Cloth Diaper Series, part 5

I mentioned in my Earth Week post that one of our challenges was to dry laundry outdoors when possible.  Unfortunately, it rained almost everyday during Earth Week (except, of course, the day I did not do laundry...), so I didn't get to do any outdoor drying until this week.  I started off the line drying experiment with diapers, since they make up the majority of my laundry anyway (although, my shirts and pants are making a huge surge to try and take the lead with all the spit-up Lincoln has been sharing with us).  Line drying is actually beneficial to cloth diapers.  Heat can sometimes wear down the elastic in diapers, so by avoiding the high heat in the dryer, line drying may add some extra life to your diapers!  Also, they smell great after spending the afternoon out in the fresh air.  They can get a little stiff, but if you are worried about that, you can just toss them in the dryer for 10 minutes or so after you bring them inside and they will fluff right up.

Sun bleaching is something I was mostly skeptical about actually working.  I had a few stained inserts that were up for the challenge, so I hung them in direct sunlight on the top rack.  After an afternoon basking in the sunlight, the result was....much lighter stains!  On the shells, the stains were completely gone.  Some of the heavier stained inserts were still stained, but noticeably lighter.  I'll call it a success!  Now, I don't plan to dry the shells in direct sunlight every time because I don't want them to fade, but every so often for stain removal sounds wonderful!

Below, is my little drying area I rigged up for this adventure.  We aren't allowed clothes lines per HOA rules, so I made do by hauling my drying rack out onto the deck.  After the rack fell down for the 4th time from the wind, I wedged the 2 tiles against the base to hold it up--it mostly worked.  It stayed up for a good 2 hours before a really big gust of wind knocked it down.  Much better than the every 5 minutes from before!  The clothes pins were also a new addition after my first attempt of just draping the diapers over the rack like I do inside. Chasing the diapers around the yard once was enough for me to learn my lesson!

I love how colorful it looks!  Ah, cloth diapers (and a Maya Wrap pouch, if you were wondering what the multi-colored item was on the right) hanging in the sun on a spring day=happy!