Day TWO of the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all.  You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post.  This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world! 

Tuesday: Supplies....also happens to be a diaper washing day for me

A few weeks ago I posted the list of materials that I planned on using for the challenge here. Instead of re-listing everything today, I plan on updating on how everything is working. The items I chose to use are simply MY choice and what works best for ME. One of the BEST things about using flats is that they are simply a single layer of fabric cut into a square, the options for what can be diapers is endless.

1 five gallon bucket with lid for a camp style washer: The bucket and lid work fine if you are washing 6-8 flat diapers and a few covers at one time. When diapering my son I use two flats at a time so in order to keep to only washing so few diapers at a time I would have to wash twice a day or do multiple loads in the bucket in a day. Neither of those options were practical for my busy lifestyle so I decided to keep the basic method of washing with the bucket but I replaced the 5 gallon bucket with an 18 gallon storage tote that I already had at home.

This is the 18 gallon tote that I use to wash diapers.

 Diaper covers: 1 Bummis Super Snap Diaper cover (Rockets),1 Blueberry Coveralls (Dinos with snaps), 1 Thirsties Duowrap (Hoot with snaps) and some covers I had at home already including Weehuggers, Thirsties and Bummis. I ended up packing up most of the covers I had at home already. The Weehuggers covers have too much fabric to be efficient for hand washing and take WAY too long to dry. The hook and loop (aka Velcro) on my older Thirsties covers was starting to wear and my son could easily take them off. The only cover I kept out that I had already had was the Bummis one with frogs on it. For night time, I purchased some waterproof training pants from Babies R Us as well as some from Buy Buy Baby and found that I prefer the ones from Buy Buy Baby because they have nylon in them and they fit better.

Wet bags for soiled diapers : I did not purchase any new wetbags because I already had too many on hand. I have found however that most of my wetbags are an absolute NIGHTMARE to wash and dry without machines. I have two from Bummis that are only one waterproof layer, they are easy to wash by hand and dry on the line. The rest of my wet bags are a layer of waterproof material inside a layer of fabric and I am not going to use them during this challenge.

Flat diapers : 12 Vandring Burp Cloths from Ikea, 6 Swaddlebees Flats, 12 Osocozy Flats and 4 Rumpeeze hemp flats. I have found that the Osocozy flats are slightly smaller than the others that I have and while they absorb and hold about the same amount, their size makes it hard to get the diaper on a squirmy 2 year old. The Osocozys do work GREAT as doublers though. I use the Rumpeeze exclusively at night time with the rubber training pants over them and have not had a single nighttime leak in the last three weeks.

Fasteners: I have both diaper pins and this little device called a Snappi. I prefer the Snappi over the pins because it is faster and easier. I have used pins here and there but every time I do my son screams his head off like I stabbed him (no way did I ever come CLOSE to him with the tip of that pin!)

The yellow Y shaped thing holding the diaper closed is a Snappi.

 

 

 A place to hang diapers to dry is the final "thing" you need. Here is my parting teaser! I will cover the challenges I had drying the diapers in a future post :)