I'm a mother of twins, RDA accredited Cloth Diaper Circle Leader, and an RN discussing parenting tips, green living, and products I love!
When I talk about cloth diapers to people that aren’t currently using them, I often get questions about how it’s possible to use cloth if you don’t own a washer or dryer. I also have many people concerned about how much it costs to start cloth diapering – even after I tell them that they can save $1,300 by the time their child is 2 years old!
In light of this question and concern, I want to talk to you about the Flats and Handwashing Challenge. Last year my kiddos were still in diapers and I joined Kim Rosas of Dirty Diaper Laundry in using flat diapers and handwashing them for one straight week. I have a hard time expressing all that I learned from this challenge but I will try to summarize it here.
First of all – what is the Flats and Handwashing Challenge? For one week, limit yourself to using flat diapers or single layer fabric folded into a diaper along with covers to diaper your baby/babies. During this week “unplug” from your washer and dryer and turn up the elbow greese and wash those diapers by hand! While this may seem like a silly challenge to many at first glance, I assure you, it is not. Below, I will explain why.
This challenge, in combination with discussions with Heather McNamara of the Real Diaper Association, made me realize that most any absorbent material can be a diaper. If you think you have to spend money to join in this challenge, I challenge you to use only what you already have! Do you have receiving blankets? Do you have flour sack or single layer dish towels? Do you have some old tshirts? Cut them in half (at the side seam) and you have 2 diapers! Have any old sheets you aren’t using? Cut them into squares! All of these items make for great diapers.
Flat diapers (what my grandmother used) are the easiest diaper to wash because they are only one layer of fabric. They dry the quickest as well, making them perfect for this challenge. Flats can also be folded to accomodate for different wetzones, absorbencies, and body types which makes them a great choice for families with more than one child in diapers.
This challenge does more than teach you that you can upcycle items in your home into a diaper. It also teaches you emergency preparedness. What if we had no electricity? What if there were no gas and stores were shut down and you couldn’t buy disposables? What if you had a limited water supply? Did you have to make some diapering changes during the recent hurricanes on the east coast? Ever wondered how to travel with cloth? Ahem… flats baby!
I used flats confidently on our trip to Mexico last year after having practiced during the Flats Challenge. I washed those diapers in the hotel sink like a pro! They dried on our balcony in less than 12 hours. I also took flats on a camping trip! Give me a bucket, a faucet, some detergent, gloves and half of an old tupperware meat marinade container (the little pyramid bumps on the container made a great washboard) and I’m set!
And…. I was able to put a combination of two flats, a trifolded washcloth (in the wet zone) and a fleece liner together for a nighttime diaper that worked for both of my twins! SCORE!
So, back to the original question. Can you use cloth diapers if you don’t have a washer? Yes. You can hand wash your diapers, take them to a laundry mat twice a week or use a diaper service. It’s totally doable. As for how much it costs to get started, you can buy an inexpensive cover for less than $10. Buy 6 covers, some diaper closures like pins, Snappies, or Boingos and upcycle some materials I suggested above and you can diaper a baby full time for under $100. If you want to get fancier over time, go for it, but you have the basics and will never have to buy a disposable diaper again!
P.S. I had a good time doing the actual handwashing also. It was therapeutic in the same way that most physical labor is. I also plugged my earbuds into my Kindle and blazed through a book that week while washing away. It was me time. 
If you are interested in joining the Flats and Handwashing Challenge it runs from May 20th-26th this year! I highly recommend it. Even if you don’t complete the challenge successfully the experience is an amazing educational foundation! Cheers to Kim for dreaming up such a great educational experience of a challenge!
Here are links to the posts I wrote while taking last year’s challenge!
Why I’m taking the Flats Challenge
What supplies I’m using for the Flats Challenge
What tips I have learned so far
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!
Tonight's wash load of covers, wipes and fleece liners.
Tip 1, wash frequently: I think the biggest lesson I have learned through this challenge is that it is easier to wash a few diapers than it is to wash a bunch. Tonight I was VERY tempted to skip washing. I wasn’t able to wash during the kids naptime today. This morning I had to take my son to the radiology department of our local hospital for some testing as to why he got a urinary tract infection (UTI). (It’s much less common for a boy to get a UTI because their urethra is so much longer than a girls. All it takes to infect a girl is wiping baby girl’s bottom up instead of down, and with some fun bacterial growth, BAM! UTI. It’s harder to get poo into a boys urethra and the bacteria have farther to travel to start a party in a boys bladder.) So after an ultrasound to check on DS’ kidneys and bladder, we made our way over to X-ray where they catheterized him and filled his bladder with dye infused saline. They then took X-ray video of his bladder and watched as he peed. They found pee going toward his kidney instead of out his bladder so this requires lots of follow up. During nap time I had to make phone calls to schedule appointments and get a disk copy of the procedure for the specialist. The kids were up before I even thought of washing diapers. After being up until 12:30 or 1AM every night working on blogging (and a video that I couldn’t post) I am beat. I pushed through the pain and washed the diapers knowing that I would have at least 3 loads to wash tomorrow by nap time if I put it off.
Tip 2, dry in full sun: Another thing that I have learned is that the terry doublers and wipes take quite a while to air dry indoors. They took about 18 hours to dry in our California climate. Outside, on a nice warm day, they were dry in about 6 hours. Lesson here is that if you can dry outside, do so! My main drying rack for flats is a permanent fixture of our laundry room so I can’t move it outside. My flats are drying in about 8-12 hours. If I can wash during the day and can take advantage of full sunlight, I will!
Tip 3, pre-dry your covers: Many other moms that either took this challenge last year or this year, shared a tip about helping dry your diaper covers. I have found this information invaluable! If there is anything you want to air dry quickly use this tip! I fold a towel in half and lay the covers about an inch in from the edge. I fold the one inch over the ends of the covers and roll them up in the towel. Then kneel on the towel, mashing the layers of towel to the covers (or garment). My towels were pretty wet and my covers were nearly dry after this process! I hang the towels over the shower door and hang the covers to dry a bit more. This cut drying time for my covers dramatically.
The 10 flats I washed tonight.
Tip 4, stick to what works: When I first started handwashing I was using a tsp of Charlie’s soap alone. I didn’t like the lack of suds and found that if I added the Charlie’s water softener (which I use in my washing machine normally), the wash seemed much more effective.
Tip 5, washcloths rock!: I LOVE using the terry cloth for a doubler. I will never buy another doubler (and this has nothing to do with the fact that DS is almost potty trained). Half of a washcloth trifolded in the wet zone is like a magic fix. Magic I say! I dare you to try it and comment with the results!
Tip 6, everyone should try fleece liners: I think my last tip for hand washing is that it has been much easier to wash poopy diapers with the fleece liners. Poo hardly sticks to the fleece at all and I haven’t had any issues with my flats staining because they are mostly protected by the fleece. It also doesn’t hurt to have them soak in the oxiclean water until I’m ready to wash, however, today, DS’ last diaper of the day was a poopy one. It didn’t have time to soak in the oxiclean water and it came out clean as a whistle.
I can’t wait to have a chance to read the tips of many of the other moms taking this challenge! Check them out on the links below this post!
Until tomorrow….
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!
Today's outside drying rack: Terry doublers, fleece liners & wipes.
How’s it going? I’m exhausted. Funny thing though, the blogging is taking up more of my time than the handwashing is! On a typical day in our home my husband and I give the kids a bath, put them to bed and then he washes the dishes while I wash the diapers or wash a load of kids clothes. This week has been grueling. I’m trying to handwash diapers during the kids nap time because I have learned that it is much nicer to wash 6 flats, wipes, terry doublers, and fleece liners than it is to wash 12 (which has to be done in two loads).
I must report that my shoulders and back are sore from the effort of turning the handle on the laundry pod, scrubbing on my makeshift washboard (AKA meat marinade tupperware lid), rinsing and wringing them dry. I’m not complaining, just observing. Today I really focused on keeping my core tight while I did my handwashing. It was a more well rounded workout than my previous washes. Who doesn’t need a tighter core, right?
Today's flats drying inside on our upcycled baby gate drying rack.
Why am I so exhausted? Well, when the kids are in preschool (2 days a week) they take a nap at school. That means all of their diapers are at school with them and I don’t have any to wash at home. So I wind up washing those diapers at night and blogging about it after which makes for a long night. I’m not used to blogging daily. I try to post every 3 days so that I can maintain a balance between my family life and my second love (writing and educating). This balance is WAY off skew this week. I’m taking more time to do the washing by hand AND taking more time to blog about it. It’s difficult but not unbearable and definitely worth the experience.
Tonight my parents brought over my grandmother AND dinner (I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I was for this treat!). I was excited to tell my grandmother about the challenge because she used flats on her 3 children AND washed by hand. I’m going to tell you all about our conversation for day 6′s post since it is an open topic day. Check back for it! She was excited to tell me all about her experience with flat diapers.
I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who took the time to vote for me in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Moms of Multiples Bloggers! You did it! I’m number 25! Thank you!!!
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!
The upcycled baby gate turned custom drying rack! This is the load of handwashed laundry for today.
Why on earth would I choose to do this when I have a perfectly good washing machine? There are many reasons. What if there is a natural disaster and my washer and dryer don’t work? I have NEVER handwashed my laundry. In just two generations our world has changed in SO many ways. My grandmother handwashed her cloth diapers and her laundry for a family of 5, two of which were a set of twins. Can you imagine? And she had to figure out everything on her own. She didn’t have the internet to turn to for laundering tips. (Yes, I’m sure she had neighbors and friends to go to with questions but still!) I still remember her clothes line out in the back yard. Of course, by the time I was born, she had gotten a washing machine but she still made good use of that clothes line! So, reason number one that I’m taking the Flats Challenge, is to gain a basic skill. It’s a skill that happens to save money (on electricity and detergent), is better for the environment, and will better prepare me for the zombie apocalypse - because you just never know!
I also want this experience as an RDA cloth diaper circle leader. I want to be able to teach from experience. I need to know what it is like to handwash, and what diapers are easiest to handwash, when I am educating parents who need to cloth diaper because they can’t afford to diaper their baby in any other way. Experience is the best way to learn and the whole reason I became a cloth diaper circle leader was to support, educate my local community and get help to low income families in need of diapers.
Last but not least, this challenge is raising money to donate to a nonprofit organization called Giving Diapers, Giving Hope. They provide cloth diapers to families in need across the United States. If you are struggling to diaper your child/children and have to make decisions between diapers or food/shelter/clothes, please contact Giving Diapers, Giving Hope.
Join me on this week long journey. I’ll be blogging about my experiences daily following along with the dirtydiaperlaundry.com themes. If you would like to help me spread cloth diapering awareness, share my posts and vote for MommaWords.com HERE every 24 hours (until May 23rd) at the circle of moms top 25 mother’s of multiples blogs. Your votes are greatly appreciated!
