There are lots of different, equally legitimate, ways to clean and care for your cloth pads. I’m going to share my method because it’s easy and works well for me, but your mileage may vary.
When I take off a used pad, I fold it in on itself and pop it in an old pillow case in the bathroom. You could make a cloth bag just for this purpose if you wanted, but I’ve never got round to it.
When my period is over, I open up the pads (now dry) and pop them in the washing machine along with the pillow case. I set the machine to rinse and drain, which takes about 30 minutes.
After the rinse has finished, I add enough towels, sheets etc to take it up to a normal laundry load, add detergent and a scoop of Vanish Oxi Action. I wash the load as I would normally wash towels/sheets, which for me is 40 degrees.
I air dry or tumble dry the pads (along with the rest of the load) depending on how much laundry hanging space I have available, and once dry they are ready to go for next time.
