n' wash on it before putting it in the washing machine.

nuttybunch

Tide makes a cold water version of their detergent. Something to look into--I'm not sure if it comes in dye free perfume free.

GRKaters

Get a dish pan and soak/rinse the dirtiest pieces in the tub before you wash. Invest in good pretreatments like spray 'n' wash or Oxyclean.?

jolis_petits_bijoux

Tide, and other brands (not sure which ones), make a special detergent that is supposed to work as well with cold water as regular detergent does with hot.  I'm not sure if they work as well as hot water, but they must at least be better than regular detergent w/ cold water...

You might have to spot clean stains first, as well as run on the "heavy" instead of "regular" cycle to get everything clean.  This will be one of those things you'll have to experiment with... ugh.  I hate laundry experiments. 

grace&ricky

I washed baby items yesterday and read the tags on each one before throwing it in, and all the baby items said to wash it in cold water.  So maybe you don't need hot water?  I just ran the extra rinse cycle to make sure all the detergent comes out.