It’s been a few months since I last talked about cloth diapering. My daughter is 7 months old now, and it’s still going well.
We’ve encountered some challenges. The home we’re in now has a Homeowner’s Association, which unsurprisingly has rules against clotheslines. That makes it a bit of a pain to dry the diapers outside, where the sun can bleach any stains out naturally.
However, the rule is that it cannot be visible to the other houses. We’re fortunate enough to be a corner house, with a hill and a high brick wall off to that side. That gives me a place to put the diapers out to dry, provided I get them out early enough in the day that the sun still hits them.
They’d dry in the shade of course, especially with the 100 degree weather we’ve been having. But the direct sunlight is better.
There’s no convenient way to put up a clothesline, however. I’ve been making do with some lawn chairs and a baby gate we aren’t yet using indoors, laying the diapers out flat on those. The gate allows air to flow around both sides of the diapers.
The trouble is that they don’t dry as nicely. Everything’s just a little on the crunchy side when they dry like that. I’m thinking it’s the lack of movement from the wind.
I’m planning on ordering a folding indoor/outdoor clothes rack
We do occasionally have that extra bit of smell from the diapers, which just means that I have to strip the diapers, but that’s really not so hard. Just a regular wash followed by some extra washing with Dawn dish soap and lots and lots of rinsing. Takes care of the problem quite nicely.
And how I love not having to buy disposable diapers! Saves me a ton of driving, much more so than if we had remained in Poway where Target was about 5 miles away. Here it’s about 15 miles. Between the mileage saved on the car and the money saved by not buying disposable diapers, wow! Really and truly worth the extra laundry.
Not being able to put up a clothes line would drive me bonkers. In today’s “Green” environmnet, it is more important then ever to be able to cut down on energy consumption. The clothes dryer is a larger culprint. Get that wooden dry rack, it does help….perhaps you can work on the association rules somewhat?
Good Luck!
Sofia Hogan
As a renter, I suspect the association won’t be much interested in what I have to say. I’m not directly paying them. The freedom to put up clotheslines and to grow what we will in our front and back yards is important to me.
And yes, we’ll just deal with the wooden or maybe a metal clothes rack for now.