www.incontinentsupport.org

Although I'm still pretty new to clothdiapers - only been wearing them for around half a year or a bit more.

However my wife also complained about them smelling bad, and the washing room also, when they were washed.

anyway, I discovered that when I rinse the diapers in the morning while I take a shower simply by throwing the diapers in the bath covering the drain, then the diapers really gets soaked with water and the urine get's out (most of it), and the smell somewhat lessens - I haven't had a complain from my wife after I started doing that.

And I only wash once max. twice a week depending on how many I have been using during the week.

Jms, thanks for the suggestions.

I used to rinse the diapers before adding them to my diaper pail and I agree that it works. However, now I try to avoid rinsing the diapers as the diaper pail just gets too heavy for me to comfortably manage (I have back problems).

However, it has gotten much better. I keep my diaper pail (a Rubbermaid trash can) in the garage. To keep odor from building I began adding a liberal amount of baking soda with each used diaper I put in the pail. Everything, including the baking soda gets dumped into our top-loading washing machine. The baking soda seems to have had a significant effect in reducing the odor during the rinse cycle. My wife even has commented about how little odor there now is. I usually wash diapers every three days. As I also wear cloth during part of the day, three days equals a full load.

--John

Assuming your washing machine is a top loading design, you can take a towel, wet it and lay it over the entire lid so that odors can not escape. I also agree with the vinegar- I use it for other reasons, but it does seem to control odors as well.
As an aside, because I use disposables now- almost exclusively except as boosters at night- I have to control odor in the garbage. I use a large Rubbermaid container, into which I put the remnants of my deodorant stick containers, and this seems to be quite effective. I've also considered filling one of these part way with sand, and burying the bagged diapers until garbage day. I've not tried this idea yet, though.