Diaper Pail
As you may know, dirty diapers can stink. Good cloth diaper pails will help to prevent odor until laundry day.
The Dry Pail. A dry pail is just as it sounds - a pail to store your dirty diapers in. You can use whatever type of pail you choose. If you use a dry pail a pail liner is a great convenience. It fits in just like a garbage bag would, and you can take the pail out to carry to the laundry room instead of the whole pail. Pail liners keep your cloth diaper pail clean and you just throw them in the wash with your diapers. A diaper pail is made with PUL (avoid those with PVC) has either elastic or a drawstring around the opening.
* It is not necessary to use a lid on your cloth diaper pail. As a matter of fact many moms choose not to use a lid because they feel it actually helps cut down odors by letting them breathe. If you were to keep the pail in a place out of reach of little hands you can probably get away with no lid.
* I suggest keeping your cloth diaper pail in a cool area. If your pail gets hot the diaper will start to smell worse.
You may also use a hanging wet bag in place of a pail. A hanging wet bag is generally a bag made with an inner layer of PUL, an outer layer of knit print and a handle. They often have zippers, so you can help contain odors. Hanging wet bags are not as big as a diaper pail and won't hold as much. If you plan to wash every day, or don't have many diapers, a hanging wet bag might be a perfect solution.
The Wet Pail. The wet pail is a lidded pail filled with water. The purpose of using a wet pail is to pre-soak the diapers before washing to help eliminate stains. It also makes the laundering process a little easier. You can cut out your pre-rinse because you have already been soaking your diapers. Setting up a wet pail is simple. You need to have a pail with a lid - a locking lid is preferred to keep your curious baby safe. Fill your pail 1/4 full of cold water (or more, depend how much you need). Before you throw any dirty diapers into your wet pail, make sure to shake off any solid matter into the toilet or clean off with a diaper sprayer . Unfold diapers before placing them into the pail. Change the water in the wet pail every day to eliminate odors and wash the diapers no less than every 3 days to prevent mold from growing on them. Once you are ready to wash dump all the contents of the wet pail into the washer. Run a spin cycle to get any excess water from the diapers, then do your normal hot wash/cold rinse.
*There are a few disadvantages to having a wet pail. A pail filled with water and soaking wet diapers will be very heavy. This will make it difficult to move it when its time to change the water or launder the diapers. It can be a real pain to have to change the water and if any spills, well I think you can imagine how gross that would be. If you like the idea of having your diapers pre-soak, but don't like the idea of the wet pail, a combination of a wet/dry pail might be the answer.
A Wet/Dry Pail Combo. A wet pail/dry pail is the best of both worlds. Instead of having an actual pail full of water, you rinse your diapers off after changing your baby. This means all diapers - poop, pee, exclusively breast or bottle fed included. Then you throw them into the dry pail. This way your diapers are still getting the benefit of getting rinsed and basically a mini soak because you are throwing them into the pail soaking wet. Then just wash with your normal laundering routine. You may find it helpful to keep your cloth diaper pail in the bathroom if you use this method. Then you can rinse off the diapers and throw them right into the pail without much of a mess. This is a great method and it can really help cut back on stains and odor.
To prevent odor smell you can add following ingredients to your pail water, on the pail lid or on a piece of cotton into your dry pail If you do have any odor problems you can sprinkle baker soda into your pail, or add few drops of a nature oil (only pure essential oil).:you can add a dash of baking soda or vinegar to help minimize odors :
• 50 ml or 2-3 spoon of vinegar; vinegar is disinfectant and helps to remove odor
• 1 spoon of baker soda to your wet pail or you can sprinkle baker soda into your dry pail
• few drops of your favorite essential oil smell (use only pure nature essential oil, for example Saloos), a very popular choice is 5 drops of tea tree essential oil (desinfection) and 1 drop of lavender oil, for more suggestion read the Article 3
• 1 spoon/5l of Mio Fresh Bambino Nappy Sanitizer, it is Antibacterial and Deodorizes
* 1 spoon/lid of ULRICH Bleaching Salt for pre-wash soaking and for bleaching white and color clothing
It is good to sanitize your pail from time to time - vinegear is very suitable for this purpose, just put it into a sprayer. You can use it any time for your toilet as well. Be sure to avoid any disinfectant that contain chlorine.
