Washing Your Pads

The part where you have to actually clean your pads may be the no-go factor for you. That's okay and there are so many cloth pad users who were the same way.

Trying something new isn't always easy, but once you get into a routine it becomes normal and easy. I just want to highlight that taking care of reusable menstrual products isn't gross as long as you also take care of the space around you--- this goes to menstrual cup users as well. Make sure you clean up after yourself and use a shower with a drain below you.

I made a video to show you how you can stain treat your pads prior to tossing them into the washing machine. I broke it up into darks/stain-resistant fibers then lights.

Trigger warning: Just a heads-up, for the "stain-treating lights" part, I used red dye and after pouring it onto the example, I realized it could be disconcerting to some.

Pre-washing your pads

Transcript:

Stain-treating darks

Washing darker pads are pretty straight-forward. You don’t have to do much pre-rinsing since you can let the washing machine do most of the cleaning.

All you want to do is rinse it out a little and lay out to dry before you throw it into a load of laundry. I like to use body soap and hydrogen peroxide.

Stain-treating lights

If you find a pad you really like and it happens to be lighter, you don’t have to worry about it permanently staining because it’s easy to get out. It’s a little higher maintenance than darker fabrics but I’ll show you how easy it is to get rid of the stains.

Take your used pad and wash as much of the blood out as possible under cold water. You’ll probably see some shadow stains, so this is where the next part comes in.

I’m just going to pause here for a second. With the next step, I’m going to use an actual stained pad to accurately show you how the stain treatment works because obviously blood and food dye are different. I figured that if you’re watching this video and on this website then you’re here to learn so if you’re comfortable with it then I’m comfortable. If you don’t feel comfortable with the next part then please exit the video. With that said, let’s get to the next part.

To get those stubborn stains out I highly, highly recommend using Fels-Naptha’s bar of soap. Let me just tell you. Game changer. You don’t need much soap to get out the stain and it literally costs less than $1. You can find it almost anywhere and I got mine off of Amazon but I’ve heard that you can find it in Walmart and other chain stores. Not only is it crazy inexpensive but the bar can last a really long time. If you’re using liquid stain remover sticks, they’re more expensive and you’ll have to buy a new one about twice a year.

I cut my bar in half because it’s too big to fit in a standard soap container. I keep one in my shower caddy and the other in my travel bag.

This pad here is a bamboo jersey pad. Blue is known to stain the most which is pretty unfortunate because blue is my favorite color. However, don’t let that turn you off because the stains are so easy to get out especially if you make sure to clean your pad within 24 hours. You can see that there’s minimal staining on this pad after rinsing it with just cold water.

All you have to do is take your Fels-Naptha and rub it into the stain. It shouldn’t take long before you start to see the stain coming out.

Then you rinse it under cold water and scrub it a little, drain it, and voila… no more stains!

I’ll show you another one with this blue minky pad. Do the same thing and the stains come out. The thread on this is white so I noticed that the thread got stained which you can see and it still wasn’t coming out. All I had to do is scrub that area a little more and it looked good as new.

It’s so easy it’s great.

Just to show you how you don't need run from light colors, here are images of some of my "stainable" pads right after using this staining treatment. I personally like wearing lighter pads because it tells me how well they're getting cleaned and it allows me to catch leaks before they may happen.

Machine washing & drying your pads

Transcript:

If you’ve pre-washed your pads, throw them in with the rest of your clothes.

Put the setting to cold. I always use cold in general unless I’m washing bed sheets.

Once you've washed your pads through a final round in the washing machine, you need to dry them. The great thing is that for people who don't like to hang-dry clothes, you can just toss your pads into the dryer. However, most people encourage hang-drying because it keeps the pad in better condition for longer. If you put it in the sun it naturally kills bacteria. Also putting pads in the dryer can increase the chances of your pads staining if you have lighter materials. It can also increase the chances of setting in any odor.

It all seems like a process at first, but once you get into a routine, you don't really think about it.

When tossing your pads into the dryer can be good.

1) You don't have a place to hang-dry them.

2) You want to soften your pads.

-Sometimes minky can get a little flat when you hang dry them. Putting minky pads in the dryer can make them fluffy. They also take longer to dry when hang dried.

- Bamboo velour can feel a little rough. A toss around in the dryer can make bamboo velour pads feel soft again.

-Cotton gets stiff when hang dried.

3) It's way too humid to dry.

During the summer in certain countries or regions, it gets really humid. I'll always either machine dry my pads or hang-dry them outside in the sun. If you hang-dry indoors in a humid room, it's going start getting that gross, wet musty laundry smell. The same applies to your clothes as well. It can take forever to dry because the fabric is technically dry but it's so humid that moisture is getting trapped in the pad thus making it feel a bit damp.