Many people believe that cloth diapering is difficult and a dirty job. Well, diapering is a dirty job. Cleaning them, notsomuch. If you've decided to take on the task of cleaning your own cloth diapers, here are some things you should know.

There are two methods of containing the diapers until you're ready to wash them: wet pail and dry pail. For me, I always did dry pail.

For one, a wet pail is likely to need to be cleaned more frequently. Advocates of wet-pail insist that this is not the case. But I know myself and my self doesn't get around to cleaning too often. In fact, I made sure to supply myself with enough cloth dipes to ensure I only needed to wash diapers once every week. For me, picturing a full week of standing water with urine and some poopy in it was not pleasant. In all fairness, most people wash diapers every 3 days or so. In this case, wet pail is probably not an issue.

Another thing is, I have a child and I have dogs. Unless I have a pail that is hard for them to get into, this could be a disgusting (if not dangerous) situation. I'm also a licensed foster parent. I'm thinking the state would have me lock down a wet pail much like a toilet.

But wet-pail DOES have an advantage in that it removes the "soak" step from the process. Your diapers soak in the pail. If you use a dry pail, you have to soak your diapers before washing them. Soaking ensures that the urine and feces that have accumulated in the cloth have been sufficiently loosened from the cloth. This can be done in a large bucket (found in home renovation stores), a slop sink or even your kitchen sink. People who use dry pails will want to soak their diapers in cold water overnight. So if you're using the kitchen sink, you can do this as your ready to head off to bed as long as your morning routines don't require sink use. Keep in mind that wherever you choose to soak your diapers, they will then have to be moved to your washing machine. They will be soaking wet and pretty heavy. Choose your soak location with care.

Once the diapers have been soaked, you can wash them. They should be washed in hot water with some detergent and NO fabric softener. Fabric softener is a chemical that coats the fabric and gets into the fibers to create a soft "hand" or feel to the fabric. Unfortunately, it will reduce that fabric's ability to absorb water. With diapers, this is a serious issue: we want the diaper to absorb urine and wick it away from the baby's body. There is much debate about the best detergent to use on cloth diapers. Unless you are tackling some specific issue, the cheapest detergent you can find is going to be the best because it tends to wash out easier than other detergents. If you can smell your detergent on your clothing, it's still in there. For cloth diapers, we don't want anything in the fabric. If your washer has the option for an extra rinse during the cycle, you may want to select "Yes". Otherwise, you may want to run an additional rinse cycle to be sure the diapers are free of all the detergent.

If you find that your diapers feel rough or are holding a smell, you may need to "strip" them. Stripping cloth diapers can be done by washing them several times in hot water. If this doesn't work, you can run them through a wash cycle with SportsWash or Charlie's Soap detergent. Either of these should work in removing deep-set contaminants in the fabric that cause the fibers to harden and smells to set in.

Many people add 3-4 drops of essential oils to their diaper wash load. Tea tree oil and lavender oil are known to have antiseptic properties and both smell very nice. Again, anything added to the wash can build up on the diaper and may cause them to need to be stripped at some point.

Last, if you have hard water, you might want to add some Calgon, Borax or vinegar to the wash water to soften the water and help clean your diapers. Some people have complained that the vinegar can react with the urine and cause a lingering odor that will require stripping to remove. I haven't experienced that yet, so I'm not sure what causes it to happen to some people's diapers and not to others.

The process may sound complicated, but keep in mind that I've covered every possible issue you might encounter. In reality, your personal experience may never include half of what's been discussed here; but if it does, you'll be prepared!