The best items to add to your main wash 🧺

The main wash advice on our washing cloth nappies overview page is fairly brief: add family laundry (such as baby, children and small to medium adult clothing) to this wash cycle. 

​​This raises questions: What constitutes ‘small’? How large is large? And what exactly counts as medium? In other words, what can you realistically wash with your nappies?

We don’t go into detail on the overview page because its main job is to convince people to use a two-step wash system and quality detergent. We keep each section on that page as concise as possible to avoid it feeling like an overblown dissertation on laundry science. 

We also try not to make our recommendations overly prescriptive. Each family is different, and making rigid guidelines on what to include (or not include) imposes unattainable and unrealistic targets. 

However, we are often asked for more information about what to include in your main wash, so it’s time to spin out some suggestions into their own post.

The ideal main wash load

Let’s start with the absolute best-case scenario for your main wash. The ideal items are:

• Light-coloured.
• Single-layer.
• Relatively small (up to about 60x60cm).
• Carrying an average amount of dirt and grime.

These items wash well, and crucially, they agitate effectively against the nappies and each other. This provides optimal cleaning of all laundry in the wash.

If you have a 7-8kg machine and a child in full-time cloth, filling it is easy with nappies, cloth wipes, baby/children’s clothes, and adult smalls.

Getting the balance right

If you have a larger machine or only use cloth nappies part-time, you’ll need to stray away from the platonic ideal outlined above. Don’t worry, there are plenty of other items to add to your main wash without compromising their cleanliness.

👚 Practical items to include in your main wash

If there is space in your machine, you should use it. After you’ve added baby and children’s clothes, start adding other items. Start with smaller items and add progressively larger ones as space allows. 

✅ Excellent additions

• Small adult clothing: Underwear, socks, t-shirts, singlets, shorts, pyjamas and leggings. These are good for filling space and providing agitation.
• Baby/child linens: Muslin wraps, burp cloths, swaddles, and smaller baby towels.
• Small household items: Washable kitchen cloths and tea towels. These are great fillers that benefit from a long wash and don’t inhibit movement.
• Medium adult clothing: Track pants, sweatshirts and light jumpers. They offer bulk without excessive weight or wrapping.

Sticking to white and light-coloured items removes the risk of colour run, but this suggestion is not always practical. Many bright and dark-coloured items are fine to include in your main wash as long as you take some precautions.

To reduce risk, wash any new coloured and dark items separately until you are certain they won’t shed dye in the wash. Excess or unstable dye generally leaches out during the first few warm/hot washes. If you are unsure, add a colour catcher sheet or microfibre cloth to the wash to soak up any loose dye. 

Any super dirty items (muddy socks, food-covered bibs, and grass-stained tracksuit pants) benefit from a double wash. Consider adding these items to both your first and main wash.

💌 Remember, not every piece of clothing in your house needs such thorough laundering. Lightly soiled adult clothes (like delicate dresses and officewear) usually only need shorter, gentler cycles.

Washing only a few nappies

Many children toilet train during the day and still require a nappy at night. Suddenly, there is a gap in your laundry loads that day nappies used to fill.

Our best advice here is not to stress about loading! With the right combination of cleaning factors (time, temperature, chemicals and the mechanical action provided by your washing machine), your nappies will get clean in an underloaded cycle.

Once nappies have had their first wash, they need a long, warm/ hot main wash to get truly clean. Considering adding the first-washed nappies to other long warm/ hot cycles you are already running. 

Towels are items that most families regularly wash on long, hot cycles. Washing nappies with towels is a good option when you don’t have enough family laundry for a regular main wash.

Avoid washing fitted sheets as nappies can become trapped inside, reducing agitation and washing poorly.

Once the door is shut, remember this

Laundry doesn’t have to be perfect. There’ll always be another load of washing to do, and mistakes are fixable. The best items to add to your main wash depend on your family and your stage of nappy washing life.

Remember: with adequate detergent, time, and warm/hot water, your nappies will still get clean even in an underloaded wash.