Washing cloth diapers... in the sink... with plain hotel soap

Today I repeated a task I've done several times since moving to our new living situations.  Husband, Baby, and I, despite being in our very late 20s, have moved into... my grandmother's basement (it's a nice basement apartment, it saves rent money while Husband looks for a job, and Grandma gets help about the house.)

Anywho, this task is washing cloth diapers in the sink. 

Now, we're not so hard off that there is no washer or dryer on the premises, but Ruby isn't going through quite as many diapers as she used to.  So I can either wait for the diapers to build up (even every other day is ridiculous) or I can just wash a few at a time in the sink.

A few years ago whilst teaching, one of those book companies that preys upon teachers offered this handy little book for sale:

While it's not the most useful green cleaning book around, I like it and have found many a tip handy.  Namely, using soap to wash natural fibers.  In fact, the book insists plain soap cleans the diapers suitably and leaves them softer than detergent.

I have searched the internet, but can't find anyone who has just used soap (I google it and all I get is those darn homemade laundry detergent recipes.)  But it makes sense.  Somehow our ancestors cleaned clothing before detergent.  I wasn't around to know how clean the clothes were or if they stank, but I will give the benefit of the doubt.

My other times washing prefolds in the sink have proven... successful!  And all I use is a bar of hotel soap (I collect those) and a few drops of essential oils (because I love essential oils).

1. Rinse the diapers!  I usually just do this in the toilet.  You can flush all the nasties away.
2.  Fill up the sink with hot water.  I bare the heat and just rub soap with my hands into the stream of water, though I also find soap shaving works nicely.
3. And... handwash.
1. For me this means a mix of letting it soak (especially when I add an essential oil) and doing lots of squeezing and spinning and wringing.  
4. Rinse!  This proves to be the trickiest part of the process.  Soap is hard to get off.  Depending on the amount of diapers, I've cheated and thrown the diapers into the washer with the lowest rinse cycle I can get, figure it's comparable with running diapers under running water.  Even so, rinsing in the sink isn't a huge deal and can be done.  
5.  Drying.  Good ol' line/rack drying.  Simple enough to understand.

Are my diapers clean? I'd say so.  They pass the sniff test (does the diaper smell clean?) and Ruby doesn't complain.  A triumph of plain old soap here! 

Are they softer?  Now, I'm hardly the one to pay attention to this sort of thing, but I've tried to concentrate and consider this.  And... yes, I think they are a tad softer.