Obsession in the Making

These things should come with a warning: HIGHLY addictive! If you remember from my previous post HERE, my mother in law helped me make our own pocket style snap cloth diapers and soakers. At that point, we were still using a disposable diaper for overnight. The handmade diapers did really well for the first 3 months or so and then I noticed they were leaking around the leg elastic and had started to smell a bit even when fresh from the laundry.
I've been trying to nail down my specific laundry routine and I think I've finally got it perfected. I start with a cold wash using 1 Tbs detergent (We use All Free & Clear) with 1/6 C. powdered Calgon water softener. I then follow that with a hot wash using 2 Tbs detergent and 1/2 C Calgon and an extra rinse. Thanks to Kelly Wels and her amazing team over at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer, I now know that we have extremely hard water - 14 grains- and the Calgon is necessary to really get the diapers clean. It's also necessary since we use a front loading HE washer which weighs the laundry to determine how much water is needed for the load. Cloth diapers are so absorbent that when the water goes in it all gets soaked up by the diapers, and doesn't really leave any water to do the actual cleaning.

We were using our dryer back when we were only using the handmade diapers and it was getting the job done for us. Then I bought this lot of BumGenius 3.0's (24 diapers, 24 doublers, 24 newborn soakers, 5 Hemp soakers and a diaper pail) through a lady on Craigslist and she had always dried her diapers by hanging them in a sunny window. The sun acts as a natural bleaching agent and helps to keep your diapers looking great and the diaper isn't being tumbled around pulling on the Velcro of the others and stretching the elastic out. So, as you can see, I used the window in Talia's room (which is really more a playroom/closet for her than anything since she sleeps in our room) to make a makeshift clothesline. Now we save the extra money our dryer would be using to dry these lovelies. you can also see the pail liner I made from PUL (Polyurathane Laminate fabric). This goes in our step pedal metal trash can that Jake's parents got Talia for her birthday and with two, there's usually one in the laundry and one in use.

Even though I really love our BG's, I really miss the pretty prints of our handmades. That being said, I can see myself slowly building quite a stash of beauties. We will definitely be using cloth for our next little one and that will give me a chance to buy some beautiful diapers that are in a newborn size...Now if we could just get working on that little one... =)

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