Washing cloth diapers is a tricky, tricky business. You want the diapers to look and smell clean, but the residue left behind by most normal laundry detergents and softeners cause the absorbent materials to repel liquid. Couple that with the fact that every home’s water supply delivers its own residue, and you’re in for a world of laundry hurt. And laundry hurt, my friends, equals leaky diapers and smelly babies. Yuck.
There are a number of awesome sites Moon 44 hd out there that provide detergent and washing advice, but I haven’t found my favorite detergent on any of them. I’m writing this review so that I can share my find with you all, dear readers.
When I was pregnant and started my ‘nesting’ (read: frantically cleaning everything in sight), I needed laundry soap that was safe for my sensitive newborn’s laundry but also all natural if possible (I like to stay clean and green!). I’d heard that Dreft was a total scam, plus it’s far from natural. A close friend suggested Shaklee’s Fresh Laundry Detergent – it fit both of my qualifications. She said she washed all of their family laundry with it, that it lasts forever and smells great. I bought a small bottle just to try it out.
It didn’t take more than a week of newborn poo-filled diapers for me to realize that I loved it.
Now, I’m not the shining example of a cloth-diaperer. I rarely soak any of them, never double-rinse, don’t measure the detergent and mix all of my laundry together in a wet bag that gets dumped without sorting into the same load of laundry. I don’t have time to go through 200 steps to wash the diapers. I also don’t see myself spending $40 on Charlie’s or Allen’s soap, just to last me a month. I prefer to spend my cash on my stash (it really is an addiction and I need help).
The Shaklee Fresh Laundry soap handles my messiest messes – it’s not a super-powerful stain remover, but the diapers aren’t smelly and a little time in the sun clears up the stains quickly (maybe if I soaked them first it would do better, but I’m not that ambitious).
Most importantly, I don’t even have to double rinse the diapers – a time saver that is increasingly important since I’m more and more forgetful and frequently am washing because I actually need a diaper immediately. (Yeah, I may be a little lazy when it comes to laundry.) In the 4.5 months I’ve been CDing exclusively, I haven’t had any repelling problems and haven’t had to strip my diapers – not even once. They all smell and look clean – almost like they did brand new. As an added (and very important) bonus, the detergent is natural and biodegradable.
I finally shelled out for a big-jug of the detergent right before my daughter was born (I’d used the first small bottle doing all of the pre-washing of my Indian prefolds and her layette). It cost me just under $30, and because it’s ultra-concentrated, I’m still using it.
Consider that one more time: I’m still using the same bottle. I do a load of baby laundry (again, it’s all mixed together, diapers, clothes, blankets, spit rags, socks, etc. etc.) every other day. The baby is 19 weeks old tomorrow. Do the math because I’m having a hard time doing it. I think that’s close to 50 loads of laundry from one bottle of detergent. And I still have roughly 8-10 loads’ worth left. That $30 has gone a long way.
Unfortunately, you can’t just run to your local supermarket to pick up Shaklee products. A friend of mine is a distributor so I order it directly from her, but you can visit the website and get it there easily too. (As an aside, they make a KILLER stain remover powder Oscar video , similar to but far better than Oxi Clean, that is unbelievable and makes thrift-store or consignment shop baby clothes look brand-freaking-new.)
About the author: One day, Andi hopes to teach the men in her life that they, too, can pick things up and put them away after they’ve used them. Read more from this author.
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I use Charlie’s, and it’s really not expensive at all. I think $25 gave me 160 loads worth (2 80-load bags of powdered). I bought it in November, and I just opened the second bag a couple weeks ago. I have 2 in cloth diapers and use it on all the laundry.
That being said, thanks for this review! I think I might give this a try when the Charlie’s runs out, just for some variety.
Wow, what a sell. I’m almost inspired to try CDing again now that I’m home.
I use Jenny Simply Clean. It is a WAHM detergent that is great for everything including CDs. Your diapers and clothes come out smelling clean not like perfume and they are soft too. It is very inexpensive and she has a lot of scents to choose from. You can customize your scent level too. I would try hers if you are thinking about CDing.
what a great review. i have been cd for months now, and used allens naturally, now i am a shaklee rep and I wanted to read about it and you had the answer! thanks!
We use Allen’s Naturally – the $20 liquid bottles – and it’s lasted us three and a half months so far, with another month or so out of the bottle. The powder version will stretch even farther, and costs less. I don’t know about you, by my math says that doesn’t total $40 a month in detergent. More like $4-5.
Just saying. :)
I agree… I love the Shaklee detergent for my clothes and the clothes for newborns, and it works great for diapers… AT FIRST! I used Shaklee detergent on my cloth diapers and had no problems until after about a year when we got a terrible build-up on the diapers (even the unscented detergent has brighteners in it which build up over time). It took me forever to get them stripped and clean again. They were causing rashes on my baby and had an unpleasant odor. A friend of mine still uses Shaklee for diapers and her diapers developed the same problems. They have a very strong odor when the baby wets and they cause rashes. I have tried some other detergents but am searching for a favorite. I hope you won’t have the same problem!