Flats Challenge Days One and Two

This year I am participating in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry!

Day One

Why?

I'm doing the Flats and Handwashing Challenge this year because I want to show that cloth diapers are a valid option for just about every family.  There was a lot of negative reactions to my decision to cloth diaper and most of it was about the washing.  I want to show my friends, family, and the world that it's really not bad at all.  Even if one occasionally or frequently has to hand-wash one's own diapers.

Day One started out uneventful since we use flats with covers as our day to day diapers.  Though I'm playing around with folds.  Our first diaper of the day was a Kite folded flat under a Diaper Safari Cover fastened with Boingo fasteners.

 

Our afternoon was spent driving to a campsite.  When we got there I decided that I would do our diaper laundry in the morning.

Day Two

Supplies and Preparation.

I purchased three dozen small flats from Green Mountain Diapers when I was pregnant with my son and am using our regular covers.  For the challenge I purchased a Mobile Breathing Washer for $20 and a five gallon bucket from Lowe's for $2.  Knowing that I was going to take pictures of my flats, I purchased a tie dye kit for $15.  I'm using a sample package of Rockin' Green Diaper Detergent and a couple sample packages of Bumgenius Diaper Detergent for the week, free.  In total, I spent $37 for the challenge and used mostly what I already had available to me.

After an awful night of insanely low temperatures, I washed my diapers and canceled the rest of our trip.  The diapers were not totally dry when we left the campground and have an overwhelming wood smoke odor.  They are hanging to dry the rest of the way in the nursery.  I think I may need to wash them again.

Washing at the campground was difficult due to having to haul the water.  Washing with the Breathing Washer and a five gallon bucket is not difficult aside from that.  For a little over a days worth of changes, I had twelve diapers, four covers, and several wipes.  I can only wash about 5-6 diapers at a time in the bucket, so multiple loads.

So far so good and I'm not too worried about finishing the challenge.