soaking vs "dry bucket" for cloth pads...

[canuckgal]

Hey everyone, I have been an avid cloth pad user for a few years now. I always soak my pads and change my water everyday, sometimes even every time I add a pad to the pail, but I just cannot stand the smell. I have tried tea tree oil, baking soda, etc to no avail!

what experiences do people have with using a dry pail? Do you have any staining? OK I know they are pads and are meant to get dirty, but I do want them to look nice and not stained LOL! I was thinking of pouring a bit of peroxide on them if they have dried by the time I have changed them.

Can anyone give me feedback? BTW I use lunapads pantiliners and the New Moon pads from Sweet Cheeks diapers.

Tina

[MaxMommy]

Do you rinse them before adding to the pail?

I give mine a little rinse, then dump into the pail with the cloth wipes. I use either borax or oxi-clean in the soak water. make sure to rinse with cold water and you will get no staining.

[lurable]

I use a dry pail- no problem with staining. I have tie-dyed cloth though so I don't think I would be able to see any stains if they were there. Also my AF only lasts about 2 days so they don't sit there for that long.

[MaxMommy]

I'm curious........any smell from the dry pail?
How do you do it? Do you use cloth wipes too? Do you keep them seperate?
How do you wash them? What do you use?
Obviously, I'm open to change....thanks in advance for the ideas

[lurable]

No smell but I don't let them sit for more than 3 days. I use cloth wipes for the kids and I wash them all together with dipes as well. I use 7th generation detergent or something similar depending on what's available. Since I have had babies in cloth for the last 4 years I just put it all in a wash together.
HTH

[MaxMommy]

Got me convinced, I'm gonna try the dry thing.

[Llyra]

I dry pail mine with no stains. Well, actually, maybe I shouldn't say this but I mostly just toss them in my kids' diaper pail. Anyway, I would guess a little oxiclean would help with the staining, don't you think? I can't have wet pails for anything, because I have three little ones who LOVE to play in water and can foil any babyproofing I can devise. So dry pail it is.

[kimiij]

What if you rinse them out when you shower (until the water running through them runs clear) and then hang them to dry? Then put them in their own laundry bag. I don't get a smell if I rinse them out and that way I can just dump them in with the regular laundry b/c they aren't really dirty. No messy pail to deal with (wet or dry).

[dachshundqueen]

They go in the dry pail with the cloth family wipes, and the dipes.

The times I tried to use a wet pail for them or hydrogen peroxide they stained, oddly enough.

Liz

[SunShineSally]

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

They go in the dry pail with the cloth family wipes, and the dipes.

The times I tried to use a wet pail for them or hydrogen peroxide they stained, oddly enough.

Liz

same thing with me the main stains on mine were from when I tried the hydrogen peroxide I did dry pail with Ds's CD's and I do it with my own cloth now I have actually let mine go for 5 days I actually washed them twice with extra rinse when I did that I had the flu yes AF and the flu last month now that was just wrong! Needless to say doing my wash was the last thing on my mind!

[Leta]

I have never used a wet pail for mine (or for CDs either, for that matter). If I am starting a load of wash, I will occaisionally rinse a pad first, before immediately throwing it in the laundry, so that I can pour the nutrient rich rinse water on my plants, but that's as far as I go.

I have had no problems with staining, but all my pads are black, dark blue, or eggplant purple.

[Tangled Hill]

I've used a wet pail before and got tired of it. And, eventually, it would begin to smell a bit (though I think adding salt helped with that). Anyway, I've switched over to rinsing them out and hanging them to dry, then throwing them in with a load of wash whenever I'm ready. Works great that way.

[Purple*Lotus]

I used to wet pail, but that was messy. My pads are a light cream colored organic cotton.

Originally Posted by MaxMommy

I'm curious........any smell from the dry pail?
How do you do it? Do you use cloth wipes too? Do you keep them seperate?
How do you wash them? What do you use?
Obviously, I'm open to change....thanks in advance for the ideas

I dry pail my family cloth and Mama cloth. I toss a tiny bit of baking soda in the bottom of the pail and add a few drops of EO, usually grapefruit. I toss all cloth in to the same pail. I usually don't wash until I am out of something, which could take a long while. Maybe up to two weeks. I use a lidded trashcan for a pail so there is no smell escaping. When it is full, I toss it all in to the washer and do a cold rinse. Then I wash as usual. My pads are not stained, neither are the family cloth which are used for poo as well as pee. So dry pailing has not affected stains at all for me.

[jennyfah]

I dry pail too. (Wet pailing anything seems like too much work! ) I use a diaper wet bag of the small travel variety and just toss pads in there. It's nice to hang under the sink and easy to dump into the wash.

I got an idea from Blue House Soaps. They sell a lovely mama cloth spray which is mostly hydrogen peroxide, water, and EOs. I decided to try making my own, so now I use it all the time. When I change my pad, I just spray some of my homemade spray on the blood and toss it in the bag. I don't know if it's necessary to prevent odors or staining but it smells so good that I keep doing it!

Here's my homemade recipe: In a small spray bottle I use 2 parts hydrogen peroxide to 1 part water. I add as many drops of whatever EOs I have on hand as I like; currently it's grapefruit and eucalyptus, which smell divine. I also just wash with my diapers but when my LO no longer wears them I'll probably wash with towels.

Love my mama cloth!
Jen

[EnviroBecca]

I soak a pad just until I change pads the next time. (If I'm using my cup some of the time, then I take the pad out from soaking whenever I get the chance, after at least an hour.) Then I pour out all the water and rinse the container, which is just an old family-size yogurt tub. This works well, and there's no odor from the closed bucket.