Laundry Question - Virginia Beach, VA

Victoria,
When you wash them use OXY clean in the load of laundry. I love this product and use it on everything. My husband is a chef and sometimes his coats are nasty and smell even after being washed and if I use OXY when I wash them I find them to come out smelling clean!

I use Charlies Soap regularly and baking Soda when they smell. Be sure to do a cold rinse first with no soap and then wash warm with cold rinse. Also make sure you are NOT using dryer sheets - that will affect the absorbancy. Like cloth diapers, if you are getting less absorbancy and smell, you can strip them of the chemical build up. The best way I have found to do this is use a squirt of Dawn dish detergent in a cold load, and then rinse until all bubbles are gone from wash. The grease fighting elements of Dawn srtipo the chemical build up on diapers and pull up great withpout harmful chemicals.
Good luck potty training!

Victoria,

Along with the white vinegar, add some baking soda. I buy a big bag from the wholesale club (BJs, Sams, Costco) and on the bag it has instructions on how much to put in. This also gets out cat smell. I have to use Wisk detergent with it though or it won't work. I haven't figured out why, but if use Wisk, it works great with the baking soda and white vinegar. My daughter is also potty training so I use this a lot.

Borax removes odors. So does hanging clothes on the line in the sunshine. AF

Rinse them right away and wash every evening. Try baking soda in the wash or rinse water.

I use Borax. I use the powder and just put it in along with laundry det. and it works amazingly well. I started using it since moving to Japan where it is very, very humid and laundry mildews in no time. After starting potty training with my oldest, I found out another use for it and it works great on soiled undergarments. Hope this helps.

Hi, Victoria - Sol-U-Mel gets rid of ANY smell, without using harmful chemicals. Good luck. N.

Try just pouring a little bit of white vinager into the washer when it is starting. I used this when my kids were soil thier underwear. It took the smell right out and never had a problem. I hope it works for you.

put fabric softener in the wash or try spraying them with scented spray when you take them out. It's very common because urine smell is strong. That's why there is so much on the market for getting out pet urine smell out of carpets. You will prob. have to try several different things that over power the smell.

I think this is the BEST way to potty train, so I had practice in this. Simple green, you can get it at walmart, sometimes in the automotive section is the BEST!! If you get it in the automotive section it will tell you how to dilute it for laundry, it's just a cleaning solution. I never dilute it though, probably because I'm lazy, but it is awesome. I've used it on my best clothes and the worst stains/smells and it gets everything out and I've never had a problem with it leaving stains or damaging the clothes even full strength and I've used it since high school. The key to using it, is get the cloth wet first, I dip it in the washer water as it fills, then spray on the simple green, I don't use a brush, so I just rub the cloth together and throw it in...works like a charm. Good luck with your laundry and your potty training!!

Hi Victoria
I work in the Medical field and frequently get this question asked. I have found several products that work okay but not great. Some remove the stain but the odor is still lingering, and others will remove the odor but not the stain. In recent months I came across this product called "Urine contamination treatment" It's generally used in geriatric homes and hospitals, so it should be safe for a child as well - I don't know if your child has allergies or if this product would cause an allergic reaction - you should check with your pediatrician before buying it.. anyhow, I believe it will work well for a child's clothing and bedding just as well. I haven't personally used it, I dont' have small children living in my home, and I don't have pets, so I don't have any personal pro's or con's to give you, but I have heard it is a really good product from some of the people that we see in our office. Here is the website:
http://www.allsclean.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.di...
everything so far that I've read about it is really good. I even have a friend with 5 dogs (3 of them puppies) and 3 cats that use this product - you cannot tell she has animals when you walk into her home.

I hope this helps you.
Aloha
E. C

I cloth diaper and this is what I do for my wash routine. I have never had any problems with them smelling after they come out of the washer.

wash once on cold with 1/2 the usual amount of laundry detergent.

wash once on hot with 1/2 the usual amount of laundry detergent.

If you are still having smell issues then I would wash them on cold with a little bit of the dawn blue dish detergent and then run it through 2 rinse cycles to make sure everything is rinsed away.

Hope that helps!

Hi Victoria

As a cloth diapering mama I think I can offer some advice. First - don't use fabric softner! That will lessen the absorbancy! And scented sprays can be harsh on your baby's sensitive behind, both of these only cover the odor anyway not get rid of it.

I second the method of trying a squirt of blue Dawn dish detergent for a load of laundry. Although, Dawn supposedly doesn't work for front loading wash machines. Another method is to use baking soda (a few shakes)in the wash cycle and white vinegar (1 cup or less) in teh rinse as someone else suggested. Some also suggest using Tide detergent to get out the smells.

A GREAT resource is Stephanie at abbyslane.com. Her online store is local, in the Northern Virginia area, and she has lots of experience and good advice for wash routines with cloth diapers and cloth training pants. You should receive a good response about what works and doesn't work from her! She is a local expert regarding wash routines for cloth!!!

take care,
D.