We are on day 2 of the flats challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry and things are going pretty good! I hand washed my diapers for the first time ever last night and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It took about an hour and a half total but there's a lot of soaking in that so I was able to get other things done while the diapers were soaking. So it wasn't all that time consuming after all. I hung my diapers on my drying rack outside on our back porch thinking after hanging all night they'd be dry, but they aren't yet and it's 8am! So I may have to come up with a better drying strategy! But other than that it is going great!
Today we are prompted to talk about what we did to prepare for the challenge! I only had about two weeks to prepare but luckily, it didn't take all that much to prepare. Since I had never used flats before I decided to purchase a dozen Osocozy Birdseye Flats from Abby's Lane. They were $21.99 for the dozen and I also bought a snappi which was about $3 I think. I also bought a pack of flour sack towels from Walmart to use as flats. They come in a pack of 5 for $4.98 and work great as flats!I already had cloth wipes, which are mostly baby washclothes that cost about $2 for a pack of 5 at Walmart or Target. I already had two waterproof covers that I'm using and I crocheted a wool soaker to use for night! I haven't tried it yet since I just lanolized it yesterday, but hopefully it'll be dry and ready to go by tonight!
For washing I bought a single layer plunger for less than $2 at Walmart and a plastic storage bin to wash in, which was about $5. I ended up not using the storage bin and using my diaper pail instead, but I can find plenty of good use for that storage bin, so it wasn't a total waste of money. I already had a drying rack and detergent.
That's pretty much all you need when using flats and hand washing! If you had to purchase everything it would still come up to less than $100! It's a very affordable way to use cloth diapers and doesn't take much preparation at all!
Tomorrow we can blog about anything we choose that has to do with the flats challenge! What would you like to see me discuss? The poop? Night time diapering? My hand washing routine? Let me know and I'll discuss it tomorrow!
You prepared way better than I did. I just used things I had around the house to diaper since I already used flats, but I didn't go all out to set up a wash routine. I looked at my bathroom sink and thought, "Meh, it'll do." Haha! You'll have to let us know how your way of washing works for you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I vote that you talk about the poop tomorrow.
I thought about getting a storage bin and plunger, but I was a little less prepared and just washed in the sink one diaper at a time and hung them up :-)
ReplyDeleteGood prep! I just kinda waited for Monday to come around and I decided my tub would do for handwashing as needed... one diaper at a time ;) hehehe Poop seems like a good subject for tomorrow!
ReplyDelete