Wash Routine
How to wash cloth diapers
My Cloth Diaper Wash Routine
This is my cloth diaper wash routine in Prince George, BC. I have moderately hard water and used a top loader.
Fighting Over Wash Routines
It’s not nice and creates unnecessary divides in the cloth diaper community.
Things I like to Wash with Cloth
I totally add things to my cloth diaper laundry, and you can too.
What is a Wash Routine?
A wash routine is the steps that you use to wash your cloth diapers. They are usually the same everytime and become a part of your day-to-day practice in cloth diapering.
Wash routines can be a heated topic of conversation, but cloth diaper laundry is just laundry, and trust me, you know what you’re doing, and you can figure this out.
When in doubt, question everyones credentials, and stick to simple straight-forward answers to cloth diapering.
Three Steps Cloth Diaper Wash Routine
Three steps to get you started – it really can be this simple if you want it to be this simple. If you need more 1:1 support, please reach out to your cloth diaper brand or retailer. They should have plenty customized routines and recommendations. Every brand does it a little different, but the most important thing is that we recognize what might work, what does work, and we avoiding shame those who do it different. Just because ABC product didn’t work for you, or your friend, doesn’t mean it’s a terrible product that needs to be blacklisted until the ends of the earth. Cloth Diaper Wash Routines can be simple.
Remove Poop & Rinse Night Diapers
If baby is formula fed, or on solids, then any solids in the diaper need to be removed. They can be sprayed, dunked, or liners disposed off, in the nearest toilet.
Night diapers, or heavily urine soaked diapers, may benefit from an extra rinse using hot or warm water in the sink.
Wash The Diapers
This is a two step process.
First, pre rinse your diapers in a short wash cycle with a small amount of detergent. This is usually a 15-30 minute cycle depending on your machine. You can do this by hand.
Second, wash your dipaers on a long wash cycle using a full amount of detergent. Detergent should be the amount recommended for a heavily soiled load. Though, if your water is soft, you may need to use less. This cycle is usually warm or hot water, and lasts at least 45 minutes with a long agitation cycle and a rinse.
Your diapers should not smell or be slimey after this. There are many little tweaks to customize the wash cycle to your diapers, your water quality, your machine, your child, and your choice of detergent.
Dry The Diapers
Diapers can now be dried using a dryer, or hang to dry.
Many brands recommend using air dry setting, but a lof us secertly use the medium dry and just deal with the break down. Sometimes you have to balance functional for your family and longevity of the product.
But What About?
You probably have many more questions because you have been bombarded with a ton of information about water softeners, cycles, detergents, and more.
You can really start with just three steps, and incorporate as you learn. Here’s a few other blog posts that I’ve written to help you understand different parts of the cloth diaper wash routine journey.
Other Great Resources
These are spaces and accounts which I trust to provide cloth diaper wash routine support. If you ever feel like you can’t share your routine with someone… or in a group. Leave. Don’t let spaces that are toxic continue to exist. We don’t need that energy.
All About Cloth Diapers Chat
This Facebook group is open to having conversations around cloth diapering and challenging norms.
Thirsties Baby
Thirsties Baby provides a ton of amazing resources on how to wash cloth diapers from blogs to videos and an incredibly supportive online community.
Contact the Brand
Seriously.
If you’re struggling with a detergent or a diaper, contact the brand or retailer for support. They’ve seen a lot of problems and can help you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What about stained cloth diapers?
Cosmetic. Stains are a normal part of cloth diapering and most prominent on natural fiber diapers and/or when using plant-based detergents.
Stains are cosmetic. You can choose to treat them with a stain remover, or you let them fade with time
The best way to treat stains with the sun. UV rays are a zapper of stains. Try it.
Do I have to use tide?
No.
You do not have to wash your cloth diapers in Tide. Tide is one of the most recommended detergents in the cloth diaper community because this synthetic formula tends to work for a large amount of people.
But you can use whatever detergent you want to use as long as it doesn’t have fabric softeners.
There are different situations where detergents will or will not work for you. For example, plant based detergents are really not the best choice for synthetic fibers like microfiber inserts. But, plant based detergents with a flat, now you’re laughing.
Chatting with cloth diaper parents and directly with cloth diaper detergent brands, I know that detergents and diapering is trial and error. I know that detergent companies spend thousands of dollars into research and development to make products work and that Facebook admins can’t assume that the list of ingreidents will fail to clean diapers. There’s more to conversation and you can use the products you want to use. Don’t let anyone bully you out of it.
Do you rinse cloth diapers before washing?
Do I have to test my water?
No.
It’s a good idea to have a general idea about your water quality. You might already know you have soft water because you use a small amount of soap when washing your hair.
Having a general idea of soft or hard water shapes the conversation about how much detergent to use.
Families with softer water use less, and families with harder water use more.
Do I need to use a water softener with cloth diapers?
Probably not.
Contact your detergent company for more specific advice, but if you are not using a water softener with your regular laundry, you dont’ need to use it with cloth diapers.
Most detergent brands do not recommend additional softeners with their products unless your water is in excess of 400 ppm.
How many times should you wash your cloth diapers before using?
To prep synthetic cloth diapers, wash once.
To prep natural fiber cloth diapers, wash 1-3 times until it begins to absorb.
Some cloth diapers may need additional laundering if high in natural oils.
Can you wash cloth diapers with clothes?
Yes.
The more I chat with parents in Europe and around the world, the more that American cloth diaper wash routines seem excessive and time constraining.
Many families will shake out the poop, rinse the diaper by hand in the sink, and then wash with the rest of their clothes at night.
This works great for simple cloth diapers, prefolds, flats, and many other styles.
Learn More From Others
Podcast Recommendations, Guest Posts & Other Laundry Related Stories
My Book on Cloth Diapering
Ready to take this conversation offline? Or maybe you just want to learn about cloth diapering in one easy-to-load resource. The Cloth Diaper Book is everything you need to get started cloth diapering. This is the cloth diaper book for beginners and covers many topics in a simple to read Cloth 101 style
FAQ on Every Topic
Detailed Graphics & Images on Diapers
Wash Routine Support & Info
About Bailey
Professional Cloth Diaper Educator
Bailey brings 5+ years of cloth diapering experience and conversation to the cloth diaper space. She's not just your every day mom blogger sharing her experience - Bailey is immersed in the cloth diaper community learning from other parents and growing as an individual. She wants to find the cloth diaper solution that truly works for you.
Bailey believes we need to stop and listen to cloth diapering parents. We need to recognize our own bias and preferences and focus on solutions that work for you, not us. The Cloth Diaper need to recognize the privilege of being able to cloth diaper, and provide spaces for more conversations and stories.
Cloth diapering is not about rules but about our own strength as parents to do the best we can for our children with the resources available.
Contact Us
Email: bailey@clothdiaperpodcast.com
Cloth Diaper Podcast is located in Northern BC, Canada on the traditional territories of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nations.
The Cloth Diaper Podcast participates in affiliate programs with differen brands and businesses. Links clicked may result in earned comission to Bailey Bouwman as a result of purchases made. If you have questions about affiliate links and sales please contact Bailey.
Cloth Diaper Podcast (SimplyMomBailey) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
About the Cloth Diaper Podcast
The Cloth Diaper Podcast is a somewhat regular podcast sharing stories from cloth diaper parents, brands and retailers from around the world.
The Cloth Diaper Podcast is not affiliated with any school of thought of diaper laundry but instead focus on the power of peer-to-peer story telling to empower you to make your own cloth diaper journey.
Cloth Diapering is not this or that, but rather many different experiences.
