As much as I love hanging my diaper covers out in the sunshine to remove stains and stink, the fact is that it’s just not always possible. Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate, especially during spring rains. Other times, I have just waited too long to do laundry and end up completing a load of diapers at 10 p.m. when there is no sun in sight!
Rather than tossing the covers in the dryer, I choose to preserve the life of the PUL material in my diapers by making sure to air dry every time. Even when it’s not possible to hang diapers on the line outside, diapers can be dried indoors for little to no cost.
Drape them all over the house. This method won’t win you a feature on HGTV for decorating, but you can commandeer your furniture to use as impromptu drying racks. Fortunately, most diaper covers are made of thin materials that dry quickly and shouldn’t warp furniture. However, do make sure to exercise caution if using wood furniture. I have found that baby gates make particularly great drying racks. Just remove the diapers before your toddler gets up from naptime, or you’ll find diaper covers all over your house!
Shower rod/bathroom. An especially great option for thicker diaper covers, such as itti bitti, which are a little more soggy right out of the washing machine – just drape as many covers as you can across your shower rod or shower stall. Or use a hanging clothes rack such as Clothesline Company DUO hanger, which allows you to move the drying diapers out of the way easily when you need the shower for, well, showering!
A simple (or complex!) drying rack. My personal favorite is a drying rack, which I keep in my garage right next to the washer and dryer. I recommend the Honey Can Do Two-Tier or Three-Tier Mesh Top Drying Racks for a larger capacity than a simple wooden rack.
Before we moved into our current house, I even put the drying rack right in the middle of my kitchen.
There are a number of other drying options that can keep your cloth diapers from unnecessary stress in the dryer. What are your favorite indoor drying techniques?
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Jenny Bradford is a mom to two cotton babies, Little Sir born Oct. 2009, and Little Lady, born Feb. 2011. She lives in the Dallas, TX area with her husband, Christian, and can be found at Conscientious Confusion – a blog about living consciously, which often encompasses: green living, natural health, conscientious consumerism, cloth diapering, and living frugally.
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34 Comments
I snap all mine onto a metal clothes hanger and either hang them on hooks (previous tenants put plant hooks EVERYWHERE!!) or on the front porch. I just slip the hanger through the chain hanging down that used to be for a porch swing.
Anyone have a suggestion to keep the diapers from getting hard when air dried? I find they get so stiff.
For stiffness from line drying, we recommend a short tumble on low heat in the dryer (10 minutes or so) with some wool dryer balls. This usually softens your diapers nicely, especially those with cotton and hemp inside.
The hanging thing with clips that we hang from our ceiling fan is the same one as Micky stated from IKEA. It looks like an octopus.
I bought a hanging thing with clips on it (similar to the blue one in the first picture on this post) for $5.99 at IKEA. I hang it from the light accessory on my ceiling fan and I turn the fan on full blast! Things dry within a few hours! I have to admit, it is an eye sore, but it gets the job done FAST! We lay a waterproof pad on our bed under the fan and hang the thing with the clips from the ceiling fan in our bedroom. This way no one sees our contraption!
Our apartment’s porch faces north. I live in Seattle. SO there is nowhere outside to put diaper to dry. One sunny day last week I put a tension rod in the bedroom window, which faces south, and let then hang there. The guy that lives upstairs stopped by Just to ask what was in the window. He though it might be like some kind of Buddhist flag banner… He was surprised to hear what is was, and he got my soap box about cloth too.
I hang them in the guest room closet.
We live in an apartment, so I always dry my diapers on a drying rack. On sunny days, I stick the entire thing out on our deck. Through the winter, I just kept it in the corner of our living room, by the deck doors. Works for us! :~)
I have the same approach as Darcy. I reuse the pants/skirt hangers from baby clothes and hang them up on the wire shelving in my laundry room. I have, on a few occasions, snuck a few stained covers out to dry on the railing of our stoop. Shhh…
Since we have an unfinished basement, we just screwed some 2X4s to the floor joysts above and drilled holes in them to thread a clothes line through. This way I can easily reach the clothesline without having to stand on my tiptoes. We have it going back and forth 4 times so all of our diapers, inserts, wipes, and bags can dry all at once. We blow a fan on them to help them dry more quickly if we need them sooner.
I don’t have a clothesline yet, but it’s on the to-do list. 🙂 So for now, I toss prefolds in the dryer and hang the Flip & Econobum covers on a wooden drying rack from Walmart.
My HOA doesn’t allow clothes lines either. I have a bunch of the pants hangers from stores that have a clip on each end. I hang a diaper/cover on each clip & then hang them on the wire shelving in my laundry room. I have also hung the hangers on my chairs outside.
This is what I do for indoor drying too.
terrible policy for the environment!
This should be addressed.
Re-read your HOA rules carefully, because most are against the installation of permanent clothes lines. But if you just put out a wooden collapsible rack when needed and then take it down when done, most wont complain about it. Especially if you can place it in a part of your yard that isn’t really visible from the street. 🙂
My hoa doesn’t allow permanent anything without approval, so I have this great collapsible clothesline from menards. It has an umbrella fold and sticks in a tube I installed in the ground, and I use it to hang practically all laundry. I put it where it can’t be seen from the street and my neighbors rock, but have had no trouble. I’m also careful to make sure the laundry is always down at night, and fold up the line and stick inside (what clothesline?!). Works awesome, saves lots of $$ in drying costs and keeps my diapers in good shape!
the window in my laundry room is recessed into the wall, so I hung a shower rod across the window and use that to hang the diapers on 🙂 Inserts go in the dryer
On days diaps can’t got outside,I use a drying rack in front of the large bay window in our kitchen, which luckily has a floor vent in front of it. I have found that I am able to sun my diapers through the window (it must not be energy efficient). I use the same drying rack outside on nice days, and on super windy days, I bungee cord it to the fence and use clothespins for the diapers. Wonder what my neighbors think? 🙂
I use a drying rack year round for my diapers. It stays inside most the winter, but I put it outside on nice days and through the spring and summer. Also, I used to live in a house with radiators and I would lay my inserts on top of the radiators and they would be dry in no time! I loved it!
I have a large-3 tier drying rack with mesh top that fits perfectly on top of my dryer. The covers get hung on the rack, the inserts go into the dryer, and the paper liners go on top of the mesh.
I put a retractable clothesline across my laundry room! It can even go around corners if you need more space, but I only hang dry my covers so it’s perfect!
I like putting mine out to get rid of stains, but they end up hard when dried outside. Any solution for this? I also think the AIOs take forever to air dry indoors.
Get a downy ball and fill with white vinegar it will release at the rinse cycle perfectly and remove odor and act like a safe fabric softener. I love this trick.
thought vinegar was bad for wraps. Am I right?
We don’t recommend vinegar as it can cause some elements of the cloth diapers to deteriorate much more quickly.
For stiffness from line drying, we recommend a short tumble on low heat in the dryer (10 minutes or so) with some wool dryer balls. This usually softens your diapers nicely, especially those with cotton and hemp inside.
I am now convinced that I need to get a drying rack for my diapers. Off to check out those links…
My hoa wont allow outdoor clothes lines. 🙁 So I strung up a retractable line right across my livingroom. It’s high enough we can walk under it with diaps on it and easily tucks away when not in use. We have 16’x8′ window that faces west so the glorious sun beats right in on my diaps all afternoon. I recently purchased a collapsible wooden drying rack ($17 at walmart) that snuggly holds 20 liners and inserts to easily set on the deck for outside drying without upsetting our hoa.
Oh no, that is unfortunate about your HOA, but what a great solution! Indoor AND sun! I think we have that same wooden rack.
I have a small clothesline that my husband mounted to the wall over my washer and dryer. We screwed eye hooks into the wall and tied the line to the eye hooks.
I have a clothesline in my basement that I use for my wetbags. All of my diaper shells go on a drying rack. If it’s nice out, they go on the back porch. If it’s rainy/windy/night, they go next to the dining room window.
I like that about a drying rack, too – very portable if the weather changes suddenly!
I have a hanging clothes rack from Ikea. It works great and looks like a little octopus. One of the best purchases I made
I love my Ikea cloth rack!it’s 19.99 and it hold all my diapers
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50095091/