Moving to an apartment :(

[bright_eyes]

We are moving to an apartment in 2 months and I am not sure if I'll be able to continue cloth diapering. The apartment has a shared washer/dryer in the building and the washer is actually free to use. BUT you can only wash your cloths in cold water.

I am not sure it is a good idea to wash only cold- how would I sanatize my diapers? And I'm not sure if shared laundry is good as I would chance having other people's residual detergents effect my diapers.

What do you think? Is cloth not going to be an option in this situation? What about something like gdiapers?

[funkymom81]

You could do something like the flips and boil the liners to sanitize. also before washing your diapers you could run a quick cycle with the machine empty to clean it out. Altough I have heard of people having success washing in cold only.

[aramat]

Yes, I remember reading some threads before about successfully using only cold water, esp for people in Central & South America.

[bright_eyes]

Cool! If I can wash in cold then I could keep going with diapers, I think. I'll have to do dig those threads up and look.

Have other people had success or not had success with using community washers for diapers?

[Noah's mommy]

I'm in South America and we only wash our prefolds/covers in cold. I haven't had any problems at all.

[chely7425]

I know washing in cold only can be done... As far as the detergent residue what about just running a cycle of your clothes first? Like, do a load of kitchen towels or something with some vinegar thrown in and then do your diapers right after?

[mimim]

I used communal washers and dryers while diapering with three kids. No problems, but I did have the use of hot water. Also, I always rinsed poopy diapers throughly before tossing them in the pail.

[iOliver]

I haven't started CD yet, still waiting on LO to arrive, but I live in an apartment with shared free laundry and never even thought about the residue from others detergent!!
Can someone expand on the use of vinegar to get rid of residue before washing the CD?

[Adaline'sMama]

I wonder if you could do a hot soak (w/ your detergent) in a 5 gallon bucket before you started the load.