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.