Cleaning Cloth Menstrual Pads

Hi, it’s Kay, the padmaker here at Moody V! I’m here to tell you the ins and outs of cleaning cloth menstrual pads. There’s a few different approaches to getting your reusable pads clean and ready to use again, it just depends on your resources and your preferences! By resources I mean, do you have a laundry machine, or a place to soak pads if you’d like.

So, I’ve had my pads for 4 years and have been cleaning them the same way the whole time. They’ve held up pretty well, with some fading and some reduction of softness over time. Here’s how I clean cloth pads:

1. Take the cloth menstrual pad off your underwear and toss it in the hamper with the rest of your clothes.
2. Wash your pads with your clothes in cold water with gentle detergent and no fabric softener. (Cold water works best to remove blood. It’s good to use a gentle detergent because your pad is gonna be real up close and personal in a sensitive area. Fabric softener makes fabric less absorbent.)
3. When you’re transferring the laundry from the washer to the dryer, stretch them gently and flatten them out before putting them in the dryer so they dry in a nice flat shape instead of a crumpled up ball.
4. Make sure your pads are totally dry before you put them away.

That’s all there is to it! That’s my favorite way to do it because it’s fast, easy, and effective. Since there’s no pre-rinse or presoak, though, there could still be some light stains hanging around. This is a non-issue with dark colored reusable pads, luckily. I’ve also found that stains fade over time. I personally don’t mind it cause I’m like, hey, I’m just gonna stain it again next month.

Here’s the way I tell all my customers to clean their pads, just so there’s no hard feelings about staining, fading, or pads getting bent out of shape in the dryer.

1. Take the reusable pad off your underwear and give it a good rinse with cold water as soon as you can. You can also keep a container of cool water in the bathroom to soak pads until laundry day if you’d like. (This step helps reduce staining.)
2. Wash your pads in the washing machine with regular laundry in cold water with gentle detergent and no fabric softener.
3. Hang dry or sun dry your cloth pads thoroughly before putting them away. (Sun drying will cause color fading.)

This way is a great way to make your pads last a super long time, and keep them pretty and soft.

The last way is to do everything the same as the steps we just went through, but with hand washing instead of using a washing machine. You can use a bit of detergent and wash them in the sink if you don’t have a machine or prefer to do it this way. It’s all up to you, friend! Good luck with cleaning your new cloth menstrual pads, you’re gonna love them!