If you are anything like me, you might have a few hook and loop (velcro) closures on your cloth diapers. I don’t even mess with diapers with weak hook and loop. After a while even the best stuff isn’t so sticky anymore. It’s because of all the junk that collects in them in the wash. I don’t have to do it very often, it’s been more than 7 or 8 months now. I use a trick I learned that stops diaper chains in the wash and helps to keep the fuzz and lint out of the hook part of the diaper. Get all the info here.
With the right tool, it turns out that this doesn’t take long at all. I’ve used it all…my fingers, tweezers, a snappi. Nope. They all took too long and wasted too much time. I asked in our chat group and someone suggested a seam ripper! Of course! So simple :)
Disclaimer:Be careful to not pull the stitching out of the hook tab and loosen it from the diaper. You just want the lint! Common sense, right? You know I still need to say it…
Step 1: Wash and dry cloth diaper covers.
Step 2: Use the seam ripper (mine is actually the cleaning tool that came with my little motorized stick vac) and pull all the lint and fuzz up and out of the hook closure tab. Remember to just pull up lint and fuzz, not the threading.
Step 3: Use your fingers to pull out the lint that is all now loosened from the hooks.
Viola! Fuzz and lint free… like new hook and loop.
Have you found a way that is even easier than this to get all that junk out? I’d love to hear it. My feelings won’t be hurt if you did!
Jenn is a long-time cloth diaper educator and a passionate small business advocate. She has worked in the reusable diaper industry for over a decade, helping millions of families via her websites All About Cloth Diapers, Thinking About Cloth Diapers and Cloth Diaper Geek as well as hundreds of small businesses during that time. Her goal always to provide simple, reliable information.
Alexis says
Duck tape
Tiffanie says
I wish I had seen this article before replacing the velcro on nearly 20 diapers! I literally used a seam ripper to get the velcro off but never did I think to use it for cleaning. Thanks for the tip! I will be using this in the future.
Jessica Seston says
I tried a seam ripper awhile back on my hook and loop and it actually shredded the velcro right off the tab. So now on the diaper it happened to I’ve got a “bald” spot in the middle of the hook half.
Michelle says
This is not intended for the loop portion. Only the hook portion.
Sarah says
They’ve been discontinued, but have you tried GripClean. It’s a velcro cleaner. If you put it in google and look at images you can find it. Now that I think about it, it probably wouldn’t have been discontinued if they had tried selling it to CD users. It was only discontinued in November I think so you may still be able to find one. It has a bunch of little wire hooks that pulls out most of the stuff quickly.
Jennifer Reinhardt says
Thanks Sarah! That looks like a great idea. But it’s almost $20! I wish it were a little less expensive then I’d totally get one.
Carrie Tomlinson Warner says
Nice Rags! ???? thanks for the tip because I was trying to use a snappi on my new to me Rags just the other day!
Jennifer Reinhardt says
hanks Carrie! A snappi or comb works ok on other kinds of hook and loop. But didn’t seem to do much on these.
Irina Johnson says
Hi Jennifer. Thanks for the great tip. I will put this into practise
Jennifer Reinhardt says
I hope it’s helpful. So far it is by far the easiest way to get all that junk out!
Molli Vandehey says
thank you for this. this is a huge reason why i have been using my snap pockets, but i’d really like to try these kind again! good tips!
Linda Manns Linneman says
This is a great solution. Thank you so much for sharing
Dawne says
I was just picking the lint out of my hooks, wishing I could think of a faster way! This is so cool, AND now I know how to clean my vacuum brush more easily :)
Courtney says
Great tip! I also have issues with lint building up in the tabs of my pocket diapers. I usually use tweezers for that- it can be tedious to navigate around the snaps.
Jelma says
Hi Jennifer, I’m a mom of a 16 month old boy. My main stash of diapers is hook and loop so I have come across this problem quite often. I used to do the seal ripper but found that it caught rather easily and so I have figured an even easier way (in my opinion anyway). I blog about my ways and thrifty life on my site and have recently started vlogging. Although my de-linting video is not on my site just yet it is on my YouTube channel:
http://youtu.be/NRu7otdW6aU