diaper laundry while traveling

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While I was at my parents house building (unfinished) furniture, I decided to take my cloth diapers with me. I also brought a stash of 'sposies, because I intended to use them for overnight.

The cloth diaper stuff I brought with me:
1 large planet wet/dry bag
6 bumgenius 3.0 diapers with six extra newborn inserts
4 cotton prefolds
2 thirsties covers
1 snappi
Rockin' Green Hard Rock detergent (and my scoop!)


Over all, the couple of days that I used cloth were pretty easy. The planet bag worked great for storing clean and dirty diapers. I managed not to have to deal with poopy cloth diapers, but I know from past experience, I would just dunk ans swish.  It works.

My parents have a top loader, and I was very curious about using a top loader again for diapers.  Their water is softer, too, so I was unsure how that would impact things. I only washed diapers 2 times, with about 6 diapers in each load.

I found that using the top loader seemed so much easier. This machine didn't have a pre-rinse, so I just ran a short wash cycle with no detergent, then a hot wash with a tablespoon of Rockin' Green and an extra rinse, then I did another short wash cycle just to make sure everything was rinsed properly.

The diapers came out of the washer smelling so clean!  They smelled of nothing! How refreshing.

At home, the diapers still have a slightly funky smell after washing (but not after drying).  I'm not sure anymore that it means they're unclean, though, as I'm realizing that pretty much all the laundry has that smell, even after I clean the washer.  It might just be our water.  Who knows.

So, I'm feeling inspired to try to figure out how to hook up the old top loader right next to my front loader and starting running some experiments. I can get the hot and cold hooked up, but the drain might be a little trickier.  We'll see what I can rope my husband into.

Back to diapers and traveling - I  still don't like to wash diapers at hotels, and some people aren't keen on me washing diapers in their washer, so I'll probably still use disposables for most of our travel.  However, I think next time we visit my parents, it's cloth all the way!