Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Flats Challenge: Day 4

We're 4* days into the Flats Challenge and going strong! Truthfully, it's going significantly better than I ever expected.  We've still had just one leak (we're still not using flats overnight, either).  I've been pleasantly surprised at how well they are working for us. And I am thinking I just may leave them out and continue using them, for around the house if nothing else. Also, the hand-washing isn't nearly as bad as I'd expected it would be.  Sure, it's time-consuming and I'm doing it every day, but it really isn't bad. I have plenty of diapers but washing a day's worth of diapers and covers takes about 20 or so minutes. And washing and rinsing IS work. I definitely feel like I'm getting a good workout for my arms.  But it is all manageable.  I've been fortunate that I've been able to put everything outside to dry the past few days, too.  I have a clothesline in my laundry room for indoor drying too, but I really love to dry diapers outside.  The sun bleaches stains and UV rays work to help sanitize them - both of these things amaze me.  A clothesline is a cloth diapering mama's best friend! I've been shocked at how quickly the flats dry, too. They are completely dry after a couple hours in the sun on these breezy days. The covers dry very quickly as well.

I have discovered that not everything is rosy about hand-washing. Namely, pocket diapers are definitely harder to get clean than flats and covers. But they have still come cleaner than I expected they would. I may have a couple more stains than I would normally have they look pretty darn good.  I also have to work on them a little more, though. I'm also finding that it takes our overnight diapers a long time to dry (we use a Flip organic insert and a Flip stay-dry insert).  They seem heavier than normal when I hang them up to dry, so I assume I'm just not getting the extra water out of them like my washer does. If I were doing this long-term, I'd probably try rolling these in a clean, dry towel to get the extra water out. But I'm too lazy to do anything else at this point...they're just taking a couple hours longer to dry than they usually would.

All in all, I'm feeling much more confident about recommending and using flats. We'll see how I feel after another couple days ;-)

*If you've read the official challenge information, you've seen that it just started yesterday and goes through next Sunday. Since we have plans for the long weekend, I opted to start two days earlier and will stop the  challenge this Friday. I'm still getting my full week in, but didn't want to mess with the project while traveling and enjoying the holiday.

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