What's Working and What's Not - Flats and Hand Washing Challenge

What's working, What's Not!

Well, we are five days into the challenge, and I have come up with some great victories, and some minor hurdles.  Surprisingly, my hurdles were different than I had anticipated. 

Before beginning this challenge, I was least excited about the hand washing portion.  My friends can agree that I was more than worried with that MAJOR detail (it IS in the title of the challenge).  I was terrified.  All I could envision was poop all over my tub, and all the way up my arms.  As you can see here, I did jump on board and take the hand washing challenge head on.  Other than a minor slip up (I'm still scared to open my mouth around diapers), it's continuing to go smoother than I expected.  My second and third time hand washing the diapers was considerably easier than my first.  Thank goodness this challenge was for a week, otherwise my first experience would have left a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended).

The only hurdle with hand washing, that I have noticed, is how much more time it takes in my day.  To thoroughly hand wash, rinse, wring out, and hang it takes almost an hour.  Now, my wash cycle for my regular cloth routine takes well over an hour, but the difference is that the time I put into loading and unloading my diapers is about 5 minutes.  Although this is a hurdle because I'm used to modern cloth, lets not forget the reason behind this challenge. It's to prove that cloth diapering is possible in all situations, EVEN on an almost non existent budget, and EVEN with no washer and dyer.  Therefore, I have realized, that although it is more time consuming, it is completely doable. 

I have had multiple victories since starting to use flats.  One that completely surprised me was when my daughter (Ms. heavy night time wetter) woke up with DRY SHEETS.  I was shocked and I thought for sure it was a fluke, there's no way flour sack towels can contain her pee, and sure enough, she has woken up with dry sheets every. single. morning. 

I have also found that it is pretty fun to try out a whole bunch of different folds and arrangements for my flats.  I never thought of diapering my child as such an art!  YouTube videos are amazing for figuring out every possible way a flat diaper can be folded and wrangled onto your child. 

Needless to say, this challenge has taught me a lot considering I'm definitely used to the convenience of modern cloth, but I am SO excited about all of the different techniques I have learned!  My husband BETTER take me camping this year so I can show off my savvy washing skills!

Hand Washing - The Flats and Hand Washing Challenge

 

Hand Washing - Flats and Hand Washing Challenge

When I first started the challenge, hand washing was the part that made me the most nervous.  I have never had to hand wash anything , let alone diapers!  The thought of how I could do this was slightly overwhelming in the beginning so it’s a good thing I like a little challenge J.

My first adventure was going out to get the accessories needed, you can see the breakdown here.  Once I had that all set up, I just needed to get some dirty flats, one day later, and my sweet Hayley blessed me with those.  Then came the part I was dreading, the hand washing.  Here are a few tips that I learned along the way:

1.       Close your mouth when agitating vigorously (I won’t go into detail)

2.       Set a timer, and then PUSH START…otherwise you will be agitating by hand for a VERY long time and wondering why five minutes seems so long….

3.       Use enough soap, (but not too much) the first time, so you don’t have to agitate twice. 

4.       Wear rubber gloves so your hands don’t get calloused

5.       Roll the flats up in a towel and press on them with your knees

 

A few pictures of our process! 

 

All in all, hand washing was significantly easier than I had originally anticipated! My arms are a little sore, but that’s the sign of a good work out, right?

FYI, you can hand wash the covers the exact same way you do flats! Even in the same "load," easy peasy!