Flats and Handwashing Challenge: My Conclusions from the Week

It's the final day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

When I initially thought about doing this challenge and actually starting it, I thought the whole thing was going to be a piece of cake. I was right and wrong.

It started out easy and it ended easy and I really only encountered one problem which could be easily remedied. We had no issues with the flats leaking or not getting clean. We had no issues getting a good fit. We had no issues with traveling. The only things I would probably change would be the way they are washed, if handwashing long term, and also finding a different solution for hanging them to dry.

I was nervous about taking my son out for the first time with nothing but flats. I even grabbed a few disposables, mainly as some sort of nonsensical security blanket. (at least it seems nonsensical now) I have no idea why I thought that traveling, going out, and night time meant that disposables were my only solution. The answer had been in front of my face the whole time. Traveling with flats has actually proven to be easier than worrying about disposables. I don't have to worry about running out and the next time I head to PA to visit family, I'm bringing my flats and I will just use my mom's washing machine and clothesline. And also, in case you were wondering, I haven't missed my diaper sprayer at all. Swishing and dunking in the toilet works just fine.

For anyone who is in need of diapers and not able to afford disposables, I would very much recommend using flats and covers. If you have a washing machine, even better. If you don't, it is completely doable. If you're going to use the camping style bucket and plunger washer, get gloves! I would recommend taking turns with the chore, as well. But as far as everything goes, you just have to dive in and see what works for you and then tweak everything according to you and your family's needs and situation. Although I don't think I can give a 100% fair opinion, since I can have my washing machine back as soon as we get home, I still think that if you are determined to cloth diaper, you have family support, and you see all the many benefits of cloth, you can most definitely be successful.

As far as how this changes my own perspective on cloth, I'm not entirely sure why I felt it necessary to purchase so many pocket diapers in the first place. They aren't really any easier. I feel that they only give the illusion that they are easier, since they look similar to the disposables that we have all been conditioned to accept as the norm. The reason I started using disposables at night was due to the pocket diapers repelling and having to wash all the bed sheets almost every day. The flats never once leaked and have amazing absorption qualities. Way to go natural fibers!

To be perfectly honest, I didn't think it was going to change my opinion on the way I was already cloth diapering, but it has. You can't go wrong with cheap and effective, as long as you don't mind putting forth a bit of extra effort in laundry.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: Traveling with Flats

Yes, you read that title correctly. We crossed state lines with nothing but flats, the wash bucket and plunger, and 2 emergency disposables (just in case all heck broke loose). So far, it's been no big deal. We drove from upstate NY to central PA to visit family for the Memorial Day weekend. I broke the news to my mom that I'd be handwashing dirty diapers in her bathtub. Her response? "I don't care." I figured as much. Plus, my mom has a clothesline in her yard! Yay!

We brought along all 24 large flats, 5 covers, and the cleaning supplies. I kept a wet bag in the diaper bag and he only needed one diaper change in the 5 hour drive. Once at my parents' house, diaper changes were no different than at my house. I ended up not washing my diapers last evening because I got so distracted with spending time with my family. I'm headed to do that now and I'll let you know how that goes later. But I can tell you one thing, I'm really excited about hanging them out to dry!

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It's 2:30 and I have washed diapers, hung them out to dry, and taken them down and folded them. In this specific situation, I would have to say that handwashing diapers is much easier at my mother's house than mine. Her bathroom is much more spacious and of course, the clothesline. We are going to continue to cloth diaper and handwash for the rest of the weekend in a hotel room and I don't think it's going to be much different with the exception of drying them.

Normally I would have travelled with a few packs of disposables and never even given thought to taking cloth diapers with me. After doing this, it's really not a big deal and I think I will actually be doing this again on future trips.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: The Ups and Downs

I think it's better to end a post on a positive note so I'll start with the things that aren't working out so well and end with what is working.

I think my main complaint would have to be the drying. Like I stated in Wednesday's post, I have no way to dry my diapers outdoors and the basement is too humid. To get them dry I have to drape them over baby gates, chairs, doorknobs, and anything else I can find. I suppose this would be no different than handwashing in the middle of winter, for some. If I were going to do this long-term, I would definitely find a different method and probably set up a retractable clothesline in the nursery. The washing does get tedious after a couple of days. I haven't been using any gloves but I would highly recommend it! My hands are getting pretty sore. Other than that there haven't really been any problems.

The flats are definitely working and we've had no leaks or blowouts at all. There has been no issues with fitting, either. Nighttime has actually been quite surprising. He has woken up inexplicably dry every morning, which I'm sure is extremely rare for a 14 month old. He hasn't woken up with extremely wet diapers for a month or so now, anyway. I've also been using stay-dry fleece liners, which have been a tremendous help.

I took my son out to a local coffee shop yesterday (don't worry, he just had water, haha) and took some flats along. I ended up having to change a messy diaper with no problems. I normally would've put him either in disposables or a pocket diaper for an outing but I wanted to complete the flats challenge. I found out that it really wasn't a big deal. Just make sure you have a few flats and an extra cover packed. Easy peasy.

Overall, if there was a better way for me to handwash and dry, I don't really see any problems with using flats and covers full time.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: Wash Routine

It's day 4 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

My wash routine has been pretty simple. I made a wash tub out of a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger. It works really well and wasn't as difficult to do as I had imagined.

I start by storing dirty diapers in the wash bucket. I've been washing the diapers every day because the fewer that are washed, the easier it is on your hands and arms. Every evening I haul the bucket to the bathroom and fill it up with lukewarm water. This is my pre-rinse. I plunge it for about 5 minutes and then drain all the water. Next I add a small amount of my detergent and fill it with the hottest water I can get. I let it sit for a few minutes (usually enough time to watch final Jeopardy, haha) and then I wash vigorously for five minutes. 

I then dump all that water out and fill it again with hot water. I add about 1/4 cup of vinegar and then plunge for another 5 minutes or so. Dump again, fill again with hot water and repeat without the vinegar. Dump water and fill with lukewarm water for final rinse. Swish until there are no more soap bubbles, remove diapers, wring and hang to dry.

It's pretty simple and it usually only takes me 30 minutes or so. It does take a bit of upper body stamina to do this but I keep the music going to help keep my mind off of it.

I make sure to smell my diapers after taking them out and they always smell clean to me.

I do want to say that while this isn't so bad for a week, I am very much looking forward to getting my washing machine back. Handwashing diapers is very doable but by no means is it an ideal situation. If I were in a situation where I did not have access to a washing machine, I would look for a different long-term washing option other than a bucket and plunger.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: The "No Dryer" Blues

I've made it to day 3 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

One might think that the handwashing would be the worst part of this whole thing. Not true for me. The first few days have been just fine with the exception of trying to dry diapers with no dryer. Where we live, I have no way to dry them outside. After the first washing on Monday night, I realized I hadn't thought about how or where I was going to dry my diapers! My hubby rigged two short makeshift clotheslines in our basement with 550 cord...a great "improvise, adapt, overcome" moment...oorah. (I can just picture my husband rolling his eyes as hard as he can right now.) I was thrilled to have the lines in the basement and happily threw the wet diapers over them and went to bed.

The next morning I went to the basement to collect my dry diapers and much to my surprise, they were still quite damp. For the past few days it has become incredibly humid here in Upstate New York. My whole house feels muggy and drying seems to be taking forever. I decided to just leave them there until they were more dry and then I would bring them upstairs and let them finish. When I went back a few hours later I discovered a dark brown line across every diaper where they had been touching the 550 cord. I found out later that it was the same cord my husband took with him to Afghanistan 3 years ago. My diapers were covered in Afghanistan dust! I had to wash them ALL OVER AGAIN. It was a panic moment and I was worried that I would somehow run out of clean diapers.

That evening, I put the diapers from that day and the previous day in the bucket and washed them all together. It was harder this time. Washing fewer at a time is definitely the way to go. Before hanging them up to dry last night, I first draped old towels over the cord before the diapers. Then I hung the majority of them around the living room, over chairs, baby gates, and whatever else was available. I was happy to wake up this morning to mostly dry diapers and by 9am, I had them all dried and folded. Crisis averted!

Now I know how to most efficiently dry my diapers WITHOUT getting them dirty all over again. And I am completely jealous of all of you out there with beautiful outdoor clotheslines! Don't take them for granted like I did with my dryer.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: How Much Did I Spend?

Today is day 2 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.


I went back through my online order receipts and crunched the numbers of the supplies I'm using this week. As far as the flats and covers I'm using, they aren't really the cheapest options by any means but if this is the only up front amount you pay, thousands of dollars are still being saved.

The supplies I'm using this week and what I paid are as follows:

24 large unbleached Diaper Rite flats 40.50
12 small unbleached Diaper Rite flats 14.00
6 Flip covers 69.75

Grand total: $124.25

All of these were purchased at Diaper Junction over the past year and a half. I bought the flats while they were on sale and one of the Flip Covers I have was free.

I have some optional things that I'm using that make diapering a lot easier. These aren't necessary but they are nice to have.

6 bumGenius stay dry liners 11.90
16 homemade blizzard fleece liners 1.75
diaper sprayer 29.97

This brings my total up to 167.87.

There are less costly covers on the market that work just as well as the Flips. Instead of purchasing flats they can be made. XXL jersey t-shirts that you already own or from thrift stores can be made into flats. One shirt gives you two diapers. Jo-Ann Fabrics and other fabric stores sell birdseye cotton that is the material for traditional flat diapers. There are many options to get the price down considerably lower and some people have even been known to cloth diaper for under $50.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: Why Am I Doing This?

Today is the first day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. I'll be participating this year and blogging about it every day this week.

Once upon a time, there were no such thing as disposable diapers. Everyone used cloth diapers before the invention of disposables. This week I will be using nothing but the very same diapers your grandma and great-grandma used, all without the use of my washing machine and dryer. Why on Earth would I do that? There are several reasons.

Cloth diapering is a valid option. Regardless of how much or how little money you make, there are ways to make cloth diapering work for your family. It's just a matter of trying it out and seeing what works for you. With using flats and handwashing them, the goal is to show that you can still cloth diaper even if you don't have a washing machine, dryer, or much money. Flats are the least expensive cloth diapering option. Sometimes they are even free. Buy flat diapers, use flour sack towels, cut up t-shirts from Goodwill. Almost any absorbent material can be turned into a diaper. You just need a waterproof cover and it's all good. There are many families out there struggling to afford disposable diapers and sometimes having to make the decision between that and food. Imagine never having to buy diapers again.

How prepared are you? Power outages, natural disasters, zombie apocalypses (hey you never know!) can happen any time. What if there is a diaper shortage. And if there was, wouldn't it be nice to have one less thing to worry about? Having cloth diapers on hand and a way to hand wash them will put you way ahead of the rest. I want to show all you preppers, survivalists, and potential homesteaders that flats are the way to go! They are the least bulky, the easiest to wash, the quickest to dry, and the most diverse diaper to have around. The diverse part is particularly good if you have more than one child in diapers. The same flat diaper can be customized to fit children of varying sizes.

Those are really the main points of my decision to do this. Although I've got something to prove and I want to make this work, I will be reporting my findings along the way with honesty. As much as I love cloth diapers and want everyone to give them a try, I'm not going to sugarcoat the reality of it. You sometimes do have to touch poop. But then again, that just comes with the territory of parenthood.

Naturally Clean: The Power of Vinegar

I've written about this before on my previous collaboration blog but I'm going to do it again. I'd like to do a mini series about green cleaning/chemical-free living and I'm going to start with the most basic thing to use: white distilled vinegar. We've all seen the millions of posts about making your own cleaners on Pinterest, and that is awesome. I'm here to tell you that if you haven't already tried them, you are missing out! I use a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water in a large spray bottle to clean EVERYTHING in my house. Every surface in the bathroom and kitchen, windows, mirrors, floors. The only thing I wouldn't recommend using it on is finished wood.

Cleaning with natural cleaners is something that is very important to me and I take it very seriously. A lot of the chemicals used in everyday household cleaning can cause a plethora of ailments including cancer. Women who work in the home were found to have a 54% increased risk for cancer than women who work outside of the home. Coming from a direct line of stay-at-home moms who are also breast cancer survivors, I want to lessen my odds in any way I can.

Vinegar is antibacterial, antifungal, kills mold, and absorbs odors. It really is the most perfect cleaner out there. You also have no worries about children or pets getting under the sink or being poisoned.

Now to get real with you. It cleans extremely well and I am very particular when it comes to dealing with germs and dirty surfaces. My stuff gets clean. Clean enough that I feel comfortable letting my child eat off his high chair tray after being wiped down with vinegar. (hey, I'd rather that than some toxic chemical...vinegar is food!) It does require some extra elbow grease but that's no big deal in my book. I will admit that a few weeks ago I ended up cleaning some glass in the house with some leftover Windex and holy heck. My eyes burned, my throat got sore, my lungs hurt. That was enough to really give me the final push over the edge to say no to cleaning chemicals forever.

Some of the benefits of natural cleaning are better health for you and your family, better health for the environment, and more money in your pocket, which everyone can appreciate.

Stay tuned for more natural cleaning tips in the following weeks.