Why in the world would anybody be interested in washing diapers by hand? Well, there are some of us that temporarily use laundering facilities. Honestly, when you can buy a case of diapers at Walmart for $20 and compare that to the amount you spend to wash a load of cloth diapers at a mat, it really does have you wonder if you are cloth diapering for cost-efficiency or if the health nutty earth moms' exploitation of cloth diapering turned it into a trend for you.
I am a health nutty hippy mom myself, but I am also more so of the camp that refuses to let go of the budget-friendliness of cloth diapering. I just can't spend $30 a diaper that I would actually use, and in the same sense I just can't spend $30 a week on cleaning diapers! Even when we did own a washing machine before cloth diapering, I would limit its usage, and so adding diapers into the load adds amounts of time I'd have to use it and my head would be counting the costs. Simply, I had to learn to successfully hand wash my diapers.
Since I've been doing it in this way for nearing a month and we have had zero stink, zero stains, and zero infections, I figured what we are doing is very doable and so here is the way our house makes the most of cloth diapering, keeping it eco-friendly and budget-friendly. This method is essentially equipment-free cleansing, it does not require a plunger or other device, just your hand. Truly, a hand washing and agitation method.
Prepping
Since dry time without a dryer took a tad longer than...a dryer, I had to invest in a few more prefolds for my PUL covers, so I wouldn't run out of diapers while awaiting ones to dry. This meant I had to put a well known non-machine prep method to the test: boiling. I purchased both bamboo and unbleached cotton prefolds. The instructions for prep mentioned natural oils in the material that need to be broken down. Logically, I just thought what it was essentially saying is that you need a degreaser -- a sulfate. Now, we don't own any chemical sulfates in our house, but our dishsoap does use a plant-based one. So, I boiled the diapers in dishsoap water for 30 minutes, let them cool down, rinse really well (to get as much soap out as I could), then I did a second boil in straight water to release the remainder of the dishsoap out of them. Ta-da. Prepped diapers. I know they prepped correctly because those bamboo ones have lasted a minimum of 4 hours between changing.
Washing
Okay so before I even wash, I immediately rinse the diaper I just took off of baby. Since correct cleansing without a machine is greatly dependent upon the soak, I had to rinse the diapers of urine to ensure they aren't soaking in urine, tainting the cleanse. All I really do is run faucet water into the prefold to its max absorbency and squeeze out, flip to the other side and do the same thing. I repeat this twice and throw into the baby's bathtub for a soak. I use baby's bathtub because it is a water-saver.
As for the detergent -- as of this moment we had been using Trader Joe's pH balanced plant-based regular laundry detergent. I only need 1-2 T for her baby tub. My goal this week is to develop my own laundry soap that I can use instead; howbeit, it cannot be predominately baking/washing soda like most others, because bamboo breaks down in high pH. I'm sure that soap invention will make its way into a post sometime -- stay tuned. In the soapy tub, I knead each diaper for a couple of minutes like I would bread dough -- I consider it practice for my once-a-week challah making. I then let it soak all day until after dinner. I wring the diapers out and repeat the faucet rinse I mentioned above to get the detergent out (run water over one side to its fill, squeeze, repeat on other side, repeat each side again).
Final Rinse
From my days of being below the poverty line, as well as my days in Spain and Costa Rica -- times when I did not have a dryer -- I learned that hang drying creates stiff clothes. So for this purpose, a fabric softener comes in handy. Of course you would not use one on your cloth diapers, but an excellent alternative is vinegar. Likewise, vinegar will also further sanitize. My second soak (which lasts until I go to bed) is in vinegar/water in the tub as my final rinse soak. I knead the diapers once again to get the vinegar in there and the remainder soap out of there. Before I go to bed I will wring out and do the faucet rinse mentioned above. I do not put my covers in a vinegar rinse, as I read that vinegar will break down the PUL.
Drying
This is simple. I keep them on a rack overnight and then throw them on my car's dash in the morning and they are dry in a matter of a couple of hours. The sun is whitening and sanitizing. In the overcast days (which we do see in Washington), I keep them on the rack and will use the fan or throw them in front of the heater and they are dry in a little over an hour.
It really does not take up that much time to knead a diaper and wring it, etc. Don't be intimidated by all the instructions of needing x amount of washes for a good prep or machine washing. It wasn't too long ago that cloth diapers were the only option and not too long before that hand washing was the only option as well. We didn't always have machines and, hey, it worked out. I am determined that it can still work out.
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