This post was written for inclusion in the Freedom of Cloth Carnival hosted at Natural Parents Network by Melissa of The New Mommy Files and Shannon of The Artful Mama. This year’s carnival will run from Sunday, July 3rd through Saturday, July 9th. Participants are sharing everything they know and love about cloth diapering, including how cloth has inspired them.
***
I have a confession:
Soap nuts are a big fat fail with my cloth diapers.
I know. I know. I gushed and I gushed.
But, they are a fail. A big.fat.fail.
Are you disappointed?
Did you buy into my hype? If so, I do still love soap nuts for our regular laundry. Our clothes are soft and our whites are white. But, after about 6 months of washes with soap nuts, my pockets diapers are not functioning properly and were recently subjected to a looong day of stripping with blue Dawn dish soap and lots of hot water rinses to stop the repelling and leaking through the PUL.
So, we are back on the homemade laundry detergent. And, I have to admit, I am really loving it. Loving it so much that I'm not really sure why I ever switched the diapers over to soap nuts.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Right?
Right.
My homemade "diaper friendly" laundry detergent:
Equal parts --
Borax
Washing powder
OxyClean (I buy off-brand)
1. Mix all ingredients.
2. Use 1 OxyClean scoop of mix per cloth diaper wash.
Seriously. This stuff couldn't be easier. Or cheaper. Or more convenient to dump into a big mason jar and proudly proclaim to have made your own laundry detergent!
***
Visit Natural Parents Network for the most up-to-date news on the Freedom of Cloth Carnival!Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants on the following themes. Articles will go live on the scheduled theme day:
- Sunday, July 3rd, 2011: Cloth Related Recipes — Writers share their best cloth-related recipes and tutorials.
- Monday, July 4th, 2011: Choosing Your Cloth Style — Today’s posts discuss parents' individual journeys to finding the cloth diapering "style" that best suits their families.
- Tuesday, July 5th, 2011: Cloth Diapering Must Haves — Parents talk about the most important items in their diapering “stash” and why they love them.
- Wednesday, July 6th, 2011: Wordless Wednesday, Inspired by Cloth — We asked parents to share their favorite cloth-related photo with us and turned them into a fluffy Wordless Wednesday photo montage on Natural Parents Network. Link up your own Wordless Wednesday post there!
- Thursday, July 7th, 2011: Cloth Through the Stages: From Infancy to Potty Independence — Today’s participants explain how cloth diapering has served their families throughout one or more stages of their children’s lives.
- Friday, July 8th, 2011: Cloth Troubleshooting and Laundry Day — Seasoned cloth diapering parents share their best tips and tricks for handling common cloth problems and tackling the diaper laundry.
- Saturday, July 9th, 2011: Inspired by Cloth — For today’s theme, we’ve asked writers to explore the ways cloth diapering has inspired them to become "greener" overall.
9 comments:
I totally just tried this detergent recipe tonight. And I'll admit that even though I didn't *need* to do a load of cloth laundry tonight, I did anyway, just to test out my new detergent.
This is definitely by far the simplest detergent recipe I have ever seen! I have never made my own because products are so hard to find in our isolated island home, but these are all things I have on hand, and know where to find more of! I may just have to give this a shot!
I totally agree on the Soap Nuts not being good for my cloth diapers. I am still trying to fix them right now! This is really simple and I am so glad that people are loving your recipe.
Glad yall like the detergent recipe! I originally grated a bar of castile soap into it but one day I was too lazy to do that step so I left it out and was perfectly pleased with the results.
I do feel the need to add that diaper detergent success seems largely based on water type and specific conditions related to your cloth diapers.....my little disclaimer :)
I never used soap nuts on my diapers, but I didn't like them at all on my clothes.
I am not using my homemade detergent right now (we have awful water and I have to switch up my detergents regularly to avoid problems) but I agree, couldn't be easier!!!!
I really want to try making our own laundry detergent -- not for diapers anymore, but just our regular clothes (though I may have to look into soap nuts, as well). What's holding me back right now is my inability to find washing soda! Where do you get yours? Grocery stores and Target don't have them here, I need to expand my search!
Don't you hate it when the soap causes diaper malfunction?! Glad you found a solution!
I'm totally going to try this! I'm so excited! Why am I this excited about laundering raunchy dipes at 12:30 in the morning??
Hey, how much do you use each load?
Kristin, I found the washing soda at my local Kroger. It's at the end of the aisle by the hot dogs :) Our WM doesn't have it and we don't have a Target nearby so I can't attest to that.
Sarah, I use the scoop that comes in the OxyClean. It's a pretty arbitrary amount but works well for me.
Post a Comment