Laundry Free Day

I have a cold, I have tons of paperwork to prepare and I have to get to work in a couple of hours. I declare myself on strike and won't do diaper washing today.

I can enjoy a free day once in a while, in fact, most CD families do it a lot, washing only every 2 or 3 days. So then, why am I different?

Well, most CD families live in houses and have the privilege of a big washing machine in the basement, or in the kitchen, or in the laundry room or... who knows. But not us. We live in an apartment in which laundry machines are not allowed.

 Over my life, I've gone through different laundry accommodations,  from having it in the house like every other child I knew in my protected childhood to having to walk  some 2000 feet to a laundromat and spending all Saturday morning there (not fun).

With the first boy, my husband used to handwash his poopy clothes, but with the second one, he just can't, so after they started piling up and the bathroom sink  was always occupied, I gave him an ultimatum, went online and found exactly what we needed.

The pros: it fits inside our bathroom, doesn't require instalation, it's powerful and it leaves synthetic clothes pretty dry. The cons: it only has one speed, it's not automatic and it's small.

So, if I dare waiting for a day to do my diaper laundry, the next day is a long one with 2 loads of stinky material. When that happens, I take advantage of the situation to separate natural and synthetic fabrics, natural only needs regular detergent and doesn't have repelling problems, but it does require more of it, synthetic requires less, but it's good to use baking soda and peroxide cleaner once in a while to get rid of the ammonia (which is starting to stink a lot) and an extra rinse is always welcome.

Next problem is the availability. My stash of pockets and AIO is pretty limited, just as my budget. 2 days of diapering 2 heavy wetters goes through pretty much all of them. It means, I have to get all the prefolds out of the covert and have Tiny Guy wearing Real Nappies medium size covers, which look absolutely huge on him, plus I have to change them more often due to humidity issues. Since we may take the children out, I may put a disposable on Tiny Guy (never go in the clothing route without some sposie backup, you may need it once in a while).

So, let's relax and not be too rigid on ourselves. It is possible to take a day off!