If you’ve chosen to go green with your diapering selection, then cloth diapers are the way to go. Even if you’re fortunate enough to have diaper service take care of the regular dirty work, there may come a time when you need to handwash a cloth diaper or two.
Say for instance, you’re on vacation. If you don’t want to take gobs of spares with you and travel with soiled, stinky diapers, then you’re going to need to get down to the nitty gritty and do it yourself.
To handwash a cloth diaper yourself, you need to follow these simple steps:
- Plug up the sink drain. I recommend using a sink rather than a tub, because you’ll need less detergent and water, and it’s easier on your back and arms.
- Add about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of laundry detergent.
- Place one or two diapers into the water (make sure any excess doody has been removed and flushed first).
- Move the diapers around in a swishing motion to suds up the water. If they need to soak for a while, then let them.
- Work the diapers in a kneading motion like dough. Do this for several minutes to really let the movement and detergent do the job.
- Wring out a lot of the excess water and drain the sink. Refill with enough fresh water is as necessary to cover up the diapers.
- Gently swish the diapers around in the clean water to rinse out any extra detergent water.
- Wring the diapers out the best that you can and hang them up to dry or throw them in the dryer.
A few bonus tips for handwashing cloth diapers:
- If you have more than a couple diapers to wash, then put them in a large bucket and use a clean plunger rather than kneading them with your hands.
- If you think the diapers are going to need a long soak, then put them in cold water or use your child’s bath water to let them sit for a while before you begin the actual handwashing process.
- If the diapers seem hard after air drying, then roll them up and work them in your hands. They’ll still be a bit stiff, but as soon as they warm up on your baby’s tush, they’ll get softer.
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