Evening Revelation

If there's one thing that I've learned over the years of working with different brands/styles of diapers and all the different detergents and routines is this.....it never hurts to try something different.  If it doesn't work, you just switch to something else....strip and start over.  AND if something works for you then stick with it....even if it doesn't work for everyone. 

Washing your cares away.

Now that we all know about the different variables that can affect your cloth diaper laundering, we can get more specific on how to wash and maintain your fluffy stash.  I'm going to start by talking about the types of pails to use to store your dirty diapers.  There are dry pails that consist of either a wet bag or an actual pail with a pail liner.  You simply toss your soiled diaper in the pail after flushing down any solids.  Then you take it to the washer on wash day and away you go!  This is recommended by most modern cloth diaperers.  Then there is the wet pail.  The wet pail is a pail that is filled with water to put your soiled diapers into.  Then you have to drain it out on wash day and fill again with fresh water.  The reason the wet pail was originally used was to help ward off the stinkies and stains that came when using the cotton prefolds/flats way back when.  This was because the washing machines or hand washing diapers was not as efficient or effective as machines and hand washing are now.  The wet pail is really not necessary now with the advances that we've had with diaper manufacturing and better machines, water quality and detergents.  The wet pail also poses some serious problems.  Having standing water can cause an increase in mold, mildew and foxing (foxing is the red, rusty colored stains that come from a build up of minerals from water with a combination of mold).  If you use a wet pail, it needs to be stored in a dry and cool area of the house.  The other problem with wet pails is that they are a potential drowning hazard.  Plus, the inconvenience of having to lug a heavy water-filled pail to the laundry room or having to take your diaper to the wet pail that's stored in the laundry room after every change (not recommended because of the heat and humidity in those rooms) seems like a big hassle to me.  Not to mention having to dispose of the water that is filled with human waste before laundering.  I would suggest that if you want to use a wet pail, to only do it with prefolds/flats.  Wet pails are very hard on modern cloth diapers that use PUL and other waterproof fabrics.  It is, however, your choice as to what type of pail works for you.


Every diaper style (and even each brand) will launder differently.  Prefolds, flats and fitteds can be laundered and dried at a higher temperature (as long as there are no snaps).  Plus you can use laundry aides that you can't use with PUL (like vinegar, borax, bleach, and other whiteners/brighteners).  I always suggest that if you do use these types of additives, that you fully wash and rinse afterward to make sure that there is no residue left that can irritate baby's bottom.  Personally, I stay away from these harsh chemicals except for vinegar.  Vinegar is my go-to cleaner for almost everything.  Pockets, AI2s, AIOs and Hybrids need to be laundered and more importantly dried at lower temperatures.  They require a little more finesse from your routine.


Laundry routines vary greatly for each person.  The number one thing that everyone needs to do (no matter what type of pail you use) is the first rinse.  This is very important.  It removes the bulk of soiled product from your diapers.  After that, the routines vary greatly.  Find what works best for you from warm or hot water used, water level in the washer, heavy or normal agitation, type and amount of detergent, and need for extra rinses.  Fell free to contact me if you want help finding that routine that works best for you (if I can't help, I know just the people who can!)


Diaper maintenance is a very important thing to do.  Some people believe that there isn't a need to strip diapers if you are washing perfectly every time, but the truth is that no one can wash perfectly every time.  Regular diaper maintenance will extend the life of your diapers and is a good thing to do to prevent problems from occurring.  Think of it like changing the oil in your car.  I try to 'maintain' my diapers once every 6 weeks unless needed sooner.  Your diapers don't have to smell or cause rashes to do a maintenance wash, but if they do cause rashes or smell bad then it is definitely time for it.  There are many different ways to strip diapers and, just like your wash routine, you need to find the one that works best for you.  I'm going to tell you about a few that I like to do.


The overnight soak:  This is very easy to do and great for those in between times when you don't have a problem with your diapers, but you want to maintain them.  The way that I do it is I do my first cold rinse.  Then I start my hot, heavy, full water wash cycle and I add twice as much detergent as I would with a normal wash.  Then I let the washer agitate for 1 or 2 minutes to get everything moved around and the detergent dispersed in the water.  I then leave the door open (or stop the cycle) and I let it sit overnight or about 8 hours.  I start the cycle again and let it run through.  After the first cycle is done, I start a second hot water cycle with no detergent in it.  To finish, I throw everything in the dryer or put everything in the sun to dry (depending on the weather and the time of year).  For those of you with an HE machine:  If you can't stop your wash cycle by the push of a button, you can always do an overnight soak in the bathtub.  To do that, fill your tub with hot water, your diapers and detergent.  Then swish it around to get the detergent distributed.  When your time is up, empty your tub and step on the diapers (with clean feet) to squish out excess water.  Take them to your washer and do a hot wash cycle.  If there are still bubbles or smells like detergent, then do an extra rinse or wash cycle.


The strip:  This is great to do when you have a problem or you sense that your diapers need a little more deep cleaning.  The way I do it is to start with my first cold rinse (I only skip this if I'm stripping diapers that are already cleaned and dry).  Then I start my hot, heavy, full water wash cycle and I add 1 teaspoon (yep, just a little tsp!) of Blue Dawn Dish soap to the washer.  *It is important to only use the blue colored Dawn; like what they use to clean off poor little ducks that get caught in oil spills.*  Then let your wash cycle go.  After the first cycle is done, you continue with a second hot wash cycle with no detergents.  Continue additional hot wash cycles until the rinse cycle runs clear with no bubbles.  For me, this usually takes 3-4 wash cycles.  Finish up by drying your diapers.  I like to do this every 4-6 months or so unless I have some problems because it is a little more labor intensive with all the extra wash cycles.  For HE users:  Add the dawn to your detergent area when the water is running through it just a few drops at a time and make sure that you don't exceed a tsp.


The boil:  Yes.  You can boil some things.  *DO NOT boil anything that has PUL or other waterproof materials, elastic, snaps or aplix.  You will melt your fabric and snaps if you boil them.*  What you can boil is your inserts with no snaps and prefolds/flats and other natural fabric diapers.  All you have to do is fill a large pot with water, put in your inserts/diapers in, and boil for 5 minutes (you can put a plate on top to weigh down the inserts so they can't float).  I always boil my hemp inserts.  It is the perfect way to prep hemp inserts and to maintain them because it gets the natural oils out that cause repelling and it thoroughly cleans them.


Maintaining your diapers will help ward off the dreaded 'stinkies' and it will keep them working like new.  I always love how soft and white my diapers come out as after a maintenance wash.  I also do a maintenance wash when I switch detergents or if I use a different washer (like when traveling).  Happy washing!!!

Let's talk laundry!

Every laundry routine is as unique as every family.  Even though it's great to hear from other people what works for them, it is still a trial and error that everyone needs to go through.  There are so many different things that can cause something to work for one person but not another.  So today I'm going to address some of these variables.

The first variable is your type of diapers.  Cotton and all natural fabrics will wash differently than man made fabrics like microfiber.  Prefolds, flats and fitteds will launder more easily than pockets, AI2s and AIOs.  This is because they are more often a natural fiber and they have no PUL fabric to content with.  Pockets, AI2s and AIOs are a little more finicky.  The typical microfiber, suede cloth or rayon made from bamboo tend to have more build up and stink problems than natural fibers.  Not only that, but they also have PUL or other kinds of waterproof fabric, elastic, and snaps or aplix that you have to be careful how hot they get and what types of chemicals they interact with.

Another thing that makes doing your cloth diaper laundry different is what type of washer you use.  The traditional top loader is favored among cloth diaper users.  This is because you can adjust the water levels easily.  You can also open it to look inside at the diapers and how they are getting cleaned.  The agitation is different compared to a front loader.  Front loader machines (or HE machines) are more efficient and use less electricity and water.  There are ways to 'trick' your front loader into adding more water.  You can add a soaking wet towel, which will add weight, to increase water and it will also give more texture for your diapers to agitate against.  You can also manually add water to the detergent fill area on some machines.  I haven't had much experience working with a front loading washer, so I can't really say if one is better than the other.  I just know that they are different.

One of the hardest things to figure out is the type of water.  Many things come into play when it comes to water.  The biggest one is hardness.  You can find out your water hardness level by contacting your local city offices or a local water treatment company.  There is also a map that you can check here.  Hard water will make it more difficult for your detergent to produce suds or to break down the oils and dirt on your diapers.  It can also cause mineral deposits from the hard water.  Another part of your water is the pH level and other additives.  Your city has guidelines as to what they add or how they process their water that has to be reported to the State.  You can contact your local city office for this information too.  You can rent or buy a water softener for your house.  This is a great choice because it will help you cut down on shampoos and soaps of all kinds and it will leave your skin and hair softer and less likely to have rashes or dry skin.  It will leave less build up on your appliances, counter tops, sinks, showers and tubs.  Your dishes and glasses will come out with no spots from your dishwasher.  If that is not an option, you can also buy cloth diaper detergents that are made specifically for hard water.

Now you have to decide what you want your washing routine to be like.  Every cloth diaper washing routine should include a rinse to start.  This helps wash out the excess ammonia build up and any solids that might be lingering.  Then you have to decide whether you want to do just one wash cycle or if you want to add an extra rinse at the end of that wash cycle.  Some detergents work better with an additional rinse; others don't need it.    This will also affect how often you need to do regular diaper maintenance too (meaning stripping or soaking your diapers.)  Regular diaper maintenance is a lot like maintaining your car.  You don't necessarily have to do it, but it will help avoid problems in the long run and it will keep your diapers newer, longer.

Another variable is how old your child is and what they eat.  This can make a big difference in how you do your cloth diaper laundry.  Exclusively breastfed babies have much easier diapers to take care of compared to formula fed babies.  There is little to no smell to breastfed baby waste, it doesn't stain, and it's a different, lighter consistency.  Once your child starts eating solids, your diaper routine will change again.  Solid food baby waste will vary as much as the food your child eats.  Some foods will make baby waste smell very acidic and heavy of ammonia.

The last variable is the weather and the phases of the moon.  OK, so I'm being a little tongue in cheek, but the weather can play part in how you wash your diapers.  Heat and humidity will make cloth diaper laundering difficult.  Smells will be more pungent and stains will seem to set faster.  Rainy days will also affect it too.  Sometimes random things will cause problems with your cloth diaper laundry and you just can't explain it, but it will solve itself before you can figure out what happened.

I look forward to sharing more about how to find a solution to your cloth diapering problems and different ways to strip different kinds of diapers later in the week!

Ruby Moon Detergent Review and Giveaway! - CLOSED

To round out this month celebration of my cloth diaper favorites is one of the most important things for cloth diapering parents besides the diapers.....Cloth Diaper Laundry Detergent!!!!

I stumbled upon Ruby Moon in my long search for different kinds of natural detergents.  I was drawn to Ruby Moon products because of her experience with mainstream detergents was like mine.  I also love to purchase WAHM detergents and lotions because I've found that they use high quality ingredients with allergies in mind.

We received our bag of Ruby Moon cloth diaper detergent in the scent of Sweet Clementine.  I loved how light, tangy and not too overpowering the scent was.  It is such a refreshing smell.  The powder is a nice fine powder and not sticky at all.

We are currently in an area that has moderate hard water but we have a water softener.  I tried out Ruby Moon and realized there was a big build up of minerals and other detergents from our extreme hard water at home.  It took two wash cycles with 2-3 tbsp of detergent each for the diapers to smell clean in the washer.  I was shocked to see them so white, but even better than that they were all so fluffy too!  I haven't found my normal routine with any of our detergents yet with the new water and washer, plus I think that the extreme heat and humidity doesn't help either.  I am so grateful to have the Ruby Moon though, because it has made stripping my diapers a breeze!  To strip with Ruby Moon I do my cold rinse, followed by two hot wash cycles with 2-3 tbsp of Ruby Moon in each.  They come out so clean, soft and smelling fresh.  It works so much better than any other way to strip that I've found, plus it takes less time and less washing and rinsing cycles!

Ruby Moon Natural Detergent has graciously offered one lucky reader a chance to win a bag of Ruby Moon detergent of their own!

To Buy:

Go to Ruby Moon Natural Detergent.

To Win:

Leave a comment below for each entry.

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4.  Tell me the scent of Ruby Moon that you'd like to try.

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(This is what the Google +1 button looks like.)

This giveaway will end August 1st, 2011 at 9:00 pm CST.  

Winner will be drawn via random.org.  Winners will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond before new winners will be drawn.  Giveaway is open to citizens of the US and Canada who are 18 years or older.  Only entries that follow the rules will be entered.  One set of entries per household.  Every entry is checked!

* Ruby Moon Natural Detergent was provided free of charge to me for the purpose of this review.  I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.  The opinions in this review are mine alone and were formed from my experience with this product.  My personal experience and opinions of this product may differ from your own.  Facebook is not affiliated with this Giveaway.  All information provided cannot be copied or reused without credit.  Use of photos without consent is strictly prohibited.

How we do wipes.

So, this week is wipe week.  We started our cloth diapering days by using those chemical filled disposable wipes.  It was such a hassle keeping a pail for the cloth diapers and then another bag or garbage bin for the wipes.  So we decided to figure out a better alternative after one week.

We thought about what we did with our daughter and I remembered that we used old baby washcloths with water on them because of all of her allergies.  So I found some cloth wipes online pretty cheap.  We went with just a standard flannel wipe with surged edges. We liked these.  We also splurged and bought a wipe warmer which became our changing table center piece!  Little Man loved having warm wet wipes on his bottom.  I can remember that he did the exact same thing his sister did when we would use the occasional cold wipe.....a loud high pitch gasp!

We used these flannel wipes in the warmer for a full year.  As our stash was increasing, we were finding ourselves running out of wipes.  I then got online again and found Charlie Banana Organic Cotton Wipes.  These are amazing!  I loved how well they worked with the warmer and how soft they were.  They also really did the job on big messes and felt like they thoroughly cleaned the diaper area.  I think that they would even make really great makeup remover cloths!  The only drawback was that they required a lot of prep.  It took at least 4 washes before they would absorb any water.  We use them with our flannel wipes, but are thinking about retiring the flannel and adding new wipes to our stash.

We have tried flannel and organic cotton wipes.  We like them both, but prefer the organic cotton because they are thicker and softer.  Next I think I want to try terry wipes.  The GroVia wipes are the ones that I think I'll go with next.  They are a great price and they have a nice feel to them.  There are many great wipes out there though.  I hear wonderful reviews of the Bummas wipes and assorted WAHM wipes.

Wipes are very easy to make yourself.  All it takes is a nice natural fabric cut into 8 inch squares.  You can then surge them.  You can make them double sided by putting two together inside out and sewing around the edges leaving a little opening.  Then you turn it right side out and hand stitch the opening.  You can get really fancy and sew around the edges to finish it off.

We swore by our cloth wipes being used with just warm water.  We would also use the occasional corn starch for redness.  That is, until we found Cloth Diaper Inc.'s Natural Wipe Spray!  I was surprised how it not only cleans the area really well, but it leaves it so soft and takes away any redness.  It is just so different from other wipe sprays because it has no alcohol or soap in it.  All it has is witch hazel and essential oils.  I think it's the perfect combination!

What is your favorite wipe?  Do you use something other than water?  I'd love to hear about your wipe routine!

Let's Rock It! - CLOSED

Happy Birthday to Me!  Happy Birthday to Me!  

Yep....it's my birthday today (and it's a big one too)!
It's my Golden Birthday!  

I want to celebrate it by posting

My very first Review

and

.....drumroll, please......

Giveaway!!!!!!!!!

I was blessed with the opportunity to check out some awesome scents from my favorite cloth diaper detergent manufacturer.  I have to admit that I am a little biased when it comes to Rockin' Green.  They are the only cloth diaper specific detergent that I have used and I am hooked.  I have never been very adventurous though, so we've only bought Bare Naked Babies (the unscented version).

I just love how Rockin' Green has used references to music in their products.  From formulas ranging from Soft Rock, Classic Rock and Hard Rock (for soft to hard water) and using a play on the names of different rock bands for their scents.  Rockin' Green sent me samples of their Hard Rock 2.0 in Rage Against the Raspberries, Smashing Watermelons, and Mighty Mighty Marshmallow to try out and review.  I was excited to try them all....it made doing laundry for the next two weeks very exciting!

I started with the Mighty Mighty Marshmallow.  I thought that it would be a really sweet smell.  To my surprise, it wasn't overpowering at all.  It was a very light, sweet and tart smell.  It was a very clean smell.

Next was Smashing Watermelons.  I was expecting it to be a light summery smell, but it was more sweet than I thought it would be.  It smelled like watermelon candy.

I saved my favorite scent for last.  I've always been a fan of raspberry smells.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I opened the bag.  It was a very lovely raspberry scent!

I loved standing by the washer as it filled because the smells would waft up into the room.  When pulling the damp diapers out of the washer, I noticed that the smells were gone.  It just smelled clean like our Bare Naked Babies does.  After drying, they still just smelled clean.  I liked that the scents didn't linger.

Rockin' Green does such an amazing job of taking care of our cloth diapers.  We love it so much that we use it on everything.  I love how fluffy my towels get after coming out of the wash!  Plus, we love the staff over at Rockin' Green.  They are amazing at trouble shooting those stubborn problems and helping to set up a great wash routine that meets your individual needs.  Their customer service is above and beyond what you normally find these days.  They really do rock!

To Buy It:

Head over to Rockin' Green where you can purchase directly or

check out where to find your local retailer.

Need to know which formula you need?  They can help!

To Win It:

One lucky person will win their own bag of 

Rockin' Green detergent from Rockin' Green!


All entries must follow the rules or they will not be posted.
I do check every entry, so please play fair.

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Comment Below Please

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Rockin' Green will send the lucky winner a 45/90 bag of their choice.

This giveaway will end February 14, 2011 at 9:00 pm CST.  Winner will be drawn via random.org.  Winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be drawn.  Giveaway is open to US and Canada citizens who are 18 years or older.

I was provided samples at no cost by Rockin' Green to try and review.  I was not provided monetary compensation for this review in any way.  The information provided is my own personal opinion.