I’ve been wanting to do an update on how cloth diapering is going now that we’ve been doing it for over a year. It took a while for us to get in to our routine of when and how we wash our dipes but now that we have it down cloth diapering feels pretty easy. Routine = my happy place. 

Yes, we do a lot of laundry with cloth diapers but it’s just part of our weekday activities along with unpacking Dashiell’s bag from day care and getting dinner ready. Honestly, I don’t really notice the extra laundry and it’s a chore I find to be satisfying, it’s definitely not my least favorite.

I love the way Dashiell’s cloth diapers fit him much better than disposables, they’re such fun colors (I want to add the new Picadilly Circus pattern to our collection!) and we’ve never had any leaks. We’re definitely looking forward to also cloth diapering baby #2 (so many diapers y’all!).

A few months ago, we also settled into a consistent washing system and it’s keeping us stocking in clean, non-funky smelling diapers. Previously, I wasn’t consistent with using hot or cold water or pre-rinsing or pre-soaking. I could never tell what worked the best so I was always changing it up and the lack of a system stressed me out a little. And it seemed that we were getting ammonia build up in our diapers so that would be a bit smelly. But no more! A friend who also cloth diapers shared her washing system and it’s working well for us, too.

Here’s what our cloth diaper washing routine looks like:

+ Wash diapers every two days.

+ Throw wet diapers into the wet bag without rinsing, rinse off poo diapers with the diaper sprayer before putting in wet bag. 

+ To wash: pre-wash diapers in hot water with no detergent; then wash diapers in hot water with two scoops of Hard Rock Rockin’ Green detergent (other varieties available for soft or normal water) and one scoop of Funk Rock. Dry outside in the sun on a drying rack, or hang to dry overnight inside under a ceiling fan, or dry in the dryer.

+ Every week-ish or so, soak in Funk Rock to stave off ammonia build-up. After the hot water pre-wash, add two scoops Funk Rock and fill the washer with hot water, let agitate a few times and then turn off and leave to soak for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight. Then proceed with detergent wash.

As I mentioned in this post about cloth diapering, we primarily use the Bum Genius Freetimes. They are awesome and what I would recommend to anyone interested in cloth diapering. We also have some older Bum Genius diapers that I bought used. I don’t like them as much because they take longer to dry and don’t wic moisture but having the extra diapers is great.

Inside of a Bum Genius Freetime dipe

We use flannel cotton wipes with water for wiping. Dashiell’s changing pad is set up on our bathroom counter to it’s easy to wet a cloth wipe in the sink and clean him up. At night, we use a disposable diaper although I’ve been wanting to try cloth again but am hesitant to do anything to disrupt Dashiell’s amazingly consistent sleep!

Using cloth diapers has been part of our routine for long enough now that it feels easy. I’m glad we’ve found a consistent washing system before doubling the dirty diapers in our house!