Wednesday, March 23, 2011

I Am Crying "Uncle"!!

I have had a very stressful laundry week, and it has all come down on my beloved diapers.

I love my cloth, as I have said in previous posts, and like many of you, are so "retentive" about staining, discoloration, and stink.  I will gladly wash a diaper 15 times and sun it dry over and over to avoid a stain.  This last week, I have been brought to the brink of tears, and disposables. :(
Wednesday, as I did my normal diaper laundry, I noticed some dark brown spots on my dipes.  I grumpily figured it was a crayon or other marking device left in one of the kids pockets and began the arduous task of inspecting each diaper and insert thoroughly to remove the tainted ones from rotation to rewash with the next load. It only turned out to be a small handful of dipes.  Not too bad.
Thursday I laundered again, inspecting the dipes, there were MORE spots.  I panicked.  Removing the spotted ones at this point were not an option, removing the unspotted ones was easier.  This time, only  a handful of "clean" diapers.
With most of Thursdays load needing to be rewashed, and Wednesdays stragglers, plus the diapers I was still using, I was running behind on diaper laundry.  I did the only thing  I could do, I put them back in the wash.  I figured the culprit HAD to be washed out of the washer by now.  Boy, was I wrong.
Friday, after an epic load of diaper laundry, I pulled them out of the wash.  There were not spots this time, but smears and blots.  *GASP* and the smell of grease.  EVERY one of my diapers I washed that time had grease spots on them, new, old, ones currently in review, you name it, stained!
(Sidenote, a few weeks earlier, I had some other diapering products bleed onto an entire load of diapers, so on top of my hideously yellowed dipes from that escapade, I now have grease stains.)
I dumped all the remaining unlaundered dirty diapers in my bath tub and prewashed them, then carted them and the spotted ones to my fathers house around the corner to rewash them in his washer.  If only he knew I washed them in there, I might end up with a new washer from him!  2-3 washes per load later at his house, i still had grease spots all over my diapers, but at least the grease smell was gone at this point.
It turned out that the transmission in my washer blew a seal and spewed mechanical grease all over many loads of laundry.
I am now the proud new owner of a toothbrush, bottle of blue dawn, and a new washing machine.  I am happy, momentarily.
Today, I resumed my diaper laundry, again, far behind.  I decided to split my load, inserts and prefolds first, and I would wash my AIO's, covers, and shells next.  I normally do not launder this way, and boy am I glad I did in hindsight.  I threw my freshly laundered prefolds and inserts into the dryer and start to wash my PUL items.  About an hour later I open my dryer to get the inserts and my heart sunk.  They were BLACK!!!  No. No. No.  I put them in the laundry basket, and brought them out and dropped them silently at my husbands feet.  "I give up"  After almost 2 years of  exclusive cloth diapering, this third event was too much.
After investigating the dryer, the only thing I can presume is when the delivery men were installing the washer, they pushed the dryer and kinked the exhaust hose.  A stuck chunk of lint must have caught fire and disbursed soot and smoke into the washer, and my room (I noticed the smoke earlier, but dismissed it as candle smoke from it burning too high)  Thank God my dryer itself did not catch fire, or house, or harm my daughter who was sleeping in the room adjacent to the dryer.
The good news, the black soot washed off.  Inserts were saved.  Now, to go scrub off all that grease :(

2 comments:

  1. OH MY!!! My heart dropped to my feet reading this! Horror of horrors. :'-(

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  2. You have WAY more patience than I do.

    ReplyDelete