Clear Blue Skies

I didn't get a chance yesterday to write a post.  My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner and leaving the kids home with a babysitter.  So I spent the entire day cleaning the house.  

So it was Day 6 of the challenge.  Yesterday's handwashing went fairly easily.  I did a large bunch of diapers first thing in the morning while the little guy was eating his breakfast and put them out on the line.  They were dry by lunch time.  I washed his morning diapers at lunch and hung them out.  It was a gorgeous day -- clear blue skies, low humidity and plenty of warm sunshine.  Perfect weather for line drying diapers. 

I put him in his g-Pants when the babysitter arrived.  She fed the kids supper and then gave the little guy his bath.  I laid out a pocket stuffed with flats for her to put on him and then I changed him into his night time flats and wool longies when I got home.  

So flats can even work for a babysitter.  If I were going to have a babysitter often and I was using only flats, I would teach her how to use them.  For last night, the pocket worked just fine.

I did notice yesterday that he leaked through a few times.  I don't think I was changing the diapers any less often than the earlier part of the week so I'm not really sure why.  Maybe he just nursed more.  It wasn't a big deal and not something that couldn't be fixed by adding another flat, but just an observation.

We have decided that we are going to go on vacation this summer to the mountains of North Carolina.  We probably won't be camping, but we will be away from home and without a washer and dryer.  So I will most likely be using flats and handwashing again.  I plan to get another dozen flats before then, as well as knit him at least one more pair of longies and probably 1 or 2 shorties.  I'm not sure yet about the 8 hour drive to our first stop, but I have plenty of time to figure that out.  

Now if only we had skies like this every day!

I love days like this.  Line drying is a breeze!

You touched what?!?!

If you've ever had to change a baby's diaper, you know it can get messy regardless of the type of diaper.  So I find it funny that some people think that cloth diapers are yucky.  In my opinion, they're not any more gross than disposables and they don't sit in a land fill.

Today is Day 4 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge and everyone is talking about the handwashing.  I mentioned earlier that I always wash out the little guy's diapers by hand so this isn't a huge stretch for me.  I've been lucky this week -- I've only had to wash one poopy diaper so far.  It wasn't bad either -- just dumped the solids into the toilet and rinsed the diaper really well before adding it to the others to be washed.

Yesterday I did a larger bunch at once and I did find that easier than washing after every change.  It took a little longer but I got them done at once.  Today I washed 5 first thing this morning and hung them out on the line.  I also washed his longies and lanolized them.  It was sunny today so the diapers I hung out at 8:40 this morning were dry by 2 PM.  I washed another bunch then and hung them out.  Unfortunately, while I was fixing supper this evening it started to rain and the second group got a little damp.  So they're hanging up inside now, but will be perfectly dry by morning.

So back to handwashing.  My process is pretty simple.  I rinse under running water very thoroughly.  I feel like this rinsing is the most important part.  The diapers smell clean after rinsing, before using any detergent at all.  Then I fill the sink with hot water, add detergent or soap nuts (I've been using soap nuts upstairs and detergent downstairs) and then dump in the rinsed diapers.  I knead and swish for a few minutes before draining the sink.  Then I rinse each diaper individually under running water.  I wring them out really well and then they're ready to be hung up.

I've been using such hot water and wringing out so many diapers that I have a spot on my right thumb where I rubbed the skin clean off!  Poor me, right?  :)  No big deal, I just had to adjust how I hold the diapers when I wring them out.

So that's my washing routine.  Not much to it.  I might adjust if I was doing more at a time.  Today I washed twice and even with the rain, didn't run out of diapers.  Tomorrow is our aquarium trip so it should be interesting!

Supplies & Preparation

Flats & Handwashing Challenge, Day 2.  I have to admit, I didn't exactly prepare for this challenge.  I didn't really decide to participate until Monday morning when I put the little guy in flats.  So my preparation was nil.  Which may be why I found myself at Wal-Mart this morning, buying a package of Flour Sack Towels.  Yesterday went fairly well, but I did feel like it would be easier if I didn't have to wash each diaper immediately after use.  So far today, I've washed once.  I wanted to wash the new towels before using them.  

I have a total of 9 flats that were given to me as hand-me-downs.  So I paid $0 for those.  I'm using g-Pants during the day and those were gifted to me when the little guy was born.  So I paid $0 for those.  At night, I'm using a pair of wool longies that I hand-dyed and knitted myself.  I paid ~$8 for the yarn and $2 for the dye, so around $10 for the longies.  For detergent, I'm using Maggie's Soap Nuts that I've had forever so I paid maybe $12 for it originally?  I honestly don't remember.  I just bought a package of 5 flour sack towels today for $4.98.  So for me, this has been very inexpensive.  If you had to buy everything new, it would still be inexpensive.  A package of 12 flats is around $12 at Wal-Mart and of course you can use regular laundry detergent.  

I did end up ironing some of my flats yesterday to help them dry faster.  It also made them a bit softer -- line drying tends to make cloth diapers a tad stiff.  I was also concerned about how well the flats would hold up overnight.  I put him in 3 and while he was very wet this morning, he didn't leak through the longies.  I was impressed!  

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.