Cloth Diapers. I used to be so disgusted with the thought of
cloth diapers. But then slowly, ever so slowly, my opinion began to change.
My friends talked about all the money they were saving, I
read up on the different kinds of cloth, I saw how cute a lot of the patterns
can be. Soon I was starting to think about doing it myself.
Just before we moved to France I ended up getting a LOT of
cloth diapers…for FREE! Forget the one-time expense of getting a startup stash
which, let’s face it, can be a pretty penny! These were absolutely free. I have
roughly 45 cloth diapers (pockets and pre-fold covers) plus tons and tons of
inserts. I’m in cloth diaper heaven here!
My amazing (and free!) stash!
And with my stash pretty much complete, I decided that once
we got to France I would indeed begin cloth diapering!
And much to my chagrin, I discovered that we had shared
laundry facilities….that you need to pay to use. Which wouldn’t necessarily be
a bad thing, but I also knew that it was going to take us awhile to get a bank
account, get some Euro’s out and get change for said laundry.
In the meantime, I still wanted to start cloth diapering! I
was ridiculously excited and impatient to begin. I don’t know what had gotten
into me. Maybe it was the cute designs? I’m not entirely sure. But I decided
that I would figure out a way to do it without needing French money or coin
laundry.
Thus began my hand washing adventure!
It’s actually not as disgusting or difficult as I first
thought (and as most of you probably think). It’s pretty simple. I think the
hardest part was prepping the brand new diapers that I had gotten. And that’s
just because it took more effort since I had to wash/rinse multiple times.
Items I use:
- Tub to wash them in
- Plunger
- Detergent
- Drying rack/clothes line
- Cleaning agent for tub when finished washing
So here is how I hand wash my diapers:
I have since gotten an actual drying rack for the diapers (and other clothes I hand wash), so it makes drying a lot faster (because I can hang up more than 5 diapers and inserts at a time!).
We have also been able to open up a bank account here and have since been able to get money out. However, it's very expensive to wash clothes here. So even though we have the option to use coin laundry, I'm still opting to hand wash simply because it's a lot cheaper.
Any questions or comments or other ideas, please let me know in the comments section!
- Tub to wash them in
- Plunger
- Detergent
- Drying rack/clothes line
- Cleaning agent for tub when finished washing
So here is how I hand wash my diapers:
I start by doing a cold rinse (because I'm not using a washer, I actually rinse out and semi wash out the poopy diapers before throwing them into the hanging diaper pail).
And I use my handy dandy plunger and plunge the diapers about 50 times.
Then I drain the water
(I remove the diapers from the tub just to be sure all of the icky water gets out.)
I then add my detergent and do a hot wash (currently I'm not sure what I'm using. I just bought a detergent that I thought didn't include any perfumes or softeners or anything else. It's kind of difficult to know when you don't speak/read the language. Just sort of have to take your best guess.).
Soon though, I'm hoping to start making my own detergent so I know exactly what's in it!
And again, I plunge the diapers about 50 times. Sometimes I'm full of gusto and will do it more!
If they seem extra stinky or have been sitting for longer than 2 days, then I will let them sit a few minutes and then plunge them again another 50 times or so. Just want to make sure they are good and clean (and don't smell like pee!).
I then drain the icky water again and begin a cold rinse.
I will again plunge about 50 times (it's a great way to develop those arm muscles!).
Sometimes I will do a second rinse. It just depends on how sudsy the wash was to begin with and if the diapers still smell a little soapy. Better to do a second (or even third) rinse than having stinky/residue/leaky diapers!
I didn't post a picture, but after I'm done rinsing I get all of the water out of the diapers (sometimes I will roll the diapers up into a towel to get it even more dry before hanging them up).
Then I clean out the tub and sanitize it because it's actually what I currently have to bathe my toddlers in. And I don't want them to contaminate the diapers the dirty diapers to contaminate the children! Yuck!
And then I line dry them (the diapers, not the children)!
And voila! Cleaning cloth diapers by hand!
It's a lot of work, but it can be done.
And it saves money, so I think it's worth it. For the time being anyway...until I'm too pregnant to be bending over an infant tub in a shower stall!
(Little guy likes to help....and by help I mean pull all of the clean diapers onto the floor so he can trample them and eat them).
We have also been able to open up a bank account here and have since been able to get money out. However, it's very expensive to wash clothes here. So even though we have the option to use coin laundry, I'm still opting to hand wash simply because it's a lot cheaper.
Any questions or comments or other ideas, please let me know in the comments section!
