FRUGAL DIAPER-WASHING:
Thanks to Andrea for this Frugal Baby Tip!
Believe it or not, this is true. When Andrico was a baby and I was doing my undergrad, I was extremely poor. I did not own a washing machine, and did not have the money to spend on gasoline or wear and tear on my car to take diapers to the laundromat every couple of days (nor did I have $1.00 per load to wash them).
So.... I engaged in frugal diaper-washing. Yes folks, after I took a bath, I dumped Andrico's diapers in the cooling water to soak. A couple of hours later, I would come back and scrub them in the water, drain the water, and then rinse them out, IN COLD WATER. Despite claims one needs hot water and bleach to kill the germs that cause diaper rash, Andrico never suffered from diaper rash as a result of this procedure (although he did get it from eating berries and he did get a diaper rash on the one occasion I decided to try bleaching the diapers).
Furthermore, in the winter I simply hung the diapers on a wooden drying rack, in the apartment (in the summer I hung them outside).
BLEACHING DIAPERS IN THE SUN:
Thanks to Beth for this Frugal Baby Tip!
Here's my greatest tip. Always, dry cloth diapers outside in the sun. They come inside snowy white, deodorized, and smelling fresh. Then just throw them into the drier to fluff. Eliminates the need for bleach!
SOFT DIAPERS:
Thanks to Nancy for this Frugal Baby Tip!
A trick my mother passed on to me - to keep flat diapers softer when hung outside (which "bleaches" them nice and white in the sun - even old stains) hang two diapers together. Gauze diapers really stay soft this way. Diapers of any kind hung outside smell better!
DIAPER PAIL DEODORIZER:
Thanks to Lisa for this great Frugal Baby Tip!
I find that deodorant disks don't work well at all after about a week...
I have two pails - a "dry" diaper pail for cloth diapers -- I don't put them in a solution - I soak them overnight in Hydrox solution in the washer. Then another pail for misc. baby stuff - "disposable" diapers that I use occasionally, the odd "disposable" wipe when I run out of my homemade ones - but, I digress...
I can't remember who told me about it - but it really works -- I put in a dryer sheet - I cut them in half and put one in each pail. They just end up being washed if they are in cloth pail - I suppose if I was a fanatic I could use it as "poop catcher" in diaper... or thrown out if in trash pail. This was one tip that I found truly worked!!
Want to read even more
Frugal Baby Tips? (index)
