AntiMom’s Tip#1 – Never Wash Disposable Diapers. EVER!
If you end up in the same situation I was in the other night, where you are exhausted from going to the beach and spending the entire weekend in the hot sun and ready to collapse after you do just 1 load of laundry but then you realize as you empty the clothes from the washer to the dryer, that you have washed one of your child’s disposable diapers in with all the clothes. You want to cry, scream, punch a wall and/or slowly walk away and shut the door to deal with at a later time. Yes, that is exactly how I felt at 10:30 pm 2 nights ago. I still am not sure how my dumb ass mixed a diaper, dirty none the less(#1 not #2..) in with the clothes. It will forever be a mystery.
the infamous diaper.
Once I got over the initial shock of the situation, it now turned to damage control. How the hell do I handle the 10 lbs of wet baby clothes that are covered in tiny gross gel pellets?! Google it is – “accidentally washed disposable diaper” and the results were in abundance. I honestly don’t know what I would do with out Google, you always seem to find an answer of some sort. Not gonna lie though, it did make me feel a teeny bit better that there were others out there (more than I thought) that have done the same thing. I know, I’m terrible..but misery loves company, right?!
I powered through each listing and found some really helpful tips to clean my gel-ridden washer and clothes. I felt compelled to share these tips and some of my own to help anyone else out there who has had such a brain lapse, like myself.
The AntiMom’s Guide To The Diaper/Washer Disaster
Step 1: Admitting
By accepting the fact that you screwed up immediately will get the job done quicker. I sat on my laundry room floor surrounded by the pile of gel clothes and the infamous diaper for a good 15 minutes just trying to wrap my head around WTF I had just done. I would have been done a whole lot sooner if I wasn’t sulking for all that time. So just hold back the tears of embarrassment and frustration and power through!
Step 2: Shake & Discard
Get rid of the problem. The diaper will most likely be busted open so make sure you put it in a plastic bag and/or throw it immediately into the garbage so you don’t spill any more of those gel gooey things.
gross.
Once the diaper is discarded, you are going to need to shake each piece of clothing that is contaminated with the diaper gel individually. Try and get rid of as much as you can. The less gel remnants the better.
the shake aftermath
Step 3: Dryer Magic
Once you have removed as much as you can from the clothes, throw them in the dryer. I got this tip from the Pampers website. The gel things will dry up and fall off in the dryer and will get caught in the lint catcher. I didn’t believe it at first, and honestly was scared my dryer would end up looking like my washer. But it did work! When the dryer was finished the clothes were like brand new and no messy clean up!
Step 4: Clean Your Washer
I have a front loader and all those gel beads were stuck on the door, in the barrel and in/on the rim. It was a huge pain in the ass! I took some paper towels and cleaned as much as I could. Once done, put on a rinse cycle or cleaning function on the washer to flush out the remaining gel. I did the cleaning one, and my washer looked like new. I did it one more time just for safe keeping.
There you have it. Not as bad as you think right? I literally thought I ruined my washer and all her clothes. The only pain in the ass was the cleaning part. I was covered with gel pellets after the shaking process. So try not to panic if you are ever caught in this predicament, my friends. Hope these tips help – ya gotta pay it forward!
Until the next disaster…
– Amanda
