10 Cloth nappy washing tips

There are so many suggestions out there for how you should, or shouldn’t wash cloth nappies, that it can be a little overwhelming. To try and make it a little easier, I thought it might be a good idea to share some of our cloth nappy washing tips with you. Here are our top ten cloth nappy washing tips.

Cloth nappy washing tips

1. Rinse your nappies. It’s a good idea to rinse you nappies before you wash them, this will rinse out urine so that the water you wash them in is clean. A quick pre-wash or rinse in cold water is enough to do this.
2. No need to soak. You can soak our cotton pre-folds if you like, but you don’t need to. Water on it’s own will help to rinse things out, or you can add a few drops of tea tree oil to it.
3. Smelly nappies need water. If you have very smelly nappies, (the eye burning, ammonia smell) then rinsing them as soon as you change them in lots of water should help to get rid of the problem.
4. Wash hot or cold. You can wash our nappies hot, warm or cold, they will even withstand boil washing if you want to, although there is no need to do this.
5. A full scoop of powder. Use the full, recommended dose of washing powder or liquid. As long as it is fully rinsed out, then it won’t cause any issues. Check the final rinse for bubbles to check that it has all been rinsed out.
6. No need for special powder. Try to avoid powders with optical brighteners, but most main stream washing powders will work fine on your cloth nappies.
7. No fabric softener. Fabric softener works by coating the fibres, so that they feel soft. Unfortunately this stops the nappy from absorbing properly, so you should not use fabric softeners, or detergent containing them on your cloth nappies.
8. Covers dry quickly. Our nappy covers dry very quickly once out of the machine. You should never need to tumble dry them. The covers also shouldn’t be soaked.
9. Line dry when you can. Drying your nappies on the washing line helps them to get cleaner, the suns rays get rid of stains. It’s also better for the environment than a tumble drier, although using one won’t damage your ecobots nappies.
10. A sock airer is handy. A little sock airer is really handy for nappy covers, smaller pre-folds and other small items like breast pads. If you’re not sure what one is, have a look at this picture, you can usually pick them up for a few dollars.

Washing cloth nappies

Washing cloth nappies shouldn’t be stressful. Keep it simple and don’t worry too much about the right or wrong way to do things, as long as it’s working for you. The great thing about cotton pre-fold nappies is that they are pretty much bomb proof and can withstand most types of washing.

You can make washing even less stressful by adding extra cloth nappies to your stash. Our infant pre-folds are currently buy one pack, get one free here.