Laundry and Pail question

Clarasmummy · March 2012

I'm considering switching to cloth for our next child, but I have a few questions...

Explain the washing process to me... My Mum did cloth with me and she wails about three washes each load and soaking and scrubbing. True or false?

How do you store the dirty ones? I'm guessing in a pail of some sorts, but doesn't that end up stinking? Do you have a soaking solution in the pail?

How often do you do a load of diapers? When figuring the water and energy from the washing machine, is it actually cheaper? Do you end up doing alot of small loads or do you wait to save water and do one big load?

Line drying would definitely be the best way, but do they end up "crunchy"? Or do most people do the dryer?

Thanks for your help in advance!

sweetky_06 · March 2012

Check out the FAQs - there will be a lot of answers to your questions there:

https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=48640290#48640290

A couple of my personal things: until they are eating solids, the poop is water soluble, so there is no scrubbing or plopping poop. Do not listen to anyone who tries to talk to you about CDs who hasn't CD'd in the last 5 years - they probably have no idea what modern cloth diapering is like - they are envisioning only flats, pins and plastic pants.

I don't think anyone uses a wet pail anymore.

I wash diapers every other day - you can probably get away with every 3 days if you have enough diapers, but beyond that you will be dealing with stink issues. It is definitely cheaper to CD even when accounting for water and electric - you will have more laundry with a baby anyways, and it's only about 3 loads more a week with cloth diapers. In order to optimally clean the diapers, you only want to wash full loads and not little ones.

I dry on both the line and the dryer - the line dried ones are sometimes a little crunchier but it's not horrible.

tokenhoser · March 2012

Ditto the FAQ

I do a rinse-and-spin, then a hot wash with an extra cold rinse. I have to go down to the washer twice, but trips to the laundry room vary by machine.

I put dirties in a plastic 8 gallon step can with a washable pail liner. (No solution/water). I spray off poopy ones in the toilet now that DS eats solids.

I wash every 2-3 days. Yes, it's cheaper. I do full loads and hang dry when I'm thinking far enough ahead.

bugandbibs · March 2012

Please check out the FAQs, then lurk here for awhile.

Washing, and using CDs is really simple and much cheaper than using disposables. We wash every 2-3 days when our 9 gallon push top can gets full. We mostly line dry and it works great.

Clarasmummy · March 2012

We live in Southern Manitoba, so line drying is not an options for alot of the year (WINTER!)... can you line dry indoors?

sweetky_06 · March 2012

Clarasmummy:
We live in Southern Manitoba, so line drying is not an options for alot of the year (WINTER!)... can you line dry indoors?

Yes - I do it all of the time. I might start them outside to sun them then bring them in, or I might start them in the dryer so they aren't soaking wet and then finish them on a drying rack inside.

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