Flat diapers and Handwashing challenge -Day 1

There's this blogger that read an article about people reusing disposable diapers after they dry or letting baby sit in a wet diaper for longer.  YUCK, but I guess people don't realize they have other options.

A lot of people are turned off from cloth diapering because the initial start up cost is quite substantial, but the blogger challenged her readers to do a flats and handwashing challenge.

We usually use at least one flat diaper a day, some days that's what I use all day.  They are super thin but can be folded to added thickness to the wet zone.  James is a super pee'er and they still work great for him. The hardest thing about using flats right now is that James fights anything that makes him sit/lay still (diaper changes, car seat, stroller...) and my favorite way for James to wear a flat is in the Origami fold, so I didn't sign up for the challenge right away.  Then last week I started pad folding the flat and sticking it in a cover, then all I have to do with James is lay him on it and snap the cover.

So, I picked up a big bucket from the bakery department at Price Chopper (for free, just asked and he seemed happy to get rid of one) for hand washing.  Some people are using a plunger with holes poked in it for cleaning, but honestly, I scrape poop in the toilet and wipe butts all day, as long as I clean of the dirty diapers in the toilet-what I have to do even when using the washer, I'm not that upset about hand washing- I also haven't washed yet ;).
This is a video of how to put a flat on when it is folded with the origami fold.  It is from a few months ago when James didn't realize he could escape diaper changes, I miss those days.



So here is the run down of what we are using:
-One dozen, Green Mountain Diapers organic unbleached flats $25 +shipping
-2 Flips seconds (seconds are second quality diapers/covers that diaper makers sell at a reduced price because of some sort of cosmetic flaw-I have never been able to find issues with the CottonBabies seconds, so I stock up on these when they sell them) $9 each free shipping
-1 Fluffy's diapers cover from etsy $10 +shipping
-1 Woollybottoms wool cover that I got used for $15 including shipping
Just over 75 dollars to diaper from birth to potty training. Huge savings.

I also have some Swaddlebees flats that I'm using because I didn't want to get bored, they have polka dots and giraffes, but obviously these aren't required.

This is pretty cheap way to go, but it can be done cheaper.  We have organic flats because they were out of stock of the "regular"ones, so that would be cheaper. I also picked up some flour sack towels from Target because these are supposed to be a good option for people on a very tight budget and I wanted to test this out.  (So far the flower sack towels aren't working great for James, I'm going to try to double them up on him tomorrow though.)  They cost about a dollar a piece so they could be one of the cheaper ways to go about diapering, but if you have to double up it might not be worth the savings.  Another option that we have tried is to use a flannel receiving blanket for flats, this actually works really well, but it seems to keep the skin wetter than the other flats; however, I have bought 5 packs of these blankets at 1/2 price day at a consignment sale for $1!!  You could also buy a yard of fleece from walmart to wick moisture away from baby's skin.

I'll keep blogging about this throughout the week-also have a Fiona update, we've been having some struggles lately.