My nappies sat in the washing machine for HOW MANY days?!?

One of the biggest benefits of applying Clean Cloth Nappies principles to your wider laundry is no more musty ‘wet dog’ smells if laundry is left in the washing machine for too long.

There are scientific studies on why some washing machines get so gross, and the executive summary is washing on short cycles, cold cycles, and not using enough detergent.

Sustainability trends have influenced users to wash at lower temperatures, with reduced water and energy consumption … However, from a hygienic point of view, these adjustments can negatively affect laundry hygiene by facilitating the survival of microorganisms inside the washing machine and on washed laundry.

~ Antibiotics 2024, 13(12), 1227

These smells are a combination of old skin cells, grime, food remnants and general dirt – multiple bits of biofilm that weren’t washed out properly. Over time, this grows into Microbial City, a colony of bacteria and fungi that live inside your machine and mix with your clothes, sheets and towels. 

Growing up, you might have assumed this was an inevitable part of life. After all, a washing machine full of damp laundry provides moisture, nutrients, and a hospitable surface. If you don’t rush to your machine as soon as the cycle finishes, then everything is destined to smell, right? Not at all!

Once you start regularly washing laundry on long warm/hot cycles and using enough quality detergent, these musty smells are a thing of the past. The microbes are washed away before establishing Microbial City. A monthly machine clean is also a great way to make sure your machine is squeaky clean.  

Consistently clean laundry paired with a clean machine gives you an amazing amount of freedom. You don’t have to worry about rewashing laundry if it sat for longer than two hours, and you don’t need to plan your day around when the machine is due to finish. Instead, you can run laundry overnight, or when you are out of the house, or even if you are away from home. 

Here’s a first-hand story from long-term admin and cloth user Aurelia way back in 2022.

***

We went on a long road trip out of state to visit family and decided to use disposables while we were gone. We’ve continued using cloth before when away from home, but not this time because of a variety of reasons. (There’s never any judgment from the admin team if/when you need to use disposables!)

Nonetheless, I wanted my baby to be in cloth up till the last possible moment, and I didn’t want any dirty diapers sitting around in the dry pail while we were gone.

We changed him into a disposable right before we left the house, ran the first wash with a little extra detergent and some chlorine bleach, said a prayer for the laundry, and drove off feeling exhausted before the holiday even began. 

After we got back home, I didn’t manage to even step foot in our basement laundry until the next afternoon. It had been NINE DAYS since I ran that wash. Honestly, I had forgotten about it until I went downstairs to run a cycle for our dirty clothes.

What did I find when I lifted my top loader lid?!

Nothing exciting at all. 😅 The nappies were still a little damp, but everything smelled like nothing, i.e. clean. I even stuck my face into a prefold. No visible mould spots either. It kinda blew my mind a little.

But there ya go. The power of clean laundry.