Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Flats and Handwashing Challenge Day #3 - How do you use your flats?

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all.  You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post.  This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!


We are well into Day #3 and I feel like the week is flying by.  I also feel like we have a routine and a good system going with our flats and handwashing.  A quick recap of Day #2 finds all went smoothly.  The daddy and the nanny used the correct diapers (flats pre-padfolded into covers ready to go) and all was well.  I did a load of 5 flats and 3 covers right when I got home and it wasn't too much different than my smaller loads of 2-3 flats.  I did notice that Mallory's bum was red and splotchy so I got nervous I wasn't getting my diapers rinsed well enough, but with a little bun glaze (an amazing diaper area treatment safe for cloth diapers from Sweet Knee) she was good to go after one change.  I'm actually thinking she just pooped and it wasn't noticed/changed quick enough which happens really easy to her if she is left to sit for even a few minutes (I blame an obsession with eating mandarin oranges!)  It was warm, windy, and sunny yesterday afternoon/evening which made my drying time outside incredibly quick.  Nights have been fine - we are using a padfolded flat under a gdiaper disposable insert (our typical night time solution regardless of this challenge) so all is status quo.  

This morning I did a small-ish load of flats (4 flats, 2 covers) and had to hang them on the drying rack inside since its cloudy and supposed to rain.  It's actually not bad out right now, and very windy, so I'm thinking I may transfer them to the line to finish drying.  3 hours later and they are still damp in places drying inside.  

The question for today - How do you use your flats?  As you can probably guess, we are padfolding them and laying them in a cover 99% of the time.  This is so easy, convenient, and takes out the 2 step process that doesn't bode well for a squirmy toddler who thinks diaper changes are on the same page as fighting a fire breathing dragon.  I have tried 2 other folds once - origami and diaperbag.  Both of them worked well, but again, having to get Mallory to lay down and hold relatively still for putting on the flat and then putting on the cover is not my idea of a good time.  

Because I don't have much to say about folds and don't have much to compare the padfold to.... I will give your the top 5 reasons I love the padfold:
  1. It's easy. 
  2. No need for pins, a snappi, or boingos.
  3. It's trim throughout.  The other folds I tried were also very trim, but the padfold is the same trimness from front to back, where as the origami or diaperbag folds had more bunching up front for us.
  4. Makes diaper changes a 1 step process.
  5. It doesn't matter what size flats you have, the padfold always fits.
 

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