Between Babes?

Did you cloth diaper your first child and are using them again for your second? Are you cloth diapering your third, fourth, fifth, SIXTH child and storing between? Did you buy a bunch of cloth diapers and still have 8 months to store them (we won't tell)?

It doesn't matter which stage you are at, if you are wanting to store them, or are just thinking about it, read on to see our suggestions! 

If the Diapers are Brand New:

Well, I wish they could all be this easy....you just toss them in a tote and store away!  If you want to give yourself an edge before baby comes, you can prep them all ahead of time: For Rock-a-Bums you wash the cover and dry it on hot for 20 minutes and wash the inserts 5-10 times to reach full absorbency.  Piece o' Cake, Piece o' Pie.

If the Diapers are Used:

If the diapers were purchased used OR used by one of your other babes,  you will want to strip the diapers before storing them.  Please use the following stripping guidelines for your style of washing machine:

How to Strip Using a Front Loading Washer:

1. Load washer with dirty diapers, shells, pods, wipes and wet bag.
2. Do a quick , cold rinse with low spin (this will make your diapers
    heavier, and will trick your machine into adding more water for
    the wash).
3. Wash on Hot and Water Level HIGH  (Usually 
    a "Heavy Duty" cycle, do NOT use the sanitize
    cycle) with 1/2 of the recommended amount
    of cloth safe detergent.  (Some Front loaders
    will have an extra button where you can add
    more water to your cycles.  Check out your
    manual to see if you can do that with your
    machine)
4. Wash on hot and water level HIGH with NO
    detergent
5. Wash on hot with water level HIGH with NO
    detergent
6. Pull wet diapers from washer, and sniff
    them.  They should smell fresh and clean.  If
    they still smell a bit fishy, repeat steps 1-3,
    but only use 1/4 of the recommended
    amount of detergent. 
7. Remove the covers and wet bag
8. Put washer on heavy duty wash cycle again and add 1/2 cup
    bleach (if you do not want to use bleach, use 1/2 to 1
    Tablespoon of baking soda).
9. Wash on hot and heavy duty 1-2 times.

The trick with front loading washing machines is to make sure you have enough water running through your diapers.



 

                                                                                     How to Strip Using a

                                                                                     Top Loading Washer:

                                                                                   1. Load washer with dirty diapers, shells, pods,
                                                                                                wipes, and wet bag.
                                                                                            2. Wash on hot and water level HIGH with 3/4
     the recommended amount of cloth safe 
     detergent
3. Wash on hot and water level HIGH with NO
     detergent
4. Wash on hot and water level HIGH with NO
     detergent
5. Pull wet diapers from washer, and sniff them. 
    They should smell fresh and clean.  If they still
    smell a bit fishy, repeat #1 - #3, but only use
    1/4 the recommended amount of Detergent.
6. Remove the covers and wet bag
7. Fill washer with Hot and 1 cup of bleach (if you
    do not want to use bleach, use 1-2
    Tablespoons of baking soda), let agitate to mix
    and then stop for 2-4 hours and let soak
8. Wash on Hot and Large 1-2 times


 

You need to make sure you completely dry the diapers prior to storing them.  If they are wet at all, they will come out of storage smelling and....growing....and nobody wants that!

Want to win your own Rock-a-Bums??  Of course you do....the attitude is in the name...THEY ROCK! :) Enter below!

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Bang for your Buck - How to rock Long Lasting Diapers

Want to get the most out of your cloth diapers and have them last for multiple children?! I thought so....keep reading to see our suggestions for rockin' long lasting cloth. 

1.  Don't Soak Your Covers!!!

Regularly soaking your covers will break down the elastic and PUL fabric faster than you can say, ROCK STAR.  The elastic is an important part to making sure your diaper stays leak free!!

 

2.  Amp Up Your Stash!!

The more covers and inserts you have, the less you have to wash them.  If you are washing every cover and every insert EVERY time, then they will break down considerably faster!  Build up your stash slowly! See how you can save money and build up your stash here.

 
 

3.  Rock a Clothes Line!

 If you line dry your covers and inserts, you are taking away the beating they receive in the dryer.  If a clothes line isn't doable, then make sure to dry on low, (unless you are doing the initial 15 minute sealing recommendation when you first get your covers), for as LITTLE time as possible.  We aren't always able to dry outside due to weather, so we like to be creative inside, too!

4.  Use the Right Detergent

           Make sure you use a detergent that is cloth diaper safe!  Some of our FAVORITES are:

             Tide Free and Gentle, Rockin' Green, Country Save, Purex Free and Clear, Kirkland's Free and Clear, Eco Nuts, Lulu's in the Fluff, Eco Sprout, Laundry Tarts and Ruby Moon.    Hand making your detergent can be risky, so we don't suggest using hand made detergent on cloth diapers!

 

 

 

 

 

Follow these simple steps and you will find yourself with nice, soft, fluffy diapers that will last longer!  You can start jumping for joy at any point, I won't judge!

Want a free way to do #2.....I mean the number above....get your minds out of the diapers......enter our giveaway!!!! 


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Just SUN it

Let me tell you a little story......
We were having company over last summer, and I was all dressed up in my favorite white capri pants, and a cute pink, ruffle shirt.  I was making enchiladas and I was running all around the kitchen cooking, cleaning and organizing.  I whipped open the refrigerator door when all of a sudden, my entire bowl of enchilada sauce fell onto me, my white pants, my pink ruffled shirt and all over the floor.  It was a mess.  I could do nothing but laugh at my misfortune.

 After the initial shock was over, I realized that my clothes were ruined.  Bright red enchilada sauce all down the front of my WHITE capris! 

I immediately started soaking them and putting stain remover on them, and then ran them through a wash cycle.  I desperately wanted them to come out white, but I knew the chances of that were slim.....  Boy was I right.  The stain had turned from a deep red (before the wash) to a pink, but still completely noticeable, stain.  I was so sad.  I let them hang dry and thought, I'll get back to them later. 

A few days passed and I had washed them three more times in hopes of lightening the stain.  Nothing had worked....and then...came diaper laundry day....

I was washing my diapers and then it struck me, if the sun takes stains out of the diapers, why not my pants?!?!  (yes, it took me that long to realize that).  So, I soaked my pants in water, and then laid them out under the sun, and sure enough, every millimeter of that stain was gone within two hours.  Not.  Even.  Kidding.  What my washer and stain remover couldn't do in four washes, the sun did in less than two hours.  I was BLOWN away. 

Thankfully, the Rock-a-Bums have the amazing gray fleece feature and gray inserts, so you don't have to worry about stains as much, but if you ever do get one (even on the outside of your white cover) the sun will be your best friend!  Just wash it and sun it! 

So, the sun not only dries your clothes and diapers without using any of your electricity, but it will also remove your stains DOUBLE BONUS.

Want to WIN your own Rock-a-Bums cloth diaper, insert AND wet bag?!?!  Enter our Rafflecopter below!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rock-a-Bum's Response

Many of you have seen this article all over the news about families not being able to buy diapers, so they go to such lengths as leaving the diapers on the child for longer, and even "cleaning out" and reusing their disposable diapers.  If you haven't read the article, I truly suggest you do.  It broke my heart, and made me sick to my stomach to think of all the health complications that can arise from these situations.  The article continued on to discuss the emotional toll that this can take on the parents and how there aren't any government funded programs to help families who need diapers.  The one MAJOR thing the article was lacking was a solution....so that is where we come in. 


Welcome to

Where you can see how simple it is to build a cloth diaper stash with ONLY enough money for disposables. 


Check out our visual that demonstrates just how simple it is to convert to cloth:

Now, let's go over some figures on how you can purchase cloth while you are 100% disposable diapering.  If you only had JUST enough money to buy disposable diapers, I will break down how it would work to switch over to cloth. 

Let's say you do 10 diaper changes a day, on average, (this would be for a child who was maybe 9 months or up) and you usually buy a package of Huggies with 160 diapers (example above).  This package would allow you to go just over two weeks (16 days) worth of diapering for your baby.  If you purchase two packs of Rock-a-Bums (2 covers and 4 inserts) and a two packs of flour sack towels (10 towels total) you will have enough diapers for 14 changes (if you use it as an All-in-Two system, which is the most cost effective way).  14 (cloth) changes does not equal 160 (disposable) changes, HOWEVER, you can then WASH and REUSE your system every day until the 16 days (how long you would have had disposables) is up.  Once you would regularly buy disposables again, you put that money into investing in MORE cloth (even the same as above: two covers, four inserts and 10 flour sack towels) and crazy enough, you have enough diapers to wash every other day.  Are you down with washing every other day? If so, guess what, no more money is needed to invest in cloth diapers....you can take the rest of your money (if you disposable diapered until your 9 month old was 2 1/2 that would equal $1,883.12) and use it elsewhere because you don't need more diapers!

This doesn't even include the savings of starting at the newborn stage, or what you will be saving using these as swim diapers!!

So, the question remains, can you jump on the cloth wagon without having to invest a ton in the beginning, and the answer is YES, you can! You might be washing a lot in the beginning but you can do it.  Also, I think washing diapers is totally worth the $1,883.12, don't you?

Now, if only the major news outlets would use THIS kind of an article to teach EVERYONE about using cloth.  So, let's get the word out, and share, share share this information! You could be keeping a child out of a REUSED DISPOSABLE diaper!

So, in keeping with our weekly giveaways, we would like to give away not one, but TWO Rock-a-Bums covers and FOUR Rock-a-Bums inserts! This should give anyone the ability to amp up their stash, or start building a stash!

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