Drying Diapers

As with any other fabric-made thing, there are two main ways of drying diapers. Using a machine or hanging to dry.

Dryers-
Diapers can be tossed in the dryer. Seriously! Even if they have PUL. Actually, PUL Needs to be tossed in the dryer about once a month to re-seal it. If the PUL has gotten cracks, snags, or pinholes in it, the Heat of the dryer will melt the laminate slightly and it will all go back together as one whole piece, making it water-proof again.
One of the main things to remember when using a dryer is to never EVER use Fabric Softeners. The chemicals used to soften the fabric can build up on the diapers and make them not absorbent. The dryer-sheets used with your other laundry may even leave residue in the dryer and cause the same problem. Simply stripping the diapers once again will fix the problem, but if you use fabric softeners, you’ll have to strip much more frequently. Solutions to this is to use “Dryer-Balls.” These are hard, plastic, spiky spheres that kinda look like a dog toy (minus the squeaker). When they roll around in the dryer, they create more air-flow and help the fabrics to dry without using chemicals, so there’s nothing to build up. You can use them with diapers and with all your other clothes. You only have to buy them once, so there’s no ongoing bill. Just keep them away from the dogs.
One of the best tricks for getting your diapers (or jeans) to dry more quickly (and thus save on electricity and time) is to add a thick, dry, clean towel to the dryer. It will soak up a little of the water and help to distribute it throughout the dryer, therefore drying easier. This is especially nice when you have AIO’s that take longer to dry than pockets or flats.
Another dryer-problem is the diaper-chains you can get when you use diapers with velcro and they have stuck to each other‘s velcro. Of course if you just use snaps, or pins, this isn’t a problem, but velcro is rather popular. There are two ways of fixing this problem. One is to use the “laundry-tabs” that are on most diapers you would buy. But if you’ve made diapers without laundry tabs, wash the diapers inside out and attach the hook pieces of the velcro to the loop pieces and they wont roll around and stick to each other. They’ll still get clean, and you don’t get diaper-chains.

Hanging to Dry
Truthfully, a lot of cloth-diaper users will choose hang-drying over the dryer because it tends to cause less problems and they dry almost as quickly on a good windy day as they would in the dryer. However, if you live in the middle of the city, you may be strapped for space. Or if you live in Washington, you may have the problem of it raining…. Constantly…. All day….. Every day….. Forever. Ok, maybe I exaggerated about Washington a little…. Maybe. They have the same problem in England during the Summer. Even if you live in a wet (or constantly cold) area, hang-drying is possible. This is because you don’t need a clothes-line to hang-dry. (wow that’s a lot of hyphens)
The first way of hang-drying is to use a clothes-line. One of the main benefits of drying on a clothes-line is that the sun will bleach and sanitize your diapers as they’re drying. It will make your colors fade a bit, but line-drying also airs out the diapers and they’ll be less likely to smell bad. The wonderful thing is that you don’t even really need a warm day for line-drying to work. My other diapered us in Fairbanks Alaska and freeze-dried our clothes in the winter. Making a clothes-line is pretty easy. Clothes-lines don’t even have to be technically “clothes-lines,” a bunch of shoe-strings tied together can work just as well (college-bound kids everywhere are using this method to save a few quarters at the Laundromat). A clothes-line can be strung between any two points and can be put on a set of pulleys. Pulleys don’t like large knots, so if you’re using the college-kid method… make your knots small.
The second hang-drying method is to use a drying-rack. This is best for rainy-days or rainy-states. A drying rack is a wooden or metal stand with several rungs. It can be used inside or outside, but if its used outside, make sure its well secured. They tend to enjoy blowing over…. And away. Its best to set it up in a place with a drain, so if your laundry room doesn’t have a drain in it, setting it up in the bathtub works just as well. Having the vent on in the bathroom sometimes helps to draw the moisture out of the air, and consequently the diapers.