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!