Today we’re tackling the cloth diaper wash routine!
First of all, I’d like to point out that, in case you haven’t realized it by now, everything cloth diaper related is subjective, meaning there are really no absolutes when it comes to cloth diapering advice. What works for one person may not work for everyone.
With that said, here is my personal cloth diapering wash routine, which I also discuss in my cloth diapering book.
1. Cold Rinse/Hot Wash/Cold Rinse
This is the most basic foundation of a good wash routine.
The cold rinse is to knock off any solids that may have stuck to the diaper when you were shaking or spraying (or flushing a liner) down the toilet. Rinsing in hot instead of cold might risk setting in stains.
The hot wash with detergent cleans the diapers.
The cold rinse gets out detergent residue.
*Many people add a second cold rinse to guarantee that all detergent rinses out. I personally do this.*
2. Full load of diapers=no more than 15-17 diapers
I count each diaper shell and inserts as one diaper. Yes, we know your machine looks like it can fit more, but in my experience, if you shove more diapers than this in, they won’t get clean.
3. Cloth diapers like LOTS of WATER.
Use the maximum amount of water possible with your diapers! If you have a HE machine, you might have to trick the machine to add more water by adding a towel to the load. I have a top-loader washing machine, so I just set it on the “super” setting each time.
4. Use a good, cloth-safe detergent.
I personally use Country Save, although I have tried and liked Crunchy Clean, and I have used Sun Free on occasion. There are a LOT of good detergents on the market.
It’s important to remember here that what works for one person may not work for another. Diaper type, water type and even your individual washing machine will make a difference as to whether or not a certain detergent will work for you. You may have to try different ones before you settle on the best detergent that will work for your family.
If you have any questions about a particular detergent, check out the Real Diaper Association’s online Detergent Determiner. I LOVE this little tool! It helps you determine if the detergent you want to try is cloth safe!
5. Use a cloth-safe detergent for your regular laundry.
Using detergents with dyes, perfumes and optical brighteners on your regular laundry can leave residue in the drum of your washing machine, which will, in turn, leave residue on your diapers. I personally use Sun Free (SUPER cheap at Big Lots!) on our regular laundry and Country Save on the diapers.
6. Realize it might take time to figure out the amount of detergent that you need.
The amount of detergent you’ll need is not only dependent upon your type of washing machine (HE machines take less) but also upon the water type (hard water takes more and soft water takes less). Follow your detergent maker’s recommendations and realize you may need to experiment a little before finding what works for you.
7. A weekly soak does wonders for stains.
I highly recommend soaking with pure oxygen once per week for extra whitening and brightening and extra disinfecting. You can soak from 1 hour to all night, depending on how clean you want your diapers! Always do a pre-rinse on cold and soak on hot.
8. The sun is a natural stain-fighter.
If all else fails, sunning (sometimes for more than one day) should get rid of your stains (and disinfect naturally as well!). Sun your diapers and inserts while they are still wet. Spraying a little lemon water on the stains may also help.
9. You should be able to machine or line dry most of your diapers.
Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations, but line drying your covers and pocket shells keep them nicer for longer.
Do NOT use dryer sheets, as these contain perfumes, etc. that can leave residue on your diapers and cause them to leak! I personally use wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. They help speed up the drying process and don’t leave any chemicals on my diapers–or other laundry! If I want to leave a pretty smell, I’ll dab a few drops of essential oils onto the balls. I got mine from Re-Diaper.com and have been using the same 6 balls for more than two years!
10. Give yourself time to get a good routine down.
Learning the routine that works for your family takes time in the beginning, but once you have it, you’re good to go!
What’s your cloth diaper wash routine?
My eBook, Confessions of a Cloth Diaper Convert, is a 200+-page handbook that will tell you all you need to know to have a successful cloth diapering journey!
Emily
I have only started cloth diapering 7 months ago when our first son was born. I just wash on hot and dry on high. There are a couple of liners with a few stains on it, but I guess I’m not that worries about them. I use All with no dyes and everything, super safe for baby skin and has worked well on my diapers. My liners don’t dry all the way so I hang them in my son’d room to dry, helps add some humidity for him. Doing an extra rinse would be good for me to do I think, I just need to figure out how to do it with my washer… Great ideas!
Erin
It’s always fun to hear how everyone else washes. I’ve heard of others using All as well! I have a very simple washing machine. I just turn it to “rinse” for that first cold rinse, then do an entire cycle of a hot wash that includes a cold rinse, then I turn the knob back to “rinse” for a second cold rinse. I’ve heard HE machines are a lot more complicated than that, though. Thanks for sharing, Emily! 🙂
Stacy @Stacy Makes Cents
Thank you so much for posting this! It’s so easy to get distracted and think we’re doing everything 100% right – and then we go and ruin a $16 diaper. Washing diapers is a science. Great tips and points! I think I need to soak my inserts to get some stains out – I will use BioClean Oxygen Bleach. 🙂
Elizabeth - The Messy Organic Mum
I was surprised that you use cold water for rinsing. I was originally told to use onyl hot water, all the time. I must admit I am excited that I might not have to use so much hot water!
Do you ever use vinegar as a rinse to help get your detergent out?
Carrie
We are thinking of trying to get pregnant soon and would like to cloth diaper, but we live in a house with a shared washer/dryer with a lady below us who uses Arm & Hammer detergent with fragrance (and who knows what else) and also dryer sheets for the dryer. I’m sure we couldn’t use the dryer but do you think we’d be safe to use the washer? Perhaps wiping it clean before using? What do you think? Thanks so much for the very helpful tips!
Erin
Hmmm, you know I really don’t know. I used my father-in-law’s machine one time when we were traveling, and he had a LOT of residue built up in it, and I had to strip my diapers after our trip because they started to leak. I would possibly think it would be ok if you run a quick vinegar rinse before you add your diapers each time. That might be a lot of hassle, though. :/ I actually think the Arm & Hammer alone is an OK detergent…..I’ve heard of others even using it on their diapers. BUT, the fragrance in it might be the issue. :/ I’m sorry I’m not more help! You may have to do some trial and error!
Andrea H.
Curious if your new book has any advice on cloth diapers in a shared washer/dryer situation ? or is it only tips for people with their own machines?
CW
First of all, I am really not a confrontational person so PLEASE don’t take this the wrong way because I love your blog and you have a lot of awesome things to say. 🙂 But I really do not think this is the correct way to be washing cloth diapers. I say so from expereience. I have CD’d my daughter since she was 3 months and she is now 20 months and our stash is almost all Kawaii. I USED to wash my diapers the way you are recommending up until about a month or two ago. And my diapers, particuarly after my daughter started solids, well, quite frankly they just weren’t coming out truly clean. It’s not as if they were coming out with… *ahem*… solids still on them or anything like that, they just did not smell as clean as my regular laundry did. So yeah, probably “barnyard” for those who know what I mean. No amount of stripping with Dawn, etc was helping the matter either. They woud just go right back to bad after the strip. Let me tell you my new routine and the “why” behind it…
1. Rinse diapers. Temp doesn’t really matter, you can do all cycles on cold if you want, yes, really. I personally do a fulll quicker cycle here so they sort of get 2 rinses.
2. Wash diapers. Heavy duty cycle, I wash hot as a preference but like I said it truly doesn’t matter. I USE A MAINSTREAM DETERGENT. Yes, really. No Rock N Green (contains no detergents, only boosters), no Charlie’s (same, AND it is highly caustic and notorious for causing rashes), no homemade “detergent” (which is not an actual DETERGENT at all as you and I cannot purchase detergents in their pure form). I now use Purex, and not Free and Clear although that would be fine, just whatever I have on hand. I use the PROPER AMOUNT OF DETERGENT FOR MY LOAD SIZE. That means that if I am pretending my diapers are my “regular” laundry, if I have a medium load in there then I put the amount of detergent recommended on the package for the load size. It is a medium load (line 1) but it is definitely heavily soiled (it’s diapers, ya’ll, they need some serious cleaning, not 2 tsp of boosters) so I use to line 2. Additionally and just as importantly, I use the PROPER AMOUNT OF WATER FOR THE LOAD SIZE (sorry about all the caps, btw, I am not at all yelling, there’s just no way to bold anything lol). So if I have a medium load, I set the water level to medium. The diapers need to agitate against each other to get clean, just like regular clothes, so if you are using way way too much water for the load size, this is impossible.
3. A second rinse is fine but shouldn’t be necessary unless they feel “soapy” which they most likely won’t.
Cloth diapers are JUST LAUNDRY. Really, really dirty laundry. So they need enough real detergent to bind to all the yucky stuff and wash it away. I would never wash sweat and mud covered yardwork clothes that only took up a third of the machine with an entire washer full of water and 2 tsp of inferior “detergent” so why would I do that to filthy diapers? I have also learned that…
Any mainstream detergent is “CD safe” as long as it doesn’t contain synthetic fabric softeners.
Stripping with Dawn… so very wrong. And yes, I had done it multiple times myself. Bleach (yes, bleach!) stripping is the only way to “reset” your diapers because that is the only thing that is going to kill off the bacteria left in them due to a poor wash routine (read: too much water and/or not enough detergent).
I may be setting myself up to get a verbal lashing from some but that’s fine, my diapers are cleaner than they’ve ever been and my nose and my little girl’s bottom thank me.
Nora
Hi I know this is an old comment but if you see it, what did youbdo to dry your diapers? Sun dry or machine dry?
Erin
I used to sun dry but now I machine dry to save time.
April
Regular Tide powder. Going on one year of cloth using it. City water, no stains, no stink, period. I also use a homemade stain preventer generously on poop diapers, it’s one part hydrogen peroxide to one part original blue Dawn in a spray bottle. Try it.
Jess White
I use pretty much the same routine as you: Cold rinse, wash hot, with 2 cold rinses. I’ve been pleased with Purex Free and Clear, been using it for 5 years now on our cloth diapers. We do throw the inserts in the dryer, but the pockets {or anything with PUL fabric} is air dried. Occasionally I squirt a bit of original dawn in, instead of the detergent, if they’re having an odor {or a few drops of tea tree oil}.
Once our triplets were born {we had 4 in cloth diapers at once} we found a 6 gallon bucket and put a gamma seal on the top, so that we could store dirty diapers in an air tight container, it works great!
cassie
I know that you clearly state in your post that everyone’s routine will be slightly different and that’s true… I have an old school top loader and very soft water. I would highly recommend testing your water hardness. Test strips can be found at your local hardware store or ordered from companies such as whirlpool. And most are free. Hard water requires a booster (borax or calgon) to soften water enough to get diapers clean. Hard water causes mineral build up and doesn’t allow the detergent to do it’s job. So ultimately you end up with dirty, ammoniay, diapers that leak and cause rashes. Which then leads to a mineral strip (borax, washing soda and calgon) followed by a bleach soak to “reset” your diapers. Also extra rinses aren’t recommended because of the above issues. And a good rule of thumb is 1 1/2 times the regular amount of detergent. And double it if it’s a weaker detergent.
I do I warm a quick wash with 1/2 cup detergent (I currently use foca but it’s NOT HE safe). Followed with a hot wash on the longest, heaviest soiled setting with 1 1/2 cups detergent and I let it it run through the full wash/rinse cycle then toss in the dryer on high. Or sometimes I line dry.
There is no such thing as detergent build up. There is detergent residue but it’s not the same as build up and it washes away with each wash never building up. Detergent residue doesn’t cause problems with diapers. Unless your diapers feel slimy when you get them out to dry they are fine. Suds are fine, and even “sounding” soapy is fine. Slimy is when you need to rinse again. And if you really want to know what that feels like take one of your diapers on laundry day (clean unless you want to rub all up on a dirty one) get it wet and put a good amount of detergent on it rub it around then run it under water for just a second and rub some more. You’ll feel slimy… then just toss it in the washer.
P.s. any preloved diapers should be at the minimum bleach soaked but really mineral stripped and bleach soaked is the best way to reset those diapers.
cassie
Also I make sure to have a “stew” with my diapers vs. Water ratio. Soupy would be to much water and chili not enough. Sometimes I have to add towels or other clothes after my “prewash” to get that ratio. I think it’s very important to remember that you can do it and keep trying until you find what works! Love this blog by the way!
Kasha
I spray poopy diapers with a toilet sprayer then use one heavy duty properly sized wash on cold with 2T Borax, 2T Baking soda, 1T ivory bar soap grated and 1/2 C Vinegar and line dry in the sun to bleach out stains. It works great! And they smell and look fresh!
Nye
Hi, I do exactly what you state above. Rins/wash//rinse, sometimes even two rinses before the wash cycle and use Rockin green. However, (I use prefolds) they pretty much always smell clean while they’re still wet, but once dried and the first pee that comes in contact with them just makes them smell funky. It’s an issue I’ve been struggling with. I do notice many people actually use detergents like Tide, but I’m still weary of those and unsure of what they contain.
Has anyone had this problem and how did you fix it? Also my other issue is that my diapers keep turning to shreds with months, I’m not sure what’s going on, any ideas?
Heidi
Hi there! I’m just curious if you think adding 1/2 cup white vinegar to the rinse cycle when washing cloth diapers would be safe for the fabric?
Erin
Hi Heidi! It depends on the fabric. I would only do it very occasionally for diapers with PUL or TPU in them.