Flats and Handwashing: The End

Well, it's time to wrap up this challenge.  First I"d like to start by listing off all the difficulties I faced with this challenge, that I don't normally face.

1. I didn't have enough diapers when I started (of course were I expecting a new born I"d have had all my dipes made up before birth and thus always have enough on hand)
2. Little Gee chose this week to start pooping like a pro.  His normal once or twice a day poop became daily, and wasn't always 'ploppable' if you know what I mean.  He also had diarrhea for a day and a half.  That made for yucky handwashing!
3. There wasn't a single day that we got to stay home all day.  That meant every day there was a new place to be trying to change a flat while holding Little Gee down.  Normally we only leave the house once, maybe twice a week.
4. The Hubs wasn't entirely aware of this challenge, and the babysitter I desperately needed on Friday would have been freaked if she had to figure out flats!  So there were a few fitteds in the mix, which then lead to a machine washing cheat.
5. The weather was only line-dry nice two or three days!  Normally it would be humid, but at least hot and sunny, drying the flats in a timely manner.  THere were two days I had to wait all day for them to dry!

Like I said, most of these things would not have normally occured.  However I"ve been able to stand strong and use only flats and handwash for 99% of the time. Towards the end of the week, I'll admit I lost steam and got quite frustrated with the whole handwashing thing.  I think if I had no choice, it wouldn't be any more frustrating than having to do the diaper laundry in the first place:  WHICH I HATE DOING.  If handwashing diarrhea diapers every day was the only thing between me staying home with my babies, (which I personally believe is what's best and Biblical for my family) then I would be scrubbing them out on a daily basis, believe you me!

Here are a few tips if you're going to do this:

1. Register for quality flats at your shower, look for hemp or a hemp/cotton blend.
2. Ask for donations of XXL or larger shirts.  Cut them into the largest squares you can manage.  Hem/serge the edges if you can, but don't stress if you can't.  Make a trade with a friend if you can.  Offer to help her out by ______ if she hems/serges your flats for you.
3. Don't have a washer/$$ for laundro-mat?  Do another trade!  Maybe one of your friends would love to have you come in and clean house for the hour that you're there washing your diapers!  Then toss them in the dryer or in the basket to take home and put on the line!  Maybe they'd rather have a weekly free babysitter, or you could bake them a cake.  The service/item you trade for could even change on a weekly basis depending on whats needed!  I barter free haircuts for my Dizzy (who's hair grows faster than anything I've ever seen!) for a small bag of the neighbors favorite brand of coffee!!
4. Handwash as much as you need, but do consider boiling or putting them through a hot wash once in a while just to be sure all germs are gone!! I would suggest on a bi-monthly basis myself, but once a month or even every other month should be fine as long as you're prompt in washing smelly diapers.  I would always suggest doing it if there was any tummy bugs that week at all.
5. Make a Camp Style Washer.  Much easier than hand washing, and a little less 'hands on'! 

I would like to say that all in all, this challenge taught me a lot.  Here's what I learned:

1. It's possible to handwash your clothing and diapers!
2. It's easy and even less work for your diapers, really!  At least if your washer is old fashioned and requires many trips down the stairs to put it on the proper cycle!
3. On a beautiful sunny day flat diapers will dry out on the line just as fast as prefolds and fitteds will in the dryer!
4. Diapers come out smelling just as clean!
5. All you need to diaper a baby for free is to obtain cotton materials (t-shirts, towels, blankets etc), pins, soap and water!
6. If the world as we know it ends and we loose all power and electricity, I can still clean my baby's diapers!  (not too worried about that though!)

I would say this challenge has left me feeling positive about the possibility of diapering a baby for free!  There are tons of resources that can be used and tapped into.  I plan on repurposing all my old prefolds, which is quite the stash, and using mostly flats at home from now on.  I think I may even handwash them on occassion!  They will be put on the line as much as possible!  Fitteds will only be used in the nursery at church, by dad and when we're running around.  As well as overnight.  By bed time I'm just too pooped to care enough to fold and place just so!

Look forward to new products coming soon based on this challenge!  Flats for sure, and possibly prefolds, all made from old shirts/blankets!

Happy Monday!

Flats and Handwashing: Days 4 & 5

Well considering it's the morning of day 6. . . I"m a little behind!

Day 4:

Nothing extraordinary happened.  Flats worked great all day, including at the theater while taking the boys to see their first movie.  The only problem came from me forgetting to make sure Little Gee was pointing in the proper direction if you know what I mean!  So he wound up peeing up and over the diaper, which then ran down his pant leg (of longies of course!) and all over his foot and the theater floor.  Oops.  And of course, since people don't expect babies in the theater there was no place to change his diaper, but I still managed to change him on a bench in the restroom that was only an inch wider than his waist.  Of course it was a flat diaper!  So glad I had it pre-folded using the kite fold!

Day 5:

I cheated.  I had to.  There was no choice.  I had an appointment that I couldn't take the boys with me for so I left them with the sitter.  She's 18 and indirectly has made it clear she really isn't comfortable using cloth diapers at this time.  She does and will, if they snap or velcro, but flats and prefolds are just a bit too complicated at the moment.  So I packed a bag full of fitteds.  And since I'm uncomfortable washing fitteds by hand they are in the wash this morning, with all the flats from the last 24 hours.  I have to make it worth while to run the washer!  I did of course only use flats after my appointment was over.

As I head into day 6 I find that I'm feeling as though I am being punished by not being allowed to use my washer and dryer.  I'm fairly certain this only stems from the fact that I have them, they work and the guilt of breaking the rules on the challenge.  If I had no washer and dryer, and no money for disposables I would very likely be just fine with doing this.  After all, as it is I've cut down on quite a few expenses to stay home with my babies.  I don't have a cell phone, a gym membership, buy new clothes for myself, and bake/cook nearly everything we eat from scratch.  I make all of our cleaning products from scratch as well.  So what would it really be to hand wash and dry a couple of flats every day?  If I didn't have a washer and dryer, I'd probably be doing it with most of our clothing to cut costs down.  Since I have the utilities and it's yet again rainy out. . . I feel entitled to use them.  I wont use them again until Monday, when the challenge is over.  I'm still planning on using flats, and drying them on the line as needed.  I may even hand wash them on occasion. 

I hope I haven't discouraged anyone from using flats or hand washing diapers.  I definitely hope I haven't discouraged anyone from choosing cloth of any kind.  I look forward to sharing the expense of hand washing and drying flats including the initial cost of stocking up on flats and covers.

Flats and Handwashing: Day 3

Well, today was interesting.  I went in to the Dr's office with both boys, Gee in flats and Dizzy in undies, of course.  That went well, and easy enough.

Before we left the house, I did diaper laundry.  Just over 24 hours worth of diapers was three sink fulls of laundry!  Tomorrow I"ll get a basin out to wash them in.  Likely the same one I wash my woolies in.  Because it was raining outside, I hung the diapers all over the bathroom, not wanting sopping flats on my wood chairs.  There were way too many to do that with!  I need an indoor drying rack for rainy days like this morning!

After we finished up with the annoying Dr visit we stopped by work to meet The Hubs with candy and a soda.  Just to let him know we love him:)  Then, we came home to still wet diapers (this was 3hours after hanging them up)!  We still had 3 flats left at that point, and Little Gee went straight to bed with a dry one on after lunch.  Thank goodness they are absorbent enough for him to pee in twice in a pinch. 

So, then a full 6 hours after hanging them up, my flats were still wet.  Not dripping or soaked, but wet.  Part of it is the humidity and lack of air flow in the house.  Part of it is my arms were hurting and I didn't get things wrung out like I should have.  A lot of it was that they were bunched up against each other.  Outside the weather was still cool, but the rain was done and a breeze had started, so I decided to hang them out on the line.  It was humid, but what the hay. . . it's just as humid inside too.  There was 15% or less chance of rain until 8pm, so I thought I could manage.  Should they not get dry in time, I do have a hair dryer.  (I REFUSE TO CHEAT!)

Well, I thought it was breezy. . . . . .






Maybe. . . . .






Wait for it. . . .

 Well, get out of town!  It's down right windy!  I've been told that cool windy days are perfect line drying weather.  The coolness allows clothes to dry nice and slowly while the breeze keeps it from stiffening up!  We'll see how it turns out.  They were hung by 3pm.  By 4pm one diaper was dry.  By 4:30 it started to sprinkle and I lost my nerve and brought them in.  The last ones were dry enough to fold and put away just a few minutes ago (it's 8:03pm now). 

All in all the diaper challenge was easy enough today too.  I don't like how long it took to dry my diapers, but there are solutions to that.  Wringing out more water, maybe even spinning them in a salad spinner first, using a drying wrack and fan could make humid/wet days like today a little faster drying:)  However, I think after this challenge I would likely use a dryer on a day like this. 

Flats and Handwashing: Day 2

Well, today would have been a perfect example of how easy using flats is.  In fact it could have been the perfect example of how easy it is to diaper your baby for free.  It could have been.  It SHOULD have been.  But it wasn't.

First, I had errands to run.  That wasn't so bad.  Since I had an appointment that I could not bring my kids in with me, I chose to have  a friend sit with them in the waiting room for the 20 minute appointment.  What a blessing my friend is to me:)  I love her so much, like sisters should.  She uses pocket diapers on the various children she has had living in her home off and on.  She is a firm believer in pockets and will  use nothing less than Fuzzi Bunz or Rumparoos.  Don't get me wrong, those are awesome diapers. . . if you like pockets (which I don't) and you don't mind shelling out some dough (and I wont!).  So I was a tad nervous about her needing to change Little Gee.  Well, thankfully he didn't need changed.  Like I said the appointment was a lot shorter than normal.  Here is how I did the 'cover fold'.  I thought this would be the easiest way for a pocket user to user to use flats.

You can see that the flat is basically folded into a rectangle, then the rectangle is folded up to fit.  I placed it inside this flap on the Thirsties Duo pictured.  I don't know if I like that idea or not.  Could be easy for a little boy to pee right out the front of his diaper.  This fold doesn't work for me.  It gets bundled, bunched, twisted and doesn't stay in place.  Poop is not kept off of the cover, requiring a new cover.  Also you can only do this with a cover that will snap or velcro. Supposedly so it stays in place.  In my experience, it does not.


After that we went for coffee and back to the donation center to make some more junk leave my house.  Then off to the mall.  After going home, I discovered that Little Gee had. . . . diarrhea.  Thank you very much Gee.  Just the week to decide to do this.  I guess the good news is that since technically I'm on vacation, I don't have to call in sick.

Well, other than having to do the dreaded washing of stuffed animals the tummy bug did not stop us any.  He's as happy as normal, and the only reason I had to wash stuffies was bcs I did my normal routine of letting him be naked since we were home.  When I don't have the other kids here to care for, I let Gee have full reign of the house naked.  I think it helps bring awareness to his bodily functions and keeps him dry and rash free.  Of course, had I realized he was going to have tummy problems. . . .  ugh! He's normally very regular so this kind of mess isn't usually a problem.

As far as washing diapers goes. . . I've decided to wash diapers in the mornings.  This way the night time diaper does not sit for long.  The diapers will also have all day on the line if it's nice.  I followed my same routine as yesterday, but I"d like to share a link to making and using a camp style washer.  If I choose to always or mostly hand wash my diapers than I think we'll be making one of these!  For this week though, I'm sticking to the sink. 

Fold of the day:  Kite Fold! (be sure to check the video!  such a better example than mine!)

 Left:  Lay out and fold to make square if necessary.  Right:  Place thumb at bottom right corner.  Fold top right corner to diagonal center, fold bottom left to diagonal center.

Left:  Fold bottom up and top down.  Depending on the size of baby and square, top and bottom may meet.  Right:  I then folded the bottom in again and rolled in sides to fit legs nicely.  Then place on baby like a prefold.  Use snappy or pin to fasten.

This fold has by far been the best fitting and most well placed on Little Gee.  All the absorbency seems to be in the right spot for him, and is great for his freakishly long rise, where the Origami fold was too short.

Diaper Pic of the day:

Summary:
At this point, I plan on continuing to use flats at home.  It is a bit hard to make Little Gee be still to fold a complicated fold, like kite or origami, when we're out in public.  Having them prefolded and put away is much easier.  So when we're out and about I do plan on using fitteds still.  They will also be available for my husband and sitters.  As far as night time diapers go. . . it's a toss up.  I may continue using the flats.  For some reason there is much less of an ammonia smell to the t-shirt flats.  I am thinking of re-purposing my prefolds by making them into mama cloth or fitteds or whatever the heck I need them for!

How to get the most of your t-shirt when making flats:

• Only use Men's XXL or larger shirt.  I"m not sure of the difference between Mens' and Womens sizes.  
• Lay the 100% cotton shirt out flat.  Iron if you feel like wasting some time!
• Cut through both layers of shirt at the same time.
• Start at the neck and cut a straight line that barely grazes bottom neck of shirt.
• Cut down the sleeves removing ONLY the side seam of body if there is one.   Please only waste a small fraction of an inch on the edges.  that may mean you get part of the sleeve on your flat.  It wont bother baby at all.
• Don't waste the bottom of the hem.  You need all the surface area you can get!  
• Serge or hem if you feel it's necessary.  I chose not to this time bcs my serger is in the shop and I"m too stuck up to play with my regular sewing machine today!  Plus, I wanted to test out a 'no sew' option for people who can't/wont etc.

I rate my experience so far:  4 stars out of 5 (but only bcs I had to deal with so much poop today!)  Happy Flat Diapering!

Flats and Handwashing Day 1

Here is our first diaper of the morning! It's two flat diapers layered then folded like a prefold. This is my 'fold of the day'.

Here's how I did it: Lay two flat diapers down. If there is a picture on one, put that one on the bottom, pic side down. The top diaper gets folded into thirds/fourths etc depending on size of diaper and baby.

Fold top down just enough to have a nice neat edge. Totally optional. Fold the bottom down to fit the baby. If you want extra absorption you want to put more material in the front for boys, and in the middle for girls.

Now, roll in the sides. This creates a wall to contain poop. It also makes a trimmer crotch and seems more comfortable.

Snappy or pin:) I have noticed that snappi's are a little different on flats than on prefolds. There's a bit of extra material to tuck in. If you see where all the serged edging is that's what I"m talking about. I'm a little afraid that with out tucking it in just right it may not stay on.

See how cute his little Vancouver butt is? That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

I tried the origami fold. It was interesting, but my t-shirt flats just aren't big enough. Anyway, the idea I'm proposing in this picture is have your next diaper folded and ready to go! No matter how you decide to fold it. This way it's easy access!

You can even pre fold the diapers a little and stack them in the drawer. This is the drawer I use for fitteds, which are not being used at the moment! Yes, that's a Fuzzi Bunz Mama Cloth, thank you very much. THEY WORK AWESOME!!!

Here is my washing routine. When doing a full day's load of diapers rather than just two, this will be done in a basin or the tub. I don't like the idea of the tub as you'd have to use more water. However if you washed every other day it might be ok. . . .

Fill with cool water. Rinse any solids off first (in fact do that before tossing the diaper in your pail/wetbag etc) then fill w/ cool water. Agitate for several minutes. I agitate each diaper, completely unfolded/untwisted for 1-2 minutes. Drain water. Make sure the diapers look clean.

Next get your tap as hot as it will go (I think I may actually start boiling water on the stove for this. I just like water to be HOT!!!) and add a little soap. It must be cloth diaper friendly. That doesn't mean marketed for cloth diapers. Check this detergent chart.

I use Allens. I like it. Mostly because I don't have to buy as often. I opened our gallon on 1/24/11 and I"m just about a quarter of the way down from the top. Use just a very little. What I do is dip my pinky in to the knuckle and then stick it in the water. So my pinky is covered with a thin film of the soap, which then gets put in the water as I swirl it around. Agitate each diaper for 3+ minutes.
Next, rinse the diapers. Agitate each daiper until no more soap is coming out.

Hang to dry:) Line drying can make clothing stiffer than using a dryer. But really once that diaper is folded you may notice a difference, but baby wont. If it really bothers you, let the m play with it for a bit before folding to put away/on baby. Take pictures! It's fun to watch them play with laundry! Perfect line drying weather is a cool, sunny day with a good breeze. This can be replicated indoors with a fan, but isn't the same.

Here is a recieving blanket used in a pinch. It woudl make a great night time diaper, but alas. . .it's drying. After the cranky baby went to bed and woke happily we ran some errands. First we dropped off my serger that was so badly in need of cleaning and blade replacement that it wouldn't let me thread it. :(

After leaving the repair shop we headed down to a thrift store to donate clothing and buy sweaters. We sat at this intersection for 20 minutes waiting for this truck to be filled and sent on his way. Yeah.

Later we went to target where we changed a flat diaper:) It was only disastrous because I had to change this poopy diaper with no wipes while coaching Dizzy to change into his new clothes due to an accident.

Here is the night time diaper I'm trying tonight. It's composed of three different flats. Two are folded as discussed earlier, the third was folded origami style (but only bcs that's the way it was, otherwise it would have been folded into thirds and tucked inside with the other one). There is also a stay dry liner.

Fold as such and put on baby just like any other prefold!  Hopefully it works well!

Overall I"d say, yes, there was a little more work involved.  Mostly bcs I hadn't been on my game with making enough flats.  I have four more shirts to turn into flats and will do that tonight, so hopefully tomorrow just the one diaper laundry session will do!  Plus, there is one more set of flats in the diaper wash with the diaper laundry used yesterday, so that will help.

Washing them was super easy and way faster.  For me it was even less work than running the washing machine.  Normally I take all my diapers downstairs and into the machine.  Then set it for a cold rinse and go upstairs.  10 minutes later I head back down put it on a hot/cold wash with Allen's and go back up the stairs.  Then go back down the stairs for a rinse cycle and again for two runs through the dryer.  Too much up and down for me and it winds up being an all day/night process.

Line drying was nice and fast!  I'm hoping the set I have on the line dries in the next 1/2 hour so I can put them away.  If not, I"ll take them inside and hang them up on chair backs.

Not as hard as I was picturing!  Tomorrow will be the easiest fold ever.  I"ll use a PUL wrap and fold the flat(s) into thirds and line the PUL wrap with it.  I chose to do that tomorrow because I have an unavoidable appointment and my sitter is a firm 'pocket's only' user.  So we'll see if she can handle this. . . .

Ok, that's all for tonight folks!

The Cost of Diapering: Take the Free Diapering Challenge

I know that you are expecting the next post in the series on the costs of diapering to be on the cost of different accessories of using cloth. I have decided to forgo all daily post themes for the next week to highlight a little challenge I've come across. Flats and hand washing! When I first saw this I thought to myself 'What in the heck! Hand washing? Really? I don't do that!!' Then I started hearing more and more about how much people LOVE using flats. They had been on my mind for several months anyway, because they would be something so very easy to add to my product line. No real work involved. Measure, serge, thank the Lord for the income! And using recycled materials. . . well, how inexpensive would they be for my customers? I love to provide quality things on the cheap. So I was planning on making a bunch for myself to test out on my Baby Gee. . . Oh, wait. . . Little Gee isn't a baby anymore (tear!). Well, heck. Since I"m testing out using flats anyway. . . what's one more step of hand washing them in the name of helping parents discover more affordable ways to diaper their babies?

A Few Horror Stories

I have been reading on more than one online article that because people are still having babies, and still out of jobs, low income or other financial stresses they are stooping to some dangerous ways of saving money on diapers. There is no government aid for providing parents with diapers. Wic and Food Stamps do not cover this cost. Unfortunately I'm not sure they offer suggestions on solutions. So parents are leaving babies in disposables for hours (I'm talking like all day in the same 'sposie). Not only is that disgusting but it's unhealthy. Baby's skin may still feel dry(ish!) but it's still sitting right against urine. Old urine, soaking into chemicals. Fresh urine is sterile, but it does not stay that way! Babies are at higher risks for rash when left in a wet diaper for extended periods, no matter what kind it is! Another thing I hear of people doing is trying to blow dry the disposable to reuse it. Same problem. Now they're sitting in cooked urine. With fresh urine on top! Even worse, some are scraping diapers out and reusing them. I'm sure you've already got a horribly yucky picture of that in mind, so I"ll leave it at that. It's not healthy!!! This is why this challenge came about!

Who Can Take the Challenge?

You may be wondering who has the time to fold all these fancy diaper styles. . . Maybe you're curious as to how long they will take to wash and dry? I"m hoping they'll dry overnight so I can only make myself 12 for this challenge. As far as the challenge goes, there are two different surveys to take when you're done. One for those of us that can put away all our beautiful fitteds and prefolds (or whatever style diaper) away and only use flats 100% of the time and only hand washing/drying them. They have another survey that is more suitable for working parents. This one allows for ones whose daycare wont except flats or for whatever reason can not commit to the full time challenge. When it comes down to all the time. . . as in the only diapering system you use? ANYBODY CAN DO IT! Half the time the reason we wont try something is because we're afraid to fail. Not trying is failing! That's like giving up before the game even starts!

Here's an idea of who can do this:
Somebody w/ or w/out a washer and dryer
Somebody living in a shelter could do this.
Stay at home parents could do this.
Working parents can do this even if their child care wont help.
Working parents whose childcare is a gift from God and will take the time to use some flats!
A 5yr old can do it!! (really, she can! Check the first video here!)

Here's what you need to be able to start this as a challenge or for your only diapering system: A sink. Some soap. 2 covers. 12 Flats (if they take longer then I think they will to dry just wash as they get used or when you have only 6 clean diapers!). A few extra minutes!

If you're already folding prefolds then you can get this down! For the most awesome video's and tutorials I've come across, look under the resources for this challenge at the bottom of the page.

Here's My Plan for This Weeks Blog Posts

Each day I will report at the end of the day when the diapers have been washed, what my experiences were. I will have The Hubs help me take pictures to highlight a different fold and putting a diaper on Little Gee each night. At the end of the challenge I will not only fill out the survey but I will report back here on how I feel about the challenge. I also will give myself the added challenge of not spending a penny on this. I do have to buy more serger thread to make more flats. . . but I would have to buy that anyway, so give me a break! So this will show you how you or anyone, really can diaper your baby for free. With out a dime spent!

Please join me!  On the Flats and Handwashing page you will see a green button asking you to "Join the Flats Challenge"  Click it, fill out the form and comment here to let me know you are taking the challenge!  Lets support each-other!  Are you blogging your experience?  Email me your link so that I can post it this week!  thesleepysheep dot reckling at gmail dot com