The scoop on poop. Don't be scared of washing cloth diapers!

I think the most common response to cloth diapering (CDing) is eww, that's gross, how do you wash them?  It's really not that complicated.  I mean, it's not like we're in the front yard with a bucket and a washboard.  We have washing machines!

Here is my wash routine.  I have tried lots of different routines and have finally found one that seems to work well. 

First, some background info.  I have very hard water, an HE top loader (TL), and I wash every 3 days.

1) Put diapers and diaper pail in the washer.
2) Do a quick cold wash with no detergent.  (This rinses the poo and pee from the diapers and makes washing more effective.)
3) Super hot wash with detergent and 1/2 cap of Calgon, cold rinse.
4) Extra cold rinse.
5) Hang to dry.  (Sometimes I throw them in the dryer, but I really try to line dry 95% of the time.)

Once a month, I will do an RLR treatment, but I will do a different post on stripping.

People are also quite concerned about what to do about poop.  When they are little and are EBF or EFF, no rinsing is required.  Once you introduce solids, you will need to rinse the poo off before putting in the washing machine.  I just use a Bumgenius Diaper Sprayer and spray the poo into the toilet.  Some people use flushable liners.  I am not a fan of the liners b/c G only goes every 2-3 days.  I don't want to waste a bunch of liners waiting on a poo.  After I spray the diaper in the toilet, I will spray it with some diluted BacOut to help prevent stains and smells.

The sun is a miracle worker for organic stains.  Seriously, just put the clean, wet diapers in the sun and it will get rid of the stains.  If you have a particularly nasty stain, put some lemon juice on the clean, wet diaper and put it in the sun.  There will be a slight lemon juice stain, but just rewash the diaper before using and the lemon juice mark will be gone.

And now here is photo proof of the power of the sun.  These are clean, wet diapers.

The diaper on the left is an organic Dream-Eze AIO and the one on the right is an old style Grovia insert.  Both of them stain very easily b/c they are organic.

Close up of the Dream-Eze.

Close up of the Grovia insert.

This is how I dry the diapers.  The collapsible racks are great b/c I can hang everything up in the comfort of my air conditioned house.  They are also easy to grab in case it starts raining.

This was 4 hours later.  Stains are gone!

Close up of the Dream-Eze.

Close up of the Grovia insert.

You can stick anything with an organic stain in the sun.  I have used it for tomato sauce and it worked like a charm.  If you don't have access to the outdoors, you can stick the stained item in a window or even on the dashboard of your car!  Super easy!  The sun also has anti-microbial properties and helps to keep the stinkies away.