When I signed up for the flats challenge, I had two heavy wetting boys in diapers, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep up with changing them, let alone hand washing them.
If you’re just “tuning in;” I’m participating in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. All this week I’ll be using flats and handwashing them. Learn more about the challenge.
I didn’t have tons of experience with flats, so I wasn’t sure if I’d have to double up at every diaper change, change twice as often, or just change a little more often. Luckily it appears that 1 flat, changing a bit more often will be fine, and my older son is using a diaper at night only now.
I had a few Diaper Rite unbleached flats, and I added flour sack towels to pad my stash a bit. For night time, I grabbed two hemp babies flats and an Orange Diaper Co. Bamboo Terry Square.
A wipeable cover would be easiest, but I’ve passed along a lot of what I wasn’t using regularly, so I didn’t have a whole lot left that fit the bill. I plan to use my Swaddlebees Capri, Flip, Best Bottom & Gro-Via shells primarily. I’ll use a flat inside a pocket diaper at night, as long as I manage to get the linings clean.
This year’s challenge isn’t as hard core as last year, so I will use a diaper with a lining (pocket, AI2 etc) as a cover in a pinch. There’s no limit on the # of covers you can use, but I want to keep it to a minimum, since I wouldn’t be likely to have 25 covers if I were truly in this situation!
There is a shower/tub combo in my kids’ bathroom, but it’s upstairs. If I have to be up/down up/down with the kids, it will be a lot more difficult than my current arrangement of popping in & out of the laundry room (off the kitchen) as needed. My laundry room has a utility sink and a pull-out sink sprayer. I figure it would work well to basically wash a handful of diapers at a time, and wash constantly. I can’t fit more than a few in the sink at a time, but it won’t be as terrible to just pop in and out to soak, change water etc. throughout the day.
I have around 2 dozen flats, plus 3 night time flats. That’s way more than I can wash at once, but enough that I don’t have to panic about getting them dry now that I only have 1 in diapers during the day. The flour sack towels were only about $1 each, so that’s not at all unrealistic.
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Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
