Frugal Home Cloth Diaper Cleaners

Frugal home cloth diaper cleaners are better for baby because of the all natural recipe. I have made our laundry detergent for almost 12 years now. Prior to that I used a store bought laundry soap. When I became an informed consumer and found out all of the chemicals they were placing in our detergent I switched. The same is true with diapers. For my first two children I used disposable diapers, and with the last two children I switched to cloth. 

Cloth diapers do require a little bit more attention, but it is worth it. Choosing a homemade recipe that has as much all natural ingredients in it is important. For me, it is the sole reason that I choose to take the time to make my own. Here are a few frugal home ways to clean cloth diapers safely and affordably. 

Frugal Home Dry Detergent

Dry detergents are good because they last longer I think and do not clump. For our home we use a liquid detergent. Really the choice is all about preference. If I went to the store for my detergent, my purchase would be liquid. That is just what I prefer, but if your preference is dry detergent then do make the homemade dry detergent for babies.

One thing to consider is a second rinse on all cloth diaper loads. That always gave me peace of mind that the laundry detergent was completely out of the diapers when I used them.

Here is a dry detergent recipe:

1 C. Arm and Hammer

1 C. Borax

20 drops Lavendar Essential Oil

Homemade Liquid Detergent

Liquid detergent is also good. We make ours in a 5 gallons bucket and add to an empty one we saved from the store several years ago. This method works good for us because it has a pour spout. Occasionally I have to rinse that out, stir the soap, or take a stick and mix it better. All in all this method works for us. Liquid laundry detergent works good and isn’t time consuming. The longest part is dissolving the bar of soap in hot water.

Here is a recipe for Homemade Liquid Detergent:

2 C. Borax

2 C. Castile Soap

1 bar of Fels Naptha dissolved in hot water. Then mix all ingredients together and pour into a 5 gallon bucket. Fill in the remaining amount for the bucket with hot water. This helps it to all merge together well. Then stir. I stir for about 5 minutes to make sure there are not clumps.

Cloth Diaper Vinegar Solution

Next is a vinegar solution that I also used for my children’s cloth diapers. The vinegar solution worked well with stains and functioned like a fabric softener. After I used rinsed them in the washer they were hung to dry on the laundry line.

The sun disinfects and bleaches out most stains, but I loved the vinegar solution that I used due to the fact that it made the diapers softer and removed most of the leftover smell. White vinegar is such a good cleaning product because it comes in bulk containers and is very cheap. White vinegar has many uses in our home.

My vinegar solution was 1 cup of white vinegar either thrown in with the diapers prior to washing, or placed in the fabric softener spot.

Cloth Diaper Rinsing and Stain Removal

All cloth diapers have to be rinsed prior to placing them in the laundry bag. I kept mine in a trash can that held a small amount of vinegar and water in the bottom. In addition to this I used the spray attachment for the toilet. So this process was the best way I found to keep the smell down and assist with stains.

Stain removal wasn’t hard. The sun really removed most of the stains, but the ones that remained I used zote soap. I is a bar of soap that rubs on. On laundry day I used the zote on all of the stains that were really visible. My routine was rinse and place in the bucket until laundry day. On laundry day check for stains, rub zote on the bad ones, then place vinegar in the washer. After that they were hung out to dry.

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