My Natural and Green Laundry Routine

I promised I would share with you how I keep my diapers clean and sanitary. Really I do all of my laundry approximately the same as my diapers so this is my “kill two birds with one stone” post.

First of all, I can’t stand all of the nasty chemicals and scents etc. that are in commercial laundry detergent/ products. We have been ridding our lives of everything chemically loaded why should we coat our clothes in them?

We separate out our clothes pretty simply. Clothes and Diaper covers go together and Diapers, wipes and rags go together. The clothes and diaper covers are washed in cold/cold cycles to preserve clothes and water resistance. Diapers, wipes and rags are washed in hot/cold cycles to sanitize.

We use Charlie’s Soap as our laundry detergent because it is naturally derived and rinses clean. It has no added scents or well anything really. It gets our clothes beautifully clean without anything added but . . .We have hard water. . Bad, nasty, difficult water that threatens to turn all of our clothes into burlap. Water softeners are expensive, one thing I realized, they are all essentially salt. So rather than spend a fortune on water softeners I decided to spend 59 cents and buy a can of salt. I now throw in about a teaspoon of salt in every load and BAM. No more hard water. So far our clothes are softer, the diapers are feeling more and more comfortable on the babies and I haven’t noticed any ill effects on our clothes. Every once in a while I will use vinegar in the rinse cycle as well as a fabric softener and in cloth diapers as sanitizer. Most of the time however I forget the vinegar, the washer doesn’t normally give me warning when the rinse cycle comes up.

Stains if treated quickly can usually be removed by one of three methods, I either 1. Let them soak in the sink and swish them around a few times before throwing the item in the washer (normally stain is pretty well gone when I throw it in the wash) 2. Rubbing a bit of baking soda into the stain to scrub it out or 3. This awesome stain remover made from ¼ cup of dish soap, 2-3 tbsp of vegetable glycerin, and about ½ cup of water mixed in a spray bottle this stuff rocks!

The one difference in the diaper loads is that we need to disinfect the diapers regularly as to not spread bacteria between the kids. To cloth diaper loads I add 10 or so drops of Tea Tree oil and about once a month I add a ¼ to ½ cup of lemon juice to sanitize and bleach them, leaving them to soak for about a half hour. This keeps our diapers fresh and mostly stain free. If I had the ability to line dry them this would accomplish all of this in one as sunlight is a natural disinfectant and bleaching agent!

When we pull things out of the washer Diaper Covers and Wet Bags, Wool items and Gentle Items (I.E. Bra’s) get thrown over the clothes line in the laundry closet the rest get thrown in our dryer with dryer balls I made with this tutorial from Kelly at ImperfectHomemaking. 

We usually fold the clothes when they come out of the dryer because I have nowhere to store unfolded laundry, but a lot of the time I really wish I had somewhere to toss it instead!!

Well that’s it, our lovely laundry routine! I hope you enjoyed our tour!

My Diaper Routine

My little Helper Abba Zaba Ready To Show You Our Diaper System

Today seems like a good day for diaper posts. We have been cloth diapering our kiddo's since my 1st was about a month old. (We actually planned to cloth diaper from the beginning, but we got disposables at the baby shower and decided to use them.) With now two in diapers, we have a busy system to run! While my stash is relatively small, it does what we need it to do.

We run off of 36 infant sized diapers (mostly Bummis Organic Cotton Prefolds), 4 One size Rumparooz Covers (for the toddler) and 8 Newborn Rumparooz Covers and Snappi's. I also cut up and blanket edged flannel baby blankets into 2 huggies boxes worth of cloth wipes. (Which my insane butt actually folds up accordian style to come out of the box just like disposable wipes too.) We use a premade diaper wipe solution (poured over the wipes in the box, which last about a week) that essentially we just add water to. But once I am out of the premade I am considering making my own wipes solution. For diaper cream I also make a really awesome coconut oil based cream (Which I will tutorialize next time I make it.) that cleans up almost every diaper rash we've had within a few short hours, and I will continue to make it long after my girls are diaper free because it works quite similarly to neosporin in our house!

 This is the way I like the basket to look,
Diapers neatly folded, diaper cream and doublers in the close side, neatly stacked . . .

 And this is how our diaper basket normally looks, what can I say we have 2 in diapers.

To review our diapers, I have to say we absolutely love our diapering system, I really don't think we need to add anything more than what we have (except to replace what gets worn out) until we either have more babies or if we ever go back to needing the laundrymat.

I know that some people use all in one diapers and even pocket diapers for their cloth stash and I actually made some of my own before Noodle Doodle was born and I found that they got very little use. While they work great and yes disposable similar, they tended to get dirty and then take forever to dry, while the prefolds took half the time and the covers are mostly reusable, wipe out the inside, throw them back on over the new clean prefold. Unless I had a large stash of all in one diapers it really wouln't be worth it to me. (and all in one's are expensive!) however if I ever did want to use just all-in-one diapers, I would definately use Rumparooz All-In-One Diapers.

Our Rumparooz covers are the best! They have elasticized side gussets that catch almost every mess our kiddo's can dish out, they are very well made to be adjustable and the material stays leak proof longer than others I have tried. I love the hook and loop variety because it makes diaper changes almost as quick as disposables, however they do make a snap closure version and I've noticed that my toddler moves around really freely as compared to some other kids in cloth.The only thing I don't like about them is the logo patch in the back will sometimes leak overnight with heavy wetting.

The other part of our system is Bummis Organic Cotton Prefold's which I have to say soak well, clean up fairly nicely, and don't wear out as fast as others, we had to replace several prefolds from another brand because they started turning into strings in the wash. We do have extra soaker pads that I sometimes (when I remember) use at night time, but other than nights I haven't had a ton of problems with my Bummis prefolds.

And finally the Snappi. While these little gems aren't completely necessary, they keep the prefolds from slipping around a moving kiddo. They were made to replace diaper pins with something a little safer, and they do. It is a rubbery y shape with grippers on the ends that holds the diaper at the waist and then lifts up the rise (between the legs) to keep that diaper snugly in place. And now on to the locale.

My apartment, for all it's downsides has an awesome upside, an amazing bathroom counter. We decided that we wanted to make sure our girls were changed regularly in the bathroom for toilet training ease. When I saw this counter, I was actually kind of excited! Changing diapers on the floor in the last place was a little difficult! I have a diaper basket full of most of our diaper supplies on the counter with a "pillow" washcloth (which will more than likely be obsolete when our younger baby gets a little older and I don't feel so bad about sticking her on the counter without padding) our wipes live on the side next to the sink. Any diaper blowups and mess is easily cleaned up with a smooth surface and the sink and wash materials at the ready. Our bathroom also serves as a hiding for our laundry closet, where I hang the girls covers on the line. (which is normally their home, mostly because the girls use them before they make them into the basket most of the time)

The Diaper Zone

Covers (and socks) on the Line.

On another day I will share our diaper laundering system, but for now disinfecting is important and line drying covers really preserves their life!

So there  you have it, our diapering station extraordinaire! I hope you enjoyed your tour!

Stephanie

Homemade Produce Bags . . Why pay $6.95 for three bags when I can make eight of them for $3?

Produce bags seem like a pointless project, I mean every grocery store provides plastic bags to carry your produce home right? But how often do you leave your produce in these bags in your fridge and have all of your food spoil?

I constantly was watching food spoil, I've heard that letting your produce breathe keeps this to a minimum, but a produce bag from the store won't let that happen!

Enter project: make simple produce bags to carry our produce, and store it in the fridge. We'll see how well they work in the next couple weeks.

These bags are so simple almost anyone can make them! I was impatient and spaced to take pictures while I was making them, but I don't think anyone really needs my amateur photo's to make these!

I bought a yard and a half of toole for $2.05. and had leftover jute yarn from a prior project, but you could really use just about anything to make a pull cord closure.

I cut the toole into rectangles, roughly a foot wide by 2 feet long. I then sewed a tube (for the closure) into one of the long sides. After that you fold the toole so that it is more square and sew the sides (except the tubed side) Run your ribbon through the tube and tie it so that it won't fall out. 

Ta Da!! Fabulous produce bags for almost nothing!!

Happy Projecting!

Stephanie