DIY Diaper Pail Powder

I am so excited! Of late, our cloth diaper pail has not been the freshest smelling thing to say the least. We use a dry pail and although we dunk, swish, and flush away all solids, the pail still smells a little, well...poopy. I had been using some tea tree essential oil on the cloth attached to the pail liner, but it just wasn't enough. I know you can buy pail powders online, but I really wanted something thrifty.

So I posted on Diaperswappers a few days ago about finding a do-it-yourself recipe for diaper pail powder and some mamas hooked me up with tons of good ideas.

Here's one I tried last night:
*8 oz. box of baking soda
*25-30 drops of essential oil of your choice

I had a small box of baking soda that I had gotten for free or nearly free with coupons awhile back and I picked up a .5-oz bottle of Sweet Orange EO at Earth Fare last night for only $3.14. I just went down their price list and picked the cheapest one that smelled good to me. You can use whatever scent you want though. After making this once, you can't even tell I used any of the EO, so it will really last a LONG time!

Directions:

• Dump the baking soda into a bowl.
• Add 25-30 drops of EO.
• Mash with a fork.
• Let sit for about 30 minutes.
• Sift.
• Let sit for another 30 minutes.
• Sift again.
• Put into a shaker container. (I had a restaurant-style glass parmesean shaker, but a recycled plastic one would work fine, too!)
• Sprinkle into diaper pail as needed!

I have only begun using this today, so I don't know how it's going to work for us, but I will definitely post an update soon.

And just as a note, you can also just use plain baking soda to do the same trick. It will be even more thrifty, it just won't smell as fresh and nice without the EO added! :)