www.incontinentsupport.org

I am curious how other folks launder their plastic pants. Mine are the cheap 3 for $11.99 Cdn Priva brand ($4 each), so I'm not too worried about best long term care. But I do like them to be clean and smelling nice.

I wait until the three pair have been sullied and then hand wash them in the bathroom sink with a drop of dish soap (Blue Dawn). I'll try to time this when no one else is in the house or likely to need the bathroom (to avoid explaining). I soak and hand wash them good in the sink, let sit a little bit and then give them 2-3 rinses. I finish up with a loose towel drying to remove the worst of the moisture. Then I hang them on hangers to completely dry, which doesn't take long. I won't need a pair until evening.

In my webstore travels, I have seen other brands sold at much higher prices. For those investments, they must get extra care.

Two things…
I put my Euroflex plastic pants in a garment bag and run through the washer with colored clothes or diapers (not with chlorine bleach) after wearing one day - about three to four changes, including overnight unless they begin to have an odor. I wash diapers (tide or oxy with borax) about every evening, usually by themselves, with an extra rinse, hot with colored bleach. Sometimes I use Clorox when they develop an odor, and sometimes Lysol in the fabric softener tray, depending on if the odor seems chronic.
Wayne- how do you attach a photo? What is the file type (jpeg, bmp, pdf, etc)? I’m unable to attach a photo in a private message….

Ellyn, to attach a file:

1. Click on "Choose File" and then click "Open" once you have selected your file.
2. Then click "Add the File".

If you've already typed some message text, then clicking "Preview" should display the file in the preview display before you "Submit" as usual. Here I attached a .jpg, but .png can also be used (there may be one or two others).

I try to avoid washing vinyl plastic pants with soap in order to make them last longer. Use soap infrequently (unless you have messy pants) and then use a very mild soap. Soap is the enemy of vinyl. Plasticizers in the vinyl keep it soft and pliable. If you wash the pants too often and use soap, you will wash out the plasticizers. The vinyl will then become brittle and will crack.

If my PUL pants merely become wet, I may just wipe them dry with a paper towel and reuse them. After several days, or if I detect odor, I will rinse them with hot water but no soap. If they became soiled from a messy diaper I will thoroughly hand wash them with mild Castile soap and hang them to air dry. However, I will acknowledge that PUL pants can be washed with soap and even machine washed. Hand washing will just make them last longer.

Like Ellyn, I also use Euroflex pants. These often are confused with PUL pants, but they are not the same. They are wonderfully thin and light. They are even more durable and almost impervious to lotions, rash creams, etc. They also can be machine laundered without harming them.

--John
(double incontinent)

Yes JD, you’re right! One thing that I didn’t say, though pretty intuitive…. Don’t put plastic pants or even PUL pants in the drier.
I shake them, then hang them on plastic hangers upside-down and also put another hanger inside the pants to keep them open to dry. It only takes a few hours.
On attaching files to posts, I tried the detailed process but it does not work on a PM…. I think it’s an admin issue / setting from what I read.
S hoppy- please help.

I hand wash my PUL and urethane pants in warm water, and a combination of dish detergent, oxygen bleach, and soda, then I rinse them and hang them out to drip dry. I used to wash them with PineSol, but they wore out too quickly. Fecal stains can be difficult, so I use a small brush and a spot of detergent.

Patrick mentioned fecal stains. If you have had to sit for a while in a messy diaper and had leakage onto your plastic pants, or if you could not wash the soiled plastic pants for a while after taking them off, it can be difficult or even impossible to remove all of the stains. The enzymes/acids remaining in the stool sometimes leave an indelible mark on the pants. It does not seem to impair the functionality of the pants.

Although my family knows that I am double incontinent and sometimes have accidents, I find the stains to be embarrassing. Of course, this is not rational. Could there be some primal emotional imprinting that dates back to our potty training? The stains are evidence that we failed in our potty training?

Any ideas?

--John
(double incontinent)

Like others, I usually wash my plastic pants by hand with little or no soap. When I do use soap it is either a something like Woolite Extra Delicate or a small amount of Tide. Dish soap is especially hard on flexible plastic as it is formulated to cut grease and wax found in food.

Thanks for the warning about that (it makes sense). It's just more convenient (within reach) than the other detergents. So I may have to keep a small container of laundry detergent nearby. I have some Tide Free and Gentle that should be ok for that.

I do not know if there is any primal reason for embarrassment. For me, however, a bowel accident is evidence that I may not be as skilled at incontinence management as I would like to think I am. Because internal deodorants work well for me, usually I'm the only one to know. However, the need to find an appropriate place to wash and change becomes a sudden and high priority, which can be disruptive.