How to: Cloth Nappies

Cloth nappies can seem a little overwhelming at first. How do i wash these? WTF is a dry pail? Do I have to use reusable wipes? I get it, its alot in the beginning. So here is a bit of info to get you started.

Firstly some terms for you to get to know:

• Outer shell - the colourful part which serves as the waterproof layer called pul material.

• Inserts - the (usually) white bit of material you put inside or placed on the outer shell which is the absorbent part.

• Wet-bags - bag with zippers in all different sizes used for clean or dirty nappies, wipes, clothes, whatever you need.

• Wipes - similar to one time use wipes but are material which can be washed and reused.

• Dry Pail - a bucket, basket anything with lots of holes for air flow, (think laundry basket) which you place your dirty nappies in.

Now for the dry pails, you have a dry pail for straight off the bum, you have one for after they have gone through a daily pre wash and are waiting for a main wash and one for once they have had their main wash and are now clean.

Here's my step by step on how to wash.

You have just taken your babies cloth nappy off and now what do you do? Here's my little step by step.

1. Toss any poos that can easily come off the nappy into the toilet.

2. Put nappy including any reusable wipes straight into first dry pail (no soaking or rinsing needed)

3. Do that for all nappies throughout the day and night.

4. Once it is time for a prewash (every 1 or 2 days), place all the nappies from that first dry pail into the washing machine for an hour to 1.5hr wash.

5. Once they are done put that load into your second dry pail.

6. Once you have about 3 or 4 days worth of prewashed nappies put them into the washing machine for about a 3 hour wash on 60°.

7. Once that is done either hang them out to dry or you can place everything but the outer shell and wetbags into the dryer. Anything made of pul material such as the wetbags and outer shells will eventually get destroyed in the dryer.

8. When all your nappies are dry, you can either make them all ahead of time or just make them as needed.

Washing the nappies is the really important part, the rest of it is all up to you. You don't have to use reusable wipes, you also don't have to do cloth nappies full time. You could use them just by day and disposable by night or vice versa. Use them at home and not on holidays. There are no rules, do what works for you, and don't feel bad about it.

Every environmentally friendly step you make, creates a difference.