Cloth Wipes & DIY Detergent for Diapers

So we've been cloth diapering with our son for a while. (He is almost 22 months) We're trying to continue being more environmentally friendly and more cost efficient so I made some cloth wipes. I used a simple tutorial I found on pintrest that used fleece and water. Easy enough right? Wrong. After a few days the fleece started to leave little fleece bunnies on little man's behind and all over his cloth diapers (even turning the insides of them blue!). I don't know if I used the wrong type of fleece or what, but we instantly scratched that idea and went back to the throw away kind.

Then I found this tutorial about using flannel. So I made six cloth wipes to try out and see how they do. They did awesome. I use just water and they work great! SO much better than the throw away kind (esp. on big messes). I made some more and I only need to rewet wipes every other day or so. The tea tree oil isn't necessary when using cloth wipes, however, I did use it when my son had an extremely bad diaper rash and *poof* it was gone in a 24 hours. Awesome.



As for the detergent I use on my cloth diapers, I highly recommend this one created by Hive of the Honey Bee. Super simple: 1 cup of oxy clean, 1 cup of washing soda, 1 cup of baking soda. I initially chose this one out of all the other homemade recommendations because this one is borax free. I avoid all cleaners that use borax because of its toxic properties. Ick. I am not bringing that into my house!

I've used it for about three weeks so far and it works great! Two days ago, I noticed that the diapers were getting a little scratchy and rough, so I did a cycle of diapers using Snuggle fabric softener and All Laundry detergent, followed by a cycle with this DIY detergent, before hanging them out to dry. So far, the diapers have remained super soft since with no reaction to little man.