Oh noooo!! Did I ruin my diapers?!

[amberskyfire]

My husband edged the yard yesterday and accidentally spilled gasoline all over him. He tossed his clothes in the wash and rinsed them, then I unknowingly put in my load of cloth diapers and washed them. Now they all smell like gasoline. Are they done forever? How do I fix this? I can't afford new cloth diapers. Most of mine were given to me used for free. :(

[Adaline'sMama]

Nope. My husband is a landscaper. That has happened to me a couple of times. Here's what I did- my grandma's old recipe (grandpa was a mechanic).

1st of all, run an empty load in your washer with detergent and bleach. Then do an extra rinse cycle to get all the soap out. This will clean your washer.


Fill the bathtub up with hot, hot water (I added a couple of pots of boiling water. Add salt one entire container of epsom salt ($2) and one whole gallon of vinegar. Now the water should be about as hot as bathwater. Soak overnight. Put them in your washer and rinse them out. Then wash with a strong detergent like tide. Rinse a couple of times to get the soap out. Avoid putting anything gasoline scented in your dryer. It's dangerous!

I hope it works for you. I had covers, prefolds, and inserts and all of mine are fine and still absorb and never smelled like gasoline again.

[amberskyfire]

Thanks! I'm going to try that!
 

[Siouxsie]

Originally Posted by amberskyfire 

My husband edged the yard yesterday and accidentally spilled gasoline all over him. He tossed his clothes in the wash and rinsed them, then I unknowingly put in my load of cloth diapers and washed them. Now they all smell like gasoline. Are they done forever? How do I fix this? I can't afford new cloth diapers. Most of mine were given to me used for free. :(

I just yelled "OH NO!" out loud when I read this. I hope you can fix them!

[amberskyfire]

They were all of my good organic bamboo minky and Fuzzi Bunz, too! Of COURSE it couldn't have been all of my cheap prefolds. :(
 

[MrsKoehn]

Something else that might work. I haven't used it with gas, but after the machine's clean, if you have a top loader, you can use this soak. I just did it to get the oil smell from the old clothes of hubby's. He works in a potato plant and used to run the fryer for the fries. SO STINKY. Thank God he's on maintenance now. I can tell when he's been working in that room though. Ugh. Anyway.

Fill the washer with hot water (or a tub or whatever, washer was easier for me)

Add a big bottle of peroxide (32 oz)

White vinegar, about 4 or 5 cups

About 1 -2 cups baking soda

2 T strong dish washing soap, I used Dawn which I keep just for thing like that.

Soak several hours to overnight. I ran it through with hot water and extra vinegar, then washed on warm as usual. Came out fine. I dried them in the sun.
 

[WindyCityMom]

After the bathtub thing I'd do a ton of Dawn washes with Vinegar rinses... yuck :( Happened to us once with mechanic grease... not fun!

[MrsKoehn]

Let us know what you did and how it worked! :)

[mennofied]

I strip my fuzzibunz and bumgenius and econobum diapers with dawn and calgon (not at the same time) and hot water at least once a month and they are in excellent condition. Dawn is what they use on animals after gas spills so it should work. (Calgon gets soap residue out afterwords). I use 2 Tbsp for a medium load but if I were in your shoes I'd probably use 4 Tbsp for that. I wouldn't give up on them though. They don't have to be washed as gentle as the label claims all the time, and this counts as an emergency, so I'd go all out until they come clean.
 

[amberskyfire]

Okay, I thought I'd come back and let everyone know how it went. I scoured the internet as well as posting here and asking everyone I knew. I had several things I wanted to try and this was the result.

1st wash - Told to soak for 1 hour with 1 cup vinegar and wash. Screw that! I soaked for 2 hours in 1/2 gallon of vinegar and 1/2 box baking soda. No workie.

2nd Wash - with Dr. Bronner's. Yeah, it smells better, but I can still smell the gasoline.

3rd Wash - with 1 can of Coke. Screw that! Washed with 2L Coke. Diapers came out smelling like gasoline...and Coke! *lovely*

I line dried them for 24 hours and then the gasoline smell became very faint.

4th Wash - I ran an empty load with detergent and 1/2 cup bleach. Then I put the diapers all back in and soaked in 1/2 gallon vinegar for a few hours, then ran the load with the vinegar and some detergent. I bought some epsom salts, but ended up not needing them after all.

PERFECTLY CLEAN DIAPERS!

Let that be a lesson to you! If you ever - EVER - spill gasoline on your clothes, unless it's your wedding dress, JUST THROW THE DARN THINGS AWAY!