No washer. No dryer. No problem!

So today is Day 1 of Dirty Diaper Laundry's 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  So why did I decide to participate this year?  Well, we're considering going camping this summer and I want to prove to myself that I can use flats and wash by hand for a week.  Florida is also often hit by hurricanes.  In 2004, after Hurricanes Charley and Francis, we lost power for 8 days.  I'd like to try this challenge so that if we have any storms this summer where we lose electricity for a few days, I'll be prepared.

I'm not really nervous about the handwashing part -- I typically rinse out the little guy's diapers by hand and I'm not squeamish.  But just using flats on a heavy wetter? That's what could get interesting.  I think for overnight I will have to use the wool longies I made for him.  During the day I'll either be using Thirsties Duo-Wraps or g-Pants.  So far today we've gone through 4 flats (I put 2 in at a time) in his g-pants.  I washed the first pair of flats right after I changed him.  I don't own a lot of flats so I figure if I wash them right away, hopefully I won't run out at the end of the day.

Washing wasn't hard.  I used the bathroom sink and a few of Maggie's Soap Nuts.  I rinsed the diapers with really hot water, then filled the sink with hot water.  I added 3-4 soap nuts and swirled the water around a bit until I saw some suds.  I plopped the diapers in, swished them around for a few minutes and then rinsed them really well.  The only problem I saw was that a few little bits of soap nuts got stuck in the flats, but next time I'll just use the mesh bag that they came with.  Problem solved.  I wrung the diapers out and they're hanging outside to dry.  While they could easily be dried indoors, I decided they'd dry faster in the sunshine.

So, while the day is far from over, I'd say it's going pretty well so far!

Update:  The day is done and the little guy is sleeping upstairs in his longies.  I used the kite fold on one flat and put 2 pad folded flats in for extra absorbency.  Throughout the day, I washed each set of diapers after I changed him.  It worked, I didn't run out of diapers and I'll have plenty of clean, dry ones ready for tomorrow.  I do think tomorrow I might head to the store to buy a few more so I don't have to wash them as I go, but I do know I'll be ok if I don't get any extras.  I'd also like to try waiting until the end of the day to wash so I wash everything all at once.  While it took a little extra time today to stop and wash diapers, as a whole the challenge hasn't been very "challenging" so far.