Flats Challenge

(I promise I will have 'real' posts up soon like her three month update (THREEEEE MONTHSSSS), but for now, something else to get me back in the blogging groove...)

Well, perfect timing. I've decided to use cloth diapers last week, came upon the simplicity of flats, and then realized there was a flats challenge starting today! It consists of only using flats and hand washing. So I am doing it.

I already hand wash my diapers (I've been using them for four days now) because I don't have a washer/dryer so it's not like this is a huge challenge for me, but whatever. It'll be a good challenge to try new folds and have an alternative to soaker pads at night!

I decided to try using flats because I read that they are easier to hand wash and dry super quickly, and also because they are dirt cheap. Cloth diapering can be REALLY expensive if you get carried away with it, but I want to do it as cheap as possible!

For those of you that have noooooo idea what I am talking about, here's a short explanation: the flats I am using are flour sack towels that are folded up with a microfleece liner to fit inside a waterproof cover. Literally towels straight from the kitchen department at Walmart for $1 a flat! There are many ways to fold up the flats depending on your babies shape/size. The benefit for me as a hand washer is that they don't take a million years to dry line my other inserts (up to 2 days!) so I don't have to have such a large stash of diapers (read: expensive) on hand while I wait for others to dry.

To wash my diapers, I have a WonderWash that I got a couple years ago to wash our regular clothes, and an electric spin dryer. I won't normally be using the spinner, but tonight I did end up using it to get water out because I was washing some soaker inserts from the day before, and I put WAY too much soap in that I just got today. I tried hand rinsing and wringing out the inserts but they just retained so much soap. So I threw everything into the spinner which got all the soapy water out, then rinsed again, and then I hand wrung the flats and diapers! But I did spin the soaker pads again or they would take like a week to dry. Tomorrow I'll only have flats to wash, though, so I'll be able to do everything by hand.

I'm over on instagram @iffyinklings if you want to follow along there!