It's prepping day!
...I actually went to the hospital last night, but sadly it was only early labor so they sent me home. Now I'm prepping to pass the time until I see my doctor later today...
1. First, I separated my natural fibers from my synthetic fibers.
*You do not want to prep these together because the natural fibers have natural oils - that need to be washed away before use - that could transfer onto your synthetics (and cause repelling/leaks) if you washed them together.
**Some people don't believe this is actually true and have conducted their own tests to "prove" that they can be prepped together - claiming that the oils wash away from the synthetics in that initial wash as well - but I'm not willing to take that risk...I figure I better get used to the extra time I'm going to be spending doing this anyway ;)
***Make sure you use a diaper safe detergent. I'm just using the cheap "All" free and clear brand.
Prepping natural fibers:
1. I don't know if this is necessary in prepping, but since I have a front loading HE machine (uses less water in washes) I decided to give my natural fibers (which are mostly inserts) a cold rinse with no spin before washing them so that they would already have absorbed some water to help with washing the oils away. I figured it couldn't hurt.
*My Kenmore washer doesn't let me just do a rinse cycle, so I put it on "express wash" with no spin which takes a total of 9 minutes.
-When I do a pre-"rinse" for regular diaper washing in the future (when they are soiled) I might try the "delicates" cycle with low spin instead of "express wash" for the rinse because I've heard delicate uses more water, plus I want to spin and drain away the nasty stuff!
Results: Everything was soaked! We'll see how the washing in the next step goes with this extra water ;)
2. Next, I added a load of hot wash regular laundry to the washer (not pictured). I might as well get some laundry done at the same time, right? It's not like I need my clothes to be absorbent ;)
*Note: once your diapers have been used don't do this...eww!
-I didn't fill up the washer because I didn't have enough dirty laundry, but I suspect you could fill it with a little extra room while prepping.
-I chose the "whitest whites" cycle because it is a hot wash. I bumped the soil level up one from normal so that it would use more water. ...With these settings my washer takes an hour and 17 minutes! (...I guess I can go on that brisk walk the nurse suggested to help put me into active labor).
Results: everything looked great!
3. Throw the load of clothes in the dryer, leaving the natural fiber diaper supplies ready for another wash (it takes 3-5+ washes to fully prep natural fibers). I'm going to use little deterrent and add an extra rinse to this wash to help get rid of detergent residue.
*I plan to do two washes, dry, and repeat (I heard this method works well). I'm thinking that four washes total will be good enough prepping for now. Although, it may take up to 10 washes to reach full absorbency.
-I probably will do little detergent on the third wash and no detergent on the forth.
4. Dry. Because I had one bamboo diaper in the wash I first dried everything on high for 25 minutes to set the PUL (described below). Then I finished drying them on low.
1st time after drying results: everything is looking good :) my inserts seem to be fluffing a bit (getting absorbent).
Prepping synthetic fibers:
1. One of the nice things about synthetic is that you only have to wash and dry once and you're set! At least that's what I found in my research.
-Since I have a lot of synthetic fibers from all my pocket style diapers in my stash I will just be washing these alone for the one wash. (If I didn't have so many I would add a load of laundry to this one as well).
Setting PUL:
PUL is the liquid resistant fabric on the outside of the diaper or pail liner that keeps most everything in (unless too much liquid gets in the diaper for too long, or if the wetness gets compressed too much...in either of these scenarios you might feel a little leaking. Just don't wait too long to change, especially if you have a heavy wetter to avoid this).
1. To prep PUL just throw it in the dryer on high for 20-30 minutes (I will be doing this after washing). This will set the PUL and seal all the needle holes from sewing the diaper product together.
*If it is a diaper you are prepping you will then want to finish drying by either continuing the cycle (I would think with a lower heat so you don't wear out the fibers) or by line drying. I am going to keep them in the dryer on a lower heat setting because I don't have anything set up to dry them on outside yet.
-In the future, when I am actually washing the diapers between uses, I plan to sun dry after a 20-30 minute dryer drying (to get the process started) because the sun will naturally bleach out any stains as well as finish drying them, plus it's more gentle which will make them last longer.
