Yesterday I took a tally of all of my diapers. I have a lot! Enough to not wash every 2 days, but I end up doing it anyway. Why, you ask? Because my stupid diaper pail is so small. Only 2 days worth of diapers fit.
The manufacturers of cloth diapers suggest washing every 2 days to keep the diapers in good condition. Who has time for that? Now I am wondering if I should buy a larger pail to hold more diapers. I am conflicted!
The smaller pail keeps me on my toes, I will never run out of diapers on my wash schedule. If I start going longer I could end up waiting too long. And there is the possibility of harming the diapers.
So what to do?
How often do you wash your diapers? Is it because your pail is full, you are running low, or other reasons?
I have a standard kitchen trash can with a top for my diaper bin, and usually wash every 3 – 4 days (sometimes 5 days, shhh…). I am using the same diapers for my second child, so no discernible degradation in the quality of the diapers that I can tell. The only exception is my medium-sized Bummis Super Whisper covers. The elastic was shot, but I think that’s just from the long use that they got for the first kid.
I was usually 2 times a week, with 2 kids. I usually wash bc the pail is full.
I have to wash every day but sometimes I can stretch it to every 2 days (and it sucks a lot) for the following reasons
1. Not enough night time diapers. Still building up my stash of these.
2. Pail is full after two days.
3. Not enough diapers for daycare, I only bring AIOs and pockets to daycare and I only have enough for one full day. Still building my stash up for those.
4. Hard water and so-called eco-friendly washing machine means I have to rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse to get all the soap out. The washing machine is actually not eco friendly at all. It uses less water in a wash so I actually have do smaller loads and more than one rinse cycle, so I actually use more energy and more water.