washing cloth nappies...

I wash mine first thing in the morning, Daniel gets up, and I throw all the washing in, and wait for DH to get up then it goes on.

Ecostore, next generation and persil are the best brands to use for washing powder. Others tend to cause build up in the fleece, some faster than others.

If you want it to smell fresh you can use dettol laundry liquid, canastan (sp??) or tea tree oil. I very rarely have to use any of these.

I do a load of nappies in the morning. Do the rinse cycle on the nappies first then add all the other clothes etc to the standard wash. We use Ecostore and put some of the Dettol Laundry sanitiser in the fabric softener dispenser.
We have never had a problem with not getting stains out (any that don't come out in the machine will be gone after a few hours in the sun) and the nappies always come out smelling clean and fresh.

Thanks, this is good advice...

Are there different kinds of persil and ecostore powders, are some better than others?

Also, u rinse the pooey nappies, right... do you rinse just the wet ones? And when you store them in a bucket, are you meant to soak them or just leave them? I know people do different things but I want to get an idea of what works for some people and why they like it...

Yup, we dry pail our nappies here too. I put a little flannel in the bottom of the nappy bucket with tea tree oil on it to keep her room smelling fresh.

We now flush any solid matter (ahem..poos) in the toilet, but before Sam was on solids and it was runny I just dry pailed those as is. (after removing the insert from the pocket nappies). We always did a rinse cycle first in the machine with those ones & the wipes.

I have to admit that I was a bit squeamish about all this at the beginning, but now don't even blink at it.

There is only one kind of Ecostore powder and a Ecostore liquid, but many types of the other brands. We used to use Persil sensitive but we still found it resulted in a build up and leaking nappies so tend to stick with the Ecostore now as it is seems to be the one most recommended by the nappy manufacturers.
Also the Ecostore is great to use on Samantha's clothes with her Ezcema.

I know it all sounds confusing and a bit scary to start with but after a couple of times you will be an old pro at it like the rest of us

kebakat wrote: I never rinse my nappies..

i've always wondered about this - do you not worry about pooh in the machine?

I rinse poo nappies, dont bother with wet ones. Dry pail. Wash every couple of days - I use ecostore liquid and dettol fresh in the rinse. Sometimes if I just have a few to wash I will cuck them in with the clothes. If there are a few pooey ones (rinsed) I will do a pre-rinse. In winter I wash at night and dry on rack by the fire overnight, but in nice weather I wash in the morning and leave them out on the line for the day.

On the rinsing poo naps thing - I tried not rinsing a few times, but had tipped the solids down the loo - but there where bits left in my machine so never did it again!!

Ecostore you can get liquid and powder have tried both and don't have a preference. Ecostore works in top loaders and front loaders you just use a different amount depending on which you have. I have a front loader but then only use half the amount recommended when I wash nappies. (could probably use full amount but two nappy stores have said to use half so thats what i do).
I use a dry pail, sometimes i rinse poos and sometimes I don't. Although the other day I had not done any nappies for 3 days and I put pooey ones in the machine and poo ended up in the door seal I had to put them through a couple of rinse cycles to get rid of it and then I had to clean the door seal to make sure it had all gone so that has put me off doing it again.
I don't rinse wet ones and I sometimes just chuck normal clothes in as well, seems a shame to run a cycle with a half full machine.

Ecostore does seem expensive but you only need a little bit so per wash it actually works out cheaper, you can also buy in bulk off their website. The tea tree oil you only need to use one or two drops so a little bottle should last forever.

You can also get a sample pack from Ecostore Website for free... and it has a $2 off coupon with it so it does make it cheaper... and a little goes a LONG way!

Ooo I wish they had that stuff up with me! Although I did get a LOT of samples from the parents show!