For dirty diapers: I dunk them in the toilet (with gloves on) and give them a good rinse in there. (I'm obsessive about keeping the toilets clean for this and other reasons!) Then I rinse them in the laundry room sink with cold water and I rub Ivory soap on the stains. Then I put them into the poopy diaper pail where they soak until laundry day (that night or the next), and there is laundry detergent in the soaking water (Seventh Generation usually.) I also change the soaking water whenever I think of it--it keeps the stink away. The pee diapers have a separate diaper pail. For washing in the machine, I usually wash in Tide and sometimes with other clothes depending on how many and how dirty the diapers are. I won't put them with my husband's work clothes, but I'll wash dipes with other less fancy stuff. But by the time our diapers get to the machine, they aren't too dirty anymore. I like to wash in hot water and double rinse. I air dry the diaper covers and machine dry the diapers.
I used to use more "organic" and natural laundry soaps in the machine, but I find they don't work nearly as well as Tide or something similar. Tide is the only chemical I allow into the house, and it is really effective with stains!
The only things I hate about cloth diapering: rinsing the diapers out in the toilet, and the higher electric bill from using the washer and dryer so much! (No possibility to dry them outside here, either.) But anyway, we have had these diapers for years (Snugglebottoms) and they don't have one single stain. I like the unbleached flannel diapers. They are good about not staining. Once I used Mother-Ease---what a nightmare for stains! ACK!
I used to use more "organic" and natural laundry soaps in the machine, but I find they don't work nearly as well as Tide or something similar. Tide is the only chemical I allow into the house, and it is really effective with stains!
The only things I hate about cloth diapering: rinsing the diapers out in the toilet, and the higher electric bill from using the washer and dryer so much! (No possibility to dry them outside here, either.) But anyway, we have had these diapers for years (Snugglebottoms) and they don't have one single stain. I like the unbleached flannel diapers. They are good about not staining. Once I used Mother-Ease---what a nightmare for stains! ACK!
