Reading Time: 4 minutes Cloth Diapers With Other Laundry Is Not Necessary
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Have you thought to yourself, can I wash cloth diapers with my other laundry? Putting cloth diapers with poop in them in the washing machine sounds scary, gross, and disgusting.
The idea of mixing dirty cloth diapers in the washing machine with the rest of the family’s laundry is even more disgusting.
There’s good news, you do not need to wash poop filled cloth diapers with your family’s clothes. You have a few other options that we will explore in this post.
For a detailed guide on how to clean cloth diapers please see our post on Best Ways to Clean Cloth Diapers.
Table of Contents
There are several options to consider when washing your poopy cloth diapers
- Wash the cloth diapers with poop with the rest of your laundry
- Wash the poopy cloth diapers as their own load
- Send the poopy diapers off to a cloth diaper cleaning service
Let’s look at each of these options
Wash the cloth diapers with poop with the rest of your laundry
This sounds gross. Not recommended. Don’t do this.
Wash the poopy cloth diapers as their own load
Unless you have several children wearing cloth diapers at once, this is rather inefficient. You will need to do laundry often.
There is a hack to this though.
Cloth Diaper Laundry Hack: Apartment size washer for cloth diapers
You don’t need to use your full size washing machine. Instead consider buying a small apartment sized spin washing machine. There are some significant benefits to doing this.
- You avoid mixing poop with your laundry! This is probably more psychological than anything, but it’s a real deal breaker for many people.
- You save on water and wear and tear on your washing machine. Considering how much laundry you will be doing, this is a big win.
- You can sell the washing machine when you are done with it
Here are a few of our favorites:
You’ve eaten dehydrated fruit, and it’s still real fruit. Earth Breeze Laundry Sheets are along the same lines. They’re actual laundry detergent but made in eco-friendly sheets. They’re just dehydrated laundry sheets that come in cardboard envelopes.
This compact washer will be perfect if you’re concerned with the idea of poop being left behind in your full size washer, you can dedicate this machine to your cloth diapers.
Dryer: If you want to avoid the wear and tear on your full size machines, and you don’t want to air dry your cloth diapers, this machine is what you need. It’s not big and bulky, works efficiently, and will have resale potential when you’re done.
This machine is a washer and a spinner in one. The wash function is high power, and also contains a filter to remove lint and debris. The spinner feature helps to pull most water from the clothes, similar to a tradition washing machine.
Without spending a lot of money, you can have a dedicated non full size machine for your cloth diaper. This option may offer you piece of mind if you’re concerned about poop on your family’s clothes.
Send the diapers off to a cloth diaper cleaning service
With cleaning services, you get the benefits of cloth diapering with the extra laundry! If your objective with using cloth diapers is to save money, this isn’t the best choice.
If you’ve decided cloth diaper to be more environmentally friendly, and to avoid harsh chemicals on your baby, and you are looking to save time, then this is a great choice.
These services are not as prevalent as they were in the 70’s and 80’s. You will find more of these services in more urban areas with a quick internet search. Most services offer tier services at varying prices, this will allow you to get the perfect fit for your family.
Cloth diaper services will deliver clean diapers to you on a schedule you decide. Then they pick those diapers up a few days later once they’re soiled, and deliver new clean diapers.
These companies take care of soaking, washing, and sunning your dirty diapers before bringing them back clean again.
You can choose to use your traditional machine
If you’re buying a machine specifically for your diapers, or paying for a service isn’t an option, you can use your traditional washing machine. It’s not very often that poop or residual partials are left behind.
Similar to if you washed a load of laundry after your kids played in the mud, your washer isn’t caked in mud. But if you would rather have piece of mind, you can use washer cleaning tablets once a month to ensure the inside of your machine is clean, and poop free.
Here is our favorite.
Bottom line
If the idea of mixing poopy diapers with your laundry is gross to you. You don’t need to do it. You can wash your dirty nappy’s by themselves in the washing machine. Or you can buy a small apartment sized washing machine.
This latter option puts less wear and tear on your full size washing machine and you can sell it a few years later when your kids are out of cloth diapers.
Happy fluffing!
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