How good laundry practices support messy play

Clean Cloth Nappies member Jes recounts her change from a ’30-minute cold wash with half a scoop of plant-based detergent’ to a stain removal laundry boss.

Messy Play is so incredibly beneficial for child development. Countless peer-reviewed studies show how important it is for our wee ones to get involved with textures and dirt and all those fun things we often cringe at. All the things that caused horrific staining, or so we all thought.

Before I learned the fundamentals of laundry and how to remove stains permanently, I would turn a lot of my clothes into rags, and wear them as “outside” or “home” clothes. Destined to be further stained until either I couldn’t stand them any more or they fell apart.

It makes me nauseated to think of how many perfectly good clothes I thought were ruined because they constantly smelled musty or had stains I couldn’t lift.

I used to think it was normal for laundry to smell musty if you left it in the machine. My general consensus was that the smell would never disappear if your clothes were left in the machine too long. The smell would even linger after rewashing them.

What a wild time that was. I call them the Dark Ages.

If we know better, we can do better.

Laundry has now become a challenge for me. Instead of getting distressed and sad when I see a stain, I get excited (“froth” as my husband so lovingly puts it). I love the challenge of it, the feeling of pride when a stain melts away and the item is fresh and clean.

I get a kick out of being able to leave my laundry in the machine for a couple of days and have no smell whatsoever when I finally get around to putting it in the dryer.

I am a reformed 30-minute cold wash with half a scoop of plant-based detergent laundry person and I regret nothing.

I now use 2-3 scoops of mainstream detergent, rarely run a load for less than 2 hours and NOTHING is washed below 40ºC, not even wool. If it can’t survive a 40ºC wash, it doesn’t come into my house.

Back in the dark ages *shudder* I was resigned to the fact that so many of my son’s clothes would be throwaways, that messy play would be a necessary evil for his development and I would just have to keep a few outfits for him to destroy.

Now I do not care. I send him to daycare in “nice” clothes, I send him in white and other light colours. He has full body experiences with slime and goo, rolls around in the mud and sand, smears paint everywhere and everything just comes out in the wash. 

If one wash doesn’t lift the stain, out comes the bleach and a bar of soap, the machine goes back on and that stain gets given the what for. I used to get mad, but now I get even.

Just because messy play is messy, it doesn’t mean you have to put up with stains or throw your littlies clothes out. Just bump up the temp, stretch out the wash time, increase the detergent, maybe a bit of bleach or bar soap and have a cuppa while you watch them make mud pies and soak in these memories. They will last much longer than the stains.