Flats and HAND WASH Challenge-Day 1 recap.

If you missed yesterdays blog, we are taking part in Dirty Diaper Laundry's Flats and Hand Wash Challenge. (click the link to read more about what it is)

Day 1 recap-

Kimmy finally got over her aversion to the flat diapers.  As long as I gave her a fun brightly colored cover she was ok with it.

The day went smoothly, there really was no difference in our routine it was just a different type of diaper going on their tushies at each change. I am really impressed with the absorbency abilities of these flats.  Remember, I am using the cheap Gerber flats that can be found in stores such as Walmart and Target.  I am doubling them up so there is 2 on each girl but I did not need to change anyone any sooner than I would normally have done with our pocket and AIO diapers.  Even with Miss Karma AKA supersoaker.  We had no leaks all day.  Kimmy even went over 4 hours in 1 diaper (on accident, I got a phone call after changing the first 2 and forgot I never changed her until the next diaper change).

Intimidation:
There were 2 areas of this challenge that really intimidated me.
1- The hand washing part
2- Overnights

Hand Washing-   Surprisingly, this was not bad at all.  I envisioned back breaking labor and my yuck reflux shuddered at the "touching" part.  It was nothing like that though.  It was really very simple and did not take much time at all.

I used the same pail we normally store dirty diapers in to wash.  I filled it with hot water and 1 tblsp of our Country Save laundry soap.  I used a random stick thingie that I found in our attic when we first moved into this home to "stir" the "loads".  Its a long sturdy plastic tube but I have no idea what it goes to.  I stirred and sloshed the diapers around with this stick for a good 10 minutes.  Then I left everything to soak for 30 minutes.  I dumped it out in our shower and used the pull down shower head to rinse everything off (I did clean the shower floor afterwards!).

First load washing

It was really no more work than a regular load of diapers and the diapers washed clean much faster.  Once they were rinsed clean I wrung them out and placed the back in the pail (that was also rinsed clean) and took them outside to hang dry.  I imagine it saved us on our water and electric consumption for that day too.  Compared to the washing machine the amount of water I used was minimal and there was even less electricity involved (only heating the water).

I ended up doing 2 "loads" yesterday.  The first only had 3 covers and 6 flats-I was anxious to try it for the first time, what can I say.  The second had 6 covers, 10 flats, 2 hooded towels and 4 baby wash cloths (that I am using as cloth wipes).  It was cloudy and drizzly when I placed the first load out to dry.  I left it on our porch and it took about 3 hours to dry.  It was nice and sunny for the second load so I placed them out in the sun.  The flats were dry within an hour, the hooded towels and baby wash cloths took overnight to dry (I moved them into the laundry room once the sun went down).

2nd load hanging to dry in the sun

Overnight-  This was the true test for us, if we could make it overnight with no one leaking then I knew we could do this challenge all week.  The day went smoothly, overnights would be our deciding factor.

As impressed as I was with the performance of the flats during the day I had little faith they would hold up overnight, especially for Karma.  Its funny to watch me get her ready for bed each night, its like I am preparing for war, war with the leaks.  She can leak through just about every diaper imaginable. 

My go to bedtime routine for her is a Blissful Booty Diaper with a minimum of 2 Blissful Booty booster pads and a fleece cover over everything.

For the purpose of the flats challenge I chose 2 flats AND a hooded baby towel with a fleece cover on top for Karma.  She had quite the little diaper butt.  For the other 2 girls I just did 2 flats each with fleece covers on top.  I actually somehow misplaced 1 of the fleece covers last night, I only have 3 total.  So I ended up putting a regular PUL cover on Sariah with fleece PJ pants on over that.

The verdict is........

.........EVERYONE STAYED DRY!

Everyone, even Karma.  WOW!


With day 1 under our belt I am feeling much more confident.  I am sure glad The Hubs did not take me up on my 2 bets.  I bet him that 1- Karma would leak out of her first flat diaper within an hour and 2- I would fail with Karma by day 2 and finish out the challenge with only Kimmy and Sariah.  I actually would have lost those bets!

These flats deserve some credit, they get the job done! 

I must go and wash the overnight diapers now so they will be ready for tonight.


Love,
this impressed mama,
Christy