Cloth Diapers. Part 2.

Okay so washing cloth diapers. It's what everyone asks about and what everyone thinks must be hard. 

I don't mind doing laundry. It's a daily thing for me and I don't see that going away, ever. So throwing in an extra load of laundry every 3-4 days is NO BIG DEAL here. At least not yet anyway! Also it forces me to stay on top of other laundry! Win win!

So our routine when it comes to diapers.

I keep them on the second shelf of our changing table. The changing table is currently in our 'office' area. Which is an area in between the kitchen and living room. It just seems the simplest for newborn diaper changes, but soon this will go in her bedroom (which she isn't sleeping in yet.)

So for changes I just take off an old diaper and leave it on the changing table till I can get to it after I set her down. After she has a new diaper on and set down somewhere I throw the diaper into the pail we have sitting next to changing table. If its just a wet diaper (80% of the time) I just pull out the insert and toss it all in. If it's a dirty diaper I go rinse it off first, but this is not necessary for breast fed babies- I just do it anyway. Wash hands and diaper change is done. Really doesn't take any longer than when we were using disposables. 

I have yet to notice any smell coming from the pail. And trust me- I find this ODD. When using disposables I can smell it in the trash can from a room away. I would usually put the disposable diaper in an extra plastic bag (the waste makes me CRINGE!) just to help with the smell.

After 2 days usually, but can be 3, I just take the whole pail downstairs and throw it in the washer. Here's the odd thing (in my opinion) as soon as the water hits the dirty diapers- it starts to smell badly. Again, I have NO idea why this is. But obviously this doesn't bother me since all I do is close the washer 

To wash diapers I simply:

Toss diapers in washer with settings on large, cold and do a rinse

Next add  the full amount of detergent (I use tide)  that is supposed to be used and do a cycle on cold 

Next I do a wash on cold without detergent or just an extra rinse cycle. Thats it!

If I'm good about running down to start the washer, this process takes about an hour and a half. 

Then I take the inserts and toss them in the dryer and take the diapers outside.Sometimes I do the inserts outside as well. Outside they take about an hour to dry. Then I bring them in and stuff them (add the insert since I use pocket diapers) at night while watching TV.

So far I haven't noticed any stains, but I've been told to throw them in the sun if that happens. And since we live in Denver with over 300 days a year of sun, that will be our solution when that happens. Probably once solids are introduced! 

So that's it. Super duper simple!