6th Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge

I hand washed my cloth diapers for the first 6 months because I didn't have a washer/dryer so you would think I've had enough hand washing experience for a lifetime, but apparently I haven't! So I am taking the flats and hand washing challenge again this year. That means I'll be using only flats, and hand washing all my diapers. Ok, so maybe the title is pretty self explanatory.

Cloth diapering is SO important to me, mostly because I get to avoid the crap in disposables, but also because it's economical and better for the environment. There is always the question of whether the water to wash them does more environmental damage, but have you ever looked into what it takes to make a sposie, then transport it, then travel to the store to buy it, then have it sit in a landfill forever? Clearly, I think there is a winner.

Another reason for doing this is knowing I can truly do what I want to do. I felt crazy when I first decided to cloth diapers, in full-time nursing school, while working, without a washer and dryer. Why would anyone choose to do that?! For me it was really important to sacrifice my time and energy now if it meant exposing Devin to less chemicals. It was the start to many sacrifices I'll make for her, and honestly one of the easiest things now.

Lastly, it's nice to know that in an emergency, I have the skills to do what I need to do! I know I won't need to go to the store in a snowstorm, I can hole up in our house if the world is going to shit, and I can have a clean baby even if we lose our jobs.

Tomorrow I will break down the cost of my diapers and explain why I decided to add the extra challenge of keeping my stash at $150!

Flats Challenge: Day 4

(I'm participating in the Dirty Diaper Flats Challenge for the week! Read about Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.)
All the necessities to go out and about while cloth diapering:

Flats/Covers. Depending on where I am going and what I am doing determines how many flats I take, obviously! I am usually way over prepared though and bring more than I'd ever need. I like to have them pre-folded so that I can change her quickly.

Wipes. I keep the wipes in a Huggies wipes bag just because it's cute and handy, and keep a little spray bottle of wipes solution in it. Then I just spray as needed!

Dry Bag. This bag is awesome (and cheap!) and I put all my wet/dirty diapers straight into it in my diaper bag. If it's poopy, I'll roll the diaper into itself to keep it from spreading to everything else in the bag just so that cleanup is easier once I get home. The wet bag keeps the wet and stink in, which is nice! I can also just wash it with my diapers.

Prefold for changing on. I have the folded up changing pad that came with the bag, but I like having cloth instead because it's not cold and I can wash it much easier!

Diaper bag. Obviously I need something to haul this stuff around in.

Flats Challenge: Day 3

(I'm participating in the Dirty Diaper Flats Challenge for the week! Read about Day 1 here, and Day 2 here.)

Last night was a rough one with a combination of Devin needing to nurse extra and her needing to poop but not being able to - the rough life of a three month old! I honestly didn't want to deal with putting a flat on her so I threw on a Bumgenius with a microfiber insert because I hadn't taken the time before bed to make a padded flat. I felt guilty for about half a second until I realized this challenge is about exploring new options and realizing that I can diaper with extremely basic resources, but it's also about making my cloth diaper experience better! So if I have to put on an easy BG at 2am, then so be it. I think I've made great progress, considering I wasn't even using cloth diapers a week ago and planned on using disposables at night!

I haven't used a disposable since Sunday and it feels great knowing I am doing good things for my baby, myself, and Mother Earth as a whole. There are so many comparisons in motherhood and I feel like many non-cloth diapering people think those that cloth diaper think they are better than others because of it, but much like delivering a baby medication free or breastfeeding, it goes way beyond that. I don't spend an extra hour of my day washing and folding things my daughter will take a poop in just so I can look down at a mom using disposables and say, "Neener, neener, I'm better than you because I touch my babies poop!" I do it because it feels right, it works with our lifestyle, and I have the privilege of taking the time to wash them, but that doesn't mean it's right for everyone.  The awesome thing about parenting is that there is such a variety of right ways to do something and it all comes down to what makes you and your family happy!

Flats Challenge Day 2: My Stash

(I'm participating in the Dirty Diaper Flats Challenge for the week! Read about Day 1 here.)

My entire stash isn't pictured, one grovia (left pile) is waiting to be washed, one is on her, and some flats are waiting to be washed as well. There are some liners waiting to be washed and some pre folded into the flats already. I clearly didn't go the gender neutral route completely... ;)

My stash is basic. Very basic. I am a poor nursing student with a husband that has cut back on his hours at work because of a work-related injury, so we've been pinching pennies. (Oddly enough, my reason for cloth diapering wasn't money based, rather wanting to stay away from the chemicals and waste of disposable and most importantly - I can't stand the smell of disposables! Ha!)
A couple years ago when we were trying to get pregnant originally, I bought some cloth diapers on Craigslist because the deal was too good to pass up. I split some of them with a friend, and ended up with 5 Bumgenius one size pocket diapers with 5 regular and 5 newborn inserts (that I'm not using for this challenge) for $35. They are in really great condition so it was a steal!

Last week I bought 6 Grovia 2-in-1's from a lady through a Facebook group for $55 with 12 inserts (soakers and organic cotton ones - again, not using the inserts for this challenge). She didn't take care of them very well and the organic cotton ones are not absorbent AT ALL, so I've been working on stripping and sunning those! (A little harder to do without a real washer, but doable.)

As far as flats, I have two 5-packs of Walmart brand flour towel sacks that I got for $10. I line them with microfleece that I bought as 1/4 yard remnants from JoAnn's for $.77, and made about 20 liners. They are so soft and nice on my daughter's tushie! When I have her in the Grovia inserts by themselves, her bum gets a little red, so the extra microfleece layer really does make a difference.

For wipes I cut up a receiving blanket which was a gift, and make my own wipe solution that is very inexpensive.

So far I've been using the Grovia covers over the flats, but tonight I plan on folding the flats to use as an insert in the BG pocket diapers. We'll see how that goes! It's nice to have a diaper I can just trap and put on her at night instead of having the wrap the flat on her, then do the cover.

And that's it! We live in less than 400 square feet (with a husband and dog) so I'm not going to be one of those people that has 50+ diapers and a million inserts. I like to keep things simple! I have three Fuzzibunz coming in the mail that I ordered from their 50% off Mother's Day sale and I'd eventually like to get up to 18 covers just so I can rotate through them and have them last longer, but for now I'm happy where I am. The next few diapers I add will just be plain waterproof covers, which the Grovias are doing a great job of now, so I'm in no rush. If I decide to use flats more often (which is likely, I'm already noticing how much easier they are to wash and dry) I'll probably just buy more of the flour sack towels from Walmart so I have 20 or 30 towels.

So all in all my entire stash has cost me $100.77 which it what I'd normally spend on one month of disposable diapers! Not too shabby.

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!