Last month I took the plunge. I decided to order a set of cloth pantyliners that were on sale at one of the online diaper shops I frequent. They were only like $9.00 for a set of six and I’ve been curious to try the whole cloth menstrual pad thing for a while now (better known as “mama cloth”).

I already wash Everly’s cloth diapers so why not add a few cloth pads to the mix once a month? Everyone says they are sooo much more comfortable and heck they’d sure save money.

The average women goes through about $150 – $200 worth of menstrual products a year, every year for around 30-40 years – That’s over $6,000! from: http://labyrinth.net.au

Besides, one of the main arguments against disposables (pads, diapers, etc) is the environmental and health impacts. The bleaching of paper products is one major health issue that stands out for me. There is also the huge amount of resources it takes to produce these disposable products (cut trees for wood, water used turning the wood to pulp and then paper, etc).

Having a set of reusable pads sure would save money over time and it would also leave less of an environmental impact over the course of my life. I figured why not? It can’t hurt to try.

N wasn’t that thrilled, I know the idea seems a bit gross right? Wont there be unsightly stains, goopy chunks and all around vomit inducing stench? Most people would think so but the answer is absolutely not!

Let me use my cloth diapering experience to illustrate why: At any time I’ve got a few of urine soaked diapers (that sometimes have poop in them) waiting to be laundered in the diaper pail already.

Frequent washing (with my favorite all natural “cloth diaper safe” detergent, Planet) and hanging outside to dry is the best way to keep cloth diapering from being a gross experience.

You just flip the diaper inside out over the toilet so the solids fall off, the rest goes right in the wash. The right detergent rinses and dissolves the “pieces” and it all goes right down the drain. No stinky washer and no yucky remnants in the washer. People can’t believe this but I assure you it is true.

After washing if there are any unusual stains the bleaching effects of the sunshine will leave everything good as new. I know this too is hard to believe since we are all conditioned to think we need heavy duty stain removers for the laundry. Truthfully most mass-marketed laundry detergents cause more laundry problems than they fix. So, hanging your stained stuff outside in the sunshine to dry is great for removing stains and for saving on energy costs.

By the way, just last week I also learned that cloth diaper detergent and sunshine removes vomit mess from bedding and clothes. Even a white nightgown was stained orange from Everly’s mac & cheese puke but now it’s 100% stain free folks!

Basically any bodily function kind of stain or laundry mess can remedied by washing “cloth diaper style” like I described above and I put this to the test about two weeks ago with my new cloth pantyliners.

First thing I noticed with them was how darn soft and nice they felt. Very soft and comfortable unlike plasticky disposable pads. The next thing I noticed was the absence of my cramps and back pain. I didn’t even attribute this to the cloth pads until reading more about other women’s experiences making the switch to mama cloth.

Remember how I only got 6 pantyliners? That is all I needed for 5 days! My cycle was crazy light which isn’t characteristic for me so I was able to do my usual two loads of diaper/ pantyliner laundry over the course of the 5 days. Adding mama cloth didn’t impact my laundry routine at all.

The best part is the cute pads are still cute and stain free!

I am super impressed with cloth pads so I decided to grab four regular size cloth pads and a little mama cloth wetbag so I am all set now. I am totally making the switch for the long term. Now the only thing left to make the switch on is “family cloth”. That is another messy issue for pondering another day though.