How you wash your Fig Tree Reusables will depend a lot on your lifestyle, how you use your pads, and how many you have in your stash.
Step 1: Remove pad from underwear, and toss it into your wet bag until the end of your cycle (or you run out of pads).
Optional: You can rinse off your pad in cold water, treat with stain stick/hydrogen peroxide if needed, and THEN throw it in your wet bag (or let pad air dry before putting it in your wet bag).
Step 2: At the end of your period/wash day, unsnap pads, stain treat any that need it, and put everything, including the wet bag into the washer (you can also stain treat pads after the cold rinse in the next step).
Step 3: Do a short cold rinse (no detergent).
Step 4: Check any pads you're worried about to see if they need some hydrogen peroxide or stain stick.
Step 5: Do a normal wash on hot (with pad safe detergent)- to save on water, you can even throw in a load of towels with your pads.
Step 6: After the wash cycle is done, remove your wet bag and let it air dry and toss your pads in the dryer on med/low or hang dry (check out our pad drying hooks). You can use wool dryer balls to keep your pads from sticking and help them dry faster (extra towels can also help).
DO NOT USE: bleach, borax, acidic detergents/detergents with a lot of salts, dryer sheets or fabric softeners, as these can decrease absorbency and shorten the life of your pads.
Recommended Detergents/stain removers
Detergents to use:.
A few common ones that can be found in stores or online are: Earth Breeze, Seventh Generation, Simple Truth, Tru Earth, Ecos, Wild Harvest, Dr. Bronners, Thieves, Heritage Park, and Meliora.
Here is an Amazon list of some great options for cloth pads. https://a.co/b391Er1
Stain Removers:
Natural stain remover spray: 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide to 3 parts water (store in dark colored spray bottle).
1 Tablespoon Baking soda during initial cold rinse
Kind Laundry- Vegan Stain Remover bar, unscented
Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar and Stain Remover, unscented
I've read from other pad makers that many of the mainstream detergents will actually reduce the absorption capabilities and durability of cloth pads (such as Tide, Xtra, Gain, Purex, ALL, Dreft, Arm & Hammer, Mrs. Meyers, and Persil so it's best to avoid them. Using Oxi-Clean is also not recommended but many people DO use it.