Day 3 of the Flats and handwashing Challenge

May 25th, 2011
12:48pm


Day 2 Recap:

Well, Charlotte was a poop machine yesterday. I took the advice of some of the other participants and did a wet pail for the soiled diapers. The wet ones just went in the regular diaper pail. I have noticed that I'm paranoid about staining when handwashing. Every time Charlotte pooped, I'd run like a mad women to the bathroom and use the detachable showerhead to do a "hand pre-rinse". I'd then throw the dirty diaper into a bucket with cold water and baking soda. I put the bucket in my shower so the kids wouldn't get to it. The only stain we've had is on a wipe, and it's very small.

For yesterday's covers we used, our fleece cover, the Wonder Wrap, Sustainablebabyish wool soaker, Little Beetle's wool cover, a Zookies cover, and the Softbums Echo shell. Six covers for 2 kids... Not too bad! We went through almost all of our flats yesterday. By nighttime, there were only a handful of flats left. We had James all ready for bed in his PJs with two pad folded flats in a Little Beetle wool cover and he pooped, BIG time! EVERYWHERE! After a change, (into a Zookies cover with a kite folded flat with a pad folded flat laid inside), we were good to go for bed. Charlotte wore a pad folded flat inside a Skully Butts cover. No leaks for either of them.

Not only did I handwash the flats last night, I had to do wool wash because of the poo mess. So we were down all of our wool covers. I let them soak overnight and they are now hanging to dry. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be able to use the wool covers.

Handwashing didn't seem as intimidating as it was on Day 1. I knew what to do and did it. Since there were about twice as many diapers to wash last night as there were on day 1, it took longer to hand-wring everything. I did let the diapers soak for a little longer than I did on day 1 for no particular reason (I just got wrapped up in watching Scrubs on Netflix). I ran out of space on my line to dry diapers. I had to hang some by the corner of the flat with a clothespin. There were about four of them that were really close together like that that didn't dry overnight. After I took the majority of the flats off the line, I spread the damp ones out.

The handwashed wipes are stiff. Perhaps I'll throw them in a pillowcase, tie the top off and give it to the kids to shake around.

I have to admit, handwashing is really time consuming. I don't know how it would be feasible if you weren't a stay at home parent. We live in Texas where humidity is a part of everyday life but it takes longer than I expected for everything to dry. I've been wringing things out pretty well too. How is someone who works outside the home, suppose to come home, make dinner for the family, put them to bed, clean up, THEN handwash diapers? I've noticed it takes me awhile to get everything folded and organized. Perhaps that is because I have three little one vying for my attention.

I do feel like I go to bed feeling accomplished. But in the back of my mind there is this little voice that is saying "Are they REALLY clean?" My husband pointed out to me that just because we put things in the "magic washing machine", we (as a society) think nothing else will do. After all, machines clean out dishes, they clean our clothes and are involved in almost every aspect of our daily lives. However,I think know that I can clean diapers just as well, if not more thoroughly than a machine!

James has used the potty today and was doing really well last night so hopefully I won't have as much laundry to do tonight!

Tomorrow I'll be talking about the different kinds of flats I've been using and how they are holding up!

BTW, It's not to late to join, if you'd like. For more info and full rules, click here.

Day 1 post here
Day 2 post here

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