Both soaking and dry pailing are widely used methods amongst todays cloth nappy users. Some people prefer the old fashioned method of soaking while others prefer the newer method of dry pailing. But with whichever method you chose, you will need to wash your naiies every 2-3 days. The easiest method is the dry pail method.

Soaking
Soaking requires for you to to fill a nappy bucket with water and a little napisan as well as baking soda and tee tree oil if you want to. Once your baby has soiled his nappy, you then remove the solid waste into the toilet if there is any, rinse of any solids you couldnt shake off, and put the dirty nappy into the nappy bucket. Fleece liners make shaking the solids off a much easier job. If your baby is exclusively breast feed, there is no need for rinsing, you can put the nappy straight into the bucket as the breastfeed poos are quite runny and break down very easily in the wash.


Some reasons people dont like soaking is:
they believe that the napisan eats away at the elastic in the nappies,

the bucket can get extremely heavy

having a bucket of water around is a danger to your child, even with a lid

adding chemicals to our waterways

using extra water

adding fragrance and chemicals to the cloth nappy which may affect your baby

Some reasons people like soaking are:
the napisan removes any horrible smells

the water has diluted any smells

using napisan leaves you feeling like the nappies are adequately sanitised

the bucket has weight in it so they baby cant 'play' with it

keeping the nappies wet makes stain removal easier than if it was allowed to dry in and 'set'

if left for too long the water forms a scum



Dry Pailing
Dry Pailing requires for you to leave the bucket empty, with no water or napisan. Once your baby has soiled his nappy, you then remove the solid waste into the toilet if there is any, and to put the dirty nappy directly into the dry bucket. If your baby is exclusively breastfed then there is no need to rinse the solids off, just put the nappy straight into the bucket. You can aslo line the bucket with a wetbag for very easy transfer of the nappies to the washing machine. Some people tape an air freshener or a piece of fabric with tee tree and lavender oil onto the inside of the lid, to make it smell nicer. You can also sprinkle some bi carb soda into the bottom of the bucket. If odours are particularly pungent you can rinse the nappies before you put them into the dry pail, however I feel this defeats the purpose of dry pailing becuase you will probably use more water than if you just soaked the nappies to begin with.

Some reason some people dont like dry pailing is:
the bucket can become very smelly if left for too long

you must wash every 2-3 days before the bucket gets overwhelmingly smelly

the bucket is very light so that baby could push it over or around which means there is more possibility of the baby getting into the bucket

may sometimes need to wash the nappies twice to remove any smells that hang around


Some reasons people like dry pailing is:
no water around for the baby to drown in

the bucket is not very heavy so can be carried to the washing machine easily

using less water

not adding any chemicals to the waterways

not adding any chemicals to the cloth nappy if the baby has sensitive skin



Washing your Nappies
You will need to make sure you wash your nappies before you use them. Some manufactures recommend washing in hot water and drying the new nappies up to 6 times before they are at their fullest absorbancy, this advice is mainly for hemp and bamboo. I reccomend you wash Hands Free Baby Stuff nappies twice before their first use.

Regular washing instructions
Depending on the size of your washing machine will depend how many nappies you wash, but do not overfill the machine as the nappies require a bit of space to be washed properly. It is perfectly fine to wash your cloth wipes, soakers, boosters, fleece liners and even baby clothes all together in this wash.

Never, ever wash your nappies with a softening product, all these do is coat the nappy and make absorbtion very difficult. If needed, you can add 1/2 a cup of vinegar to the wash to help soften the nappies. If you happen to accidentally use fabric softener, just wash them again on a hot wash with some vinegar which will help to strip the layer of softener. I recommend you add vinegar to your normal nappy wash about once a fortnight to help strip any detergent build up.

Line drying your nappies is the best way to dry them as the sun helps to remove stains. Using a dryer produces lint in the lint filter. The lint is caused by the heat destroying the fabric threads and some coming loose, so repetitive use of a dryer will not do your nappies any good, though if you must do it every now and then there is no problem.