I Signed Up For the 2nd Annual Flats Challenge!

Apr 25,2012 / By Maria / 7 Comments

In case you missed the announcement, May 21-27 is the 2nd annual flats challenge, hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

I did not participate last year. It is the week of my son’s birthday, and I was also pregnant/sick/exhausted. The idea of mastering flats & hand-washing diapers for a week made me feel nauseated (more so than usual, hee-hee.) When Kim announced that she’d be hosting the challenge again this year, I immediately thought I’d support it, but wouldn’t participate. No way, no how! After all, it is again my son’s birthday week, and I have two super-soaker boys in diapers now! My little guy is 4.5 months old right now and still wants to be held/worn all the time. I am honestly struggling with meeting his needs, while also meeting my older son’s needs (mostly constant feeding, LOL!) and getting my daughter to and from school and activities, getting her homework done etc. I am completely overwhelmed with keeping up with junk cleanup, dishes, cleaning and the constant laundry. Washing diapers for 2 is a lot, even with a washing machine. The other day my husband remarked that the laundry room looked empty without diapers hanging, LOL.

I also don’t have enough flats to use, and I assume I’d need to use my tub to wash, which would be an extra hassle to deal with the kids and running up & down the stairs. I don’t know if I even have enough places to hang up that many flats! Excuse after excuse, I know! It sounds crazy, but the idea of using & hand washing flats for a week ramped my anxiety up 10 notches and made me feel physically ill.

Then I started thinking about what it would be like if this was my reality and it made me want to try! I took a deep breath, hit the submit button on the sign up form, and ordered some flour sack towels to use as flats. Eek!

Since then, I found out that we are allowed to use a diaper sprayer this year (it wasn’t allowed last year) and we’re not limited to the # of covers we use (the limit was 5 last year.) I only have a couple of wipeable covers, since I sent what I wasn’t regularly using to my friend. I was concerned about keeping covers clean, and I was also concerned about my older son freaking out that he couldn’t have the diaper he wanted!

I’m going to try to limit the # I use, especially since I don’t need more to hand wash! I have a utility sink in my laundry room that also has a sink sprayer. So I figure I will just be washing flats constantly, all day every day that week. However many I can fit in the sink at a time.

You’re also allowed a night time diaper of your choice, but you’re encouraged to make flats work for you. So, I ordered two hemp babies flats to use inside a pocket diaper at night. Hopefully that will be enough absorbency!

I’ll be writing more about my thought process as I imagined doing this out of necessity, and I’ll also be posting about the hemp babies flats and flour sack towels I bought, as well as comparing them to the Diaper Rite flats I’ve already posted about.

I’ll be tweeting with the hash tag #flatschallenge, and I’ll be blogging daily about my experience! Want to join me? Read about the challenge and sign up!

This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I will receive a small portion of the sale. Thank you!

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

GroVia Winner

Apr 14,2012 / By Maria / 1 Comment

614 people entered this giveaway, with 4,643 entries in all. The winning entry is #503, which is Kimberlie S. Congrats, I’m sending you an email so you can claim your prize!

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Diaper Rite Large Unbleached Flats (Flat Cloth Diapers)

Apr 5,2012 / By Maria / 9 Comments

Although I enjoy pocket diapers and other modern diapers, I love knowing that I can cloth diaper really affordably, and even with things I have around the house. We have well water so a power outage means no well pump, no water and not even hand washing is possible. Things like receiving blankets and kitchen towels can be used as diapers in a pinch, and when you’re doing it by choice (rather than out of necessity) there can be something a little fun and relaxing about folding flats!

Diaper Rite is sold by Diaper Junction, and offers quality, affordable cloth diapering products. (You can see my Diaper Rite pocket diaper review.)

I picked up a dozen Diaper Rite unbleached Birdseye cotton flats in the large size (about 32″ x 32″ pre-washing) for $22. They are also available in a small size (27″ x 27″ pre-washing) which would be fine for pad folding or for smaller babies, priced at $17.50/dozen. Both sizes are also available in white.

Naturally, cotton shrinks quite a bit in the wash.

Pre-washing:

Post-washing/drying:

Even after shrinking, the large was large enough to snappi on my 2 yr 10 month old son, who is around 29ish pounds.

When you look at these next pictures, you will probably say “but Maria, you didn’t…and it isn’t…and it wasn’t…” You’re probably right. I didn’t and it isn’t and it wasn’t. But that’s the beauty of flats. You can fold them any way you want, totally customizing where you put the most layers, and they are very forgiving. I know some people have amazing flat folding demos where all the folds are crisp and the corners are sharp. Mine were done with an audience and were done very quickly, as they are in “real life!”

This is my sloppy version of the Diaper Bag Fold:

Fold each side to the middle

Fold the bottom up (this is a great time to adjust the “rise” of the completed diaper, and put the absorbency where you want it. Then you’ll trifold and fan the back out, then fold the “waist” down.

Then fold the front up and wrap around baby!

When I was doing this one, my husband said “what’s this wacky diaper origami?” I said “yeah, it’s pretty much diaper origami!”

Again, flats are very forgiving! Nothing terrible will happen if it’s not exactly square or even. Fold in half, then in half again, so the flat is folded into quarters.

Grab the bottom corner and pull it up to the top to form a triangle.

Then flip the whole thing over

And fold the rectangular portion to the middle.

Tuck the legs in and pull up over baby.

Wrap the wings around baby and cover. You can secure with pins or a snappi first!

Flats are just a single layer of fabric, but you can get 8-12 layers in the wet zone depending on how you fold. You can pad fold (basically just quartering and trifolding) another flat to use under for extra absorbency, fold two up together, or combine with an insert or whatever you like!

The large size fits just fine even on my not-quite-4-month-old.

Have you used flats? I know many of you participated in the flats challenge last year. What was your favorite fold? What brand did you like best?

FTC compliance: Although I paid normal retail prices for the pictured items, this post contains affiliate links. I was not compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

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Diaper Junction Has a Cloth Diaper Service!

Feb 29,2012 / By Maria / 1 Comment

Everyone knows that Diaper Junction is one of my favorite places to buy cloth diapers, so I wanted to share their big news with you!

Diaper Junction’s New Diaper Service!
Do you live in Virginia Beach near Diaper Junction? Did you know that Diaper Junction has branched out and has expanded their offerings to include a Cloth Diaper Service?

Diaper Junction is located on the south side of Hampton Roads. Their Virginia Beach Cloth Diaper Laundry Service serves most areas of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, and Newport News.

About Diaper Junction’s Cloth Diaper Laundry Service: (from DiaperJunction.com)
As your favorite family-owned and operated cloth diaper retailer, Diaper Junction has been serving the cloth diapering community both locally, and virtually via the World Wide Web for more than 8 years. With over 10 years of cloth diapering experience, Diaper Junction is ready to embark in the next phase of serving our community and is proud to now begin offering a Cloth Diaper Laundry Service!

Throughout the years we’ve been committed to providing families with the cloth diapering options and support they need in order to use cloth diapers with success. Through our new Laundry Service we’ll be able to reach more families and add even more convenience for those who want to use cloth diapers.

Have questions about the service? Have questions about using cloth diapers? Not a problem! We provide support via phone and email and we even offer demonstrations to teach you how how to use our diapers and make the most of our service.

Need help making the transition from laundering your own cloth diapers to using our Laundry Service? Don’t worry, we’re here to help! Whether you want to use the service temporarily and then begin laundering your own, use the service part-time, or you want to use the service full time, we’ll walk you through it every step of the way.

One Stop Shop!
We have a large in-stock supply of cloth diapers and all the accessories you’ll need! Stop by and shop our warehouse. Better yet, Diaper Service customers get free product delivery. Just order online and we’ll deliver your items on your delivery day!

Affordable Rental Options
We do not charge a flat weekly rate. Why pay for more diapers than you need? You only pay for the amount you order. Our “pay only for what you actually need” philosophy is perfect for those who only want to cloth diaper part-time or simply do not need a laundry service full-time.

We also offer a variety of packages to get you started. Want to just give our service a try? Sign up for our Test Drive Package. Want to take the plunge with great savings!?! We offer an all inclusive Deluxe Starter Package at a huge discount or you can start using our Cloth Diaper Laundry Service part-time for as little as $13 per week, including pick up and delivery!

Serving the community
We are extremely proud to tell everyone that we have teamed up with Chesapeake Service Systems, Inc to wash our diapers. CSS is a local non-profit laundry facility that employs adults with disabilities, autism and other intellectual disabilities. We are happy to support this organization in their mission to provide work opportunities in an environment that will stimulate development, improve the health and quality of life, as well as providing a sense of worth and dignity to this very special group of people.

To read more about Diaper Junction’s new Cloth Diaper Service and their prices please visit DiaperJunction.com.

FTC compliance: I was not compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

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Feed Your Stash Friday Giveaway – Diaper Rite OS Pocket Diaper & Wetbag U.S./Canada (CLOSED 2/15)

Feb 10,2012 / By Maria / 7 Comments

I’m co-hosting Diaper Junction’s feed Your Stash Friday (FYSF) giveaway on their Cloth Diaper Blog today! Every Friday, they give away cloth diapers to one lucky winner.

FYSF giveaways don’t make it onto my giveaway roundup since they start after it’s posted & end before the next one begins, but this week you can actually enter the giveaway here.

This week’s giveaway is a Diaper Rite one-size pocket diaper and wet bag (you can read my Diaper Rite pocket diaper review if you’re interested!) The prize’s combined ARV is $15.90.

You can fill out the Rafflecopter form here, or on Diaper Junction’s blog, but only one set of entries will be accepted and one winner will be selected by Diaper Junction.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was not compensated for this post & all opinions are my own. Post contains affiliate links. Though I am co-hosting the entry form, Diaper Junction is responsible for winner selection & prize delivery. Diaper Junction’s privacy policies apply.

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