I thought it would be fun to post a little day in the life of what my cloth diaper laundry day is like. A lot of friends and relatives have said to me in the past, "oh, you use cloth diapers? Wow, that must be a lot of laundry."
Actually it's not that bad.
It's just one extra load. And you know what? I really LIKE doing the diaper laundry. There is just something about feeling warm cloth diapers in your hands and folding them, snapping them, and velro-ing them in place that is zen to me.
Laundry Day.
We wake up and watch Sesame Street together while she has her morning bottle of milk. I get breakfast started and Annika goes in her high chair. While she is eating (sometimes I have been known just to take her to the laundry room too, which is no big deal. I find it is faster to do this without her opening the front loader every 2 seconds), I take my diaper pail to the laundry room. I pull out the diaper liner and dump everything out into the front loader. This takes a minute becasue you have to bend down and sortof wiggle the diapers out of there. You all with a frontloader know what I'm talking about! The diapers go in along with the pail liner and the wetbags that have been used for outings. I put the load on a quick cold rinse/soak for 33 mins without detergent and go back upstairs with the diaper pail.
In the bathroom I spray the diaper pail with some Simple Green and use a wipe to wash the inside of the pail. Rinse. I then dry the pail and put a second pail liner in the pail. I think it is totally essential to have 2 diaper pail liners in your stash. You can use the second while the first is washing! No waiting for the first one to come out and dry. In goes the cleaning wipe and pail goes back in Annika's room.
33 mins later (Annika is with me at this point and we like to talk about what the washer is doing with diapers), diapers are done their cold cycle. Then I adjust the settings to heavy load/heavy soil, hot cycle with extra rinse and stain soak (everyone's setting may be a little different here). I open the little door where the detergent goes and press START. I wait a bit since I want the water to be hot, so when I add my homemade powdered detergent (recipe is in my blog) it will disintegrate nicely. Close the hatch. This cycle on my washer is 1:01. That's what it says on the display. 1:01. Long, but efficient.
By the time this cycle is over, we have had showers, gotten dressed and played blocks. When it's finished, we haul everything out of the washer. Yes, Anni helps (aka: gets them all over the floor)! We throw everything in the dryer and do one dryer cycle. Whatever is not completely dry gets hung over her crib or rocking chair in her room. Things like natural fibre diapers (hemp or bamboo) take longer to dry, as do some of my all in ones (bumGenius! Organic O/S diapers). I suppose I could do more dryer cycles, but it's just a personal thing I guess. I can just as easily hang them. In the summer I put them on the line. I miss doing that right now.
The dryer buzzes and the diapers are done! Nice, warm, fuzzy soft diapers ready for my baby to wear. Really, really easy and satisfying. Even your relatives will be in shock.
