Flats Challenge: Day 2, Laundry

Today's the day that I've been anxious about - laundry day.  In general, laundry has always been the scariest part of cloth diapering.  Buying cute little diapers and putting them on my baby is easy! Most people who have never tried them are terrified of the poop, but even that isn't bad. (Really, cleaning it off the baby is almost always the worst part.) Anyway, I digress. The host blog for the Flats Challenge is Dirty Diaper Laundry. This is the second time they hosted this event and they have several resources posted on their blog, including a tutorial for building a camp style washer. After watching their YouTube tutorial, I was convinced that the bucket washer was definitely worth the $12 or so it would cost me.  So off I went to buy a 5-gallon bucket with a lid and a toilet plunger. Basically, you drill a hole in the lid of your bucket which will allow the handle of the plunger to fit through it. Then, you can drill holes in the plunger itself but this is considered optional (from everything I've read, this is well worth the time and energy it takes). Apparently, if you don't drill holes in the plunger, it will suction to the bottom of the bucket pretty strongly.  Since I've used a plunger for its intended purpose, I decided to trust the online recommendations to drill the holes.  Here are a few pictures of my finished product:

I think the bucket is pretty self-explanatory - you put the diapers (or whatever you're washing) in it with some soap and water and seal the lid, then plunge away!  I have been taking them out and hand-rinsing once they've agitated and soaked in the soapy water (I'm using our rarely-used, extra bathtub for this project.) . All in all, I've been pretty pleased with how clean the diapers appear to be getting from hand-washing.  Here's an example of a once-poopy pocket diaper after it was cleaned in the bucket washer:

There's a slight stain, but as any mama, cloth diapering or not, would tell you, poop frequently stains.  After they're all washed and rinsed, I hang the diapers on the line outside to dry (please ignore my ugly propane tank in this photo - there are a few things about country living that aren't beautiful and serene and this is one of them).

In my next post, I'll update you all on how this challenge is going, from diapering to the hand-washing.