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.