Washing your twinkie tush cloth diapers
For general laundering purposes we recommend washing with a cloth diaper safe detergent, adding a pre-rinse cycle and an extra-rinse cycle. We recommend washing on hot, but we do not recommend the sanitary (near-boiling water) cycle. We highly recommend against the use of additives like bleach or fabric softeners as they may damage your diapers and/or cause build-up that can lead to repelling. If you are new to cloth diapering or need wash routine help, there are many resources online! We don’t recommend a specific wash routine since washers and water can vary so much, but we are happy to help you troubleshoot if you email us!
Washing your twinkie togs, graduates, Shine women’s tops, blankets and other accessories
Wash with your normal clothing detergent! Hang dry or tumble dry on low in the dryer. For all items we recommend using low to warm heat settings to prolong the life of the fabrics and resist fading and shrinking.
Care for twinkie tush wool
All twinkie tush wool should be washed and lanolized before using. Here's how you do that:
1) Get yourself a nice tube of lanolin! This is the very same lanolin that you may have used in the beginning days of nursing to help heal your skin. It's amazing stuff! Lansinoh is one great brand.
2) Pick up some wool wash - there are lots of options for this. We used Eucalan and I personally loved the lavender scent!
3) Clean your bathroom (or another) sink and then get the hot water running to a nice piping hot temp. Then you turn the water off and put in the stopper (with no water in the sink - you've just prepped the pipes so that when you turn your water on it will be nice and hot).
4) Squeeze out about 1/2" of lanolin from your tube, and drop it into your sink. Then turn the water on and fill your sink with an inch or so of hot water to melt the lanolin. (I use my hand to break it up and help it dissolve quicker.)
5) Now you're ready to add your wool wash. Turn on the water again, this time relatively cool - you want your full sink to be as close to room temp as possible when it's done filling. While the water is running, add about a 1/2 cap full of wool wash and agitate the water so that it gets all nice and mixed in.
6) Now you have a sink full of room temp water, melted lanolin, and wool wash! You're ready to add your wool! All you need to do is place your wool soaker/pants/skirtie/what have you in the water and push it down to the bottom of the sink so that it gets nicely submerged and full of water.
7) Now take a break while your wool soaks! About 15-30 min.
8) Remove your wool and fold it over on itself to wring it out (you don't want to twist it or scrunch it up in a ball or anything too intense. Once you've gotten out a good amount of water you can lay it on a towel and fold the towel over top of it, like a sandwich, then roll up your towel on the floor and use your knees to apply pressure, allowing the towel to absorb as much of the water as possible.
9) Once your wool is no longer dripping but still damp, you can lay it out on a dry towel to dry.
You’ll want to repeat this process every 2-4 weeks or so to clean the wool you use frequently. You do not need to wash your wool every time you use it or even every day! Wool is amazing stuff - not only does it act as a waterproof barrier when it's lanolized, it also has antibacterial properties that enable it to sort of clean itself as it goes! As long as it isn't soiled with poo, it's good to go! You do want to rotate it, however - have 2 or more wool covers and rotate them at each change so the wool can dry and do that self-cleaning magic!
If your wool is stained you can gently scrub with a stain remover stick like Buncha Farmers before soaking.