Do you soak your diapers or just store till ready to wash?!

[avismama24]

Hi all,

I am kinda new to cloth diapering, but having a great experience now that the kinks are worked out, mostly thanks to all your great advice!

My question is this: Do you have to soak your diapers. I keep a bin of soapy water in the bath tub next to DS room, but I find when it is time to wash them it is kind of a pain bc they are soaking wet in yucky pee/poop water, and it kind of gets all over everything while I am transporting them to the washing machine.

What are your tricks to avoid this? Do you even both soaking? I only wash diapers once a week, we have enough to go that long. So some diapers would be sitting around for up to 4 days.

THANK YOU!!

[AmandaT]

How old is your DS? Is he EBF or eating solids?

I do not soak my diapers, but we have to wash them about every 2.5 days. My DD is just starting to have "real" poops, and I will be buying a diaper sprayer to spray them off before I put them in the bin. I would think spraying off the chunks and then dipping the diaper in the toilet would be enough to combat smell so you would be able to store them in a dry bin.

If it does start to smell, you could add some baking soda to the bin, it can go right in the wash with the diapers. I have found keeping the lid of the diaper pail also helps to combat smell. 

I would be totally grossed out by yucky pee/poop water too 

[avismama24]

He is almost a year but has "toddler poops". They are very easy to just shake into the potty. I think I am going to try keeping the open bin in the tub, but not soaking them and just placing the dirty diapers in the tub. It will make it a lot easier to get them to the laundry without disgusting water spalshing all over the bathroom, hallway, etc. Yuck! Thanks for the feedback!

[AmandaT]

I just wanted to add I have a bag like this and I love it because it means I don't have to touch any of the diapers to put them in the washer. I just dump them in,  turn the bag inside out, and wash it with them. 

HTH!

[rinap]

We wash every 2-3 days here, too, but back when we had a service it was once a week, and a covered bin makes a huge difference.

[katchie]

I tried to wrap my head around this too when I was pregnant, and have the diaper pail for soaking just like you. After my son was born, though, I found soaking just made things unnecessarily complicated and... gross (like we don't touch enough poop and pee in a day). When he was EBF, before solids and sticky poops, I would throw all the wet & dirty diapers in a wet bag that hangs in the bathroom. Every couple of days I would do a load of diapers, and would run a rinse cycle first to wash off the poo, before adding soap and starting a normal wash cycle.

Now that I have a toddler on my hands, after changing a dirty diaper I usually dump the poo in the toilet, wipe off the diaper a bit with some TP, toss in the wet bag and do the same washing process every couple days (rinse cycle first). Sometimes I don't even bother with the rinse cycle and they come out just fine. Also - now that he's in daycare, his babysitter doesn't even dump the poop out of the diapers. I just do this before washing, sometimes a day later. And we use cold water always. So I say "don't bother!" when it comes to soaking. 

[Choose2Reuse]

Hi, we used to soak our diapers because we washed them by hand (no washer in apartment) and it helped get the yucky stuff out.  However, now that we wash them in the washing machine, I just stuff 'em in a wetbag.  Later I empty them straight into the washer.  It saves a lot of mess that way.

If you're only washing once a week, though, they will get REALLY yucky if you put them in a wetbag.  I wash mine every other day and if it's hot, I try to do every day, because they get pretty stinky.  Maybe you could try putting the dipes in a wetbag and just throwing them in the washer more often?  I know it seems like a huge chore, but trust me--if you don't have to deal with the disgusting poo water every time, it's really not a chore anymore. :)

At the very least, it'll save time and yuck if you soak the poo dipes and the pee dipes in two separate buckets (that's what we used to do).

[MDoc]

We HAve a diaper squirter- it makes cloth diapering so much cleaner and not stinky at all. When the baby poops it all gets squirted right into the toilet then the diaper goes into the wet bag. Every other day the wet bag gets dumped into the washer. I soak the diapers for one hour in cold water then rinse and wash on hOt with charlies soap. Then hang in the sun whenever possible. This has worked wonderfully for us - no smells, no stains, no messes

[avismama24]

Thanks for all the good advice. I tried not soaking them and after two days the smell was so TERRIBLE in the bathroom that I went back to my soaking method of water, castille soap and tea tree oil, which has been doing a really good job of keeping the smell down.

I would wash more frequently but it is not really an option. We live in a 3 level townhouse, and the downstairs level which containe the washer and dryer is a small apartment. When my son was born 3 months early and i decided to stay home, we decided we should rent out the downstairs for the extra income so we now share the washer and dryer with the tenant. He is a bachelor and really flexible, but i only do laundry on Wednesdays and Sundays.....so those are the diaper washing days as well to be respectful of his space.

I need to figure out a good way to transport the soaking diapers down 3 flights of stairs to wash and dry them. This is really my only issue with cloth so far. The diapers are coming out clean, and good smelling, and my son loves them, and we are enjoying the saved $ plus feel good about not adding to the already full landfills!
 

[sweetBBkendall]

I don't soak. Going that long with them n yucky water does more harm than good - At least that's what I've found with my reusable menstrual products anyway. I've always just put diapers in a dry pail. I wash them about twice a week. And I've had no problems with cleanliness, they come out of the wash fresh n clean also I would highly suggest getting a diaper sprayer attached to the toilet. It does make a big diff!

[FillingMyQuiver]

avismama24, it sounds like your bin in the bathroom is open.  That could contribute to the smell you got when you tried not soaking.

When we first started cloth diapering (about 8yrs ago) we lived in an apartment and could only wash 2x/ week.  We used a flip top garbage pail from Target, lined it w/ a nylon laundry bag (we had 2 we alternated), and just dry pailed the diapers.

8 years later and this is still the method we use, and I don't even wash as frequently as I did in the past   Sometimes I don't wash for a whole week (only 1 in diapers, extra large capacity washing machine in our own home, 5 kids and homeschooling makes things crazy I don't have a wash schedule) and the smell from my pail is controlled.

You can also try making your own deodorant disks for the pail.

[mommyammons]

I know I'm a little late on this post, but what about emptying the water before you head down the stairs with them?

[avismama24]

Ha! Yes I do that....but the water is SO GROSS and it dribbles down the side of the container, and I have to touch every sopping wet diaper. I have come to terms with our arrangment  and just deal with the yucky water, the benefits of cloth and the savings for our family far outweigh the gross water. Many people claim they don't need to soak their diapers, but we find the stink to be to much when we don't soak them, as we can only wash them twice a week.