Washing Diapers in a Twin Tub Panda Washer

I've seen several inquiries and google searches about washing cloth diapers in a Twin Tub Panda, I'm no expert, but have been doing this for a year, changing routines, adapting to new situations and battling ammonia, so I'll see if I can answer your doubts to the best of my abilities.

Is it possible to wash diapers in a Twin Tub portable washer?
Yes. It takes more time than doing it on a regular and you have to do it more frequently, but it can be done.

How often should diapers be washed?
Depends on the number of diapers being used and the age of the machine. When it was newer, I could wash 10-12 diapers at a time, which allowed me to go for a couple of days without them accumulating if I had only one child in diapers (I had 2 for several months). Since it has been losing power due to barring and over use (and abuse), I do 7-8 diapers now, so I can wash twice every three days.

Should I spin the diapers inbetween rinses?
I do, just like in a regular machine, because it gets rid of more soap and more ammonia, but if you have good results skipping that step, good for you. This machine is extremely flexible, you control the time, the ammount of water and how many times you wash and rinse, there is no automatic cycle you have to adapt to.

Do diapers come dry out of the spinner?
No. But they dry much faster when you hang them than coming out of a regular washer. Polyester fabrics come almost ready, it takes a couple of hours, natural fibers are usually dry overnight, depending on humidity conditions.

Can I use a different detergent for my regular clothes?
Yes, I do that all the time, just give a rinse to the tub before you start filling it up.

Can I drain the water in the bathtub, will it overflow?
Yes, you can. It fills about 1/5 of the bathtub when you drain and it empties out in a couple of minutes. It is much safer than draining in the bathroom sink and pumping water in the drainage.

Do diapers get ammonia when washing them in a small portable setting?
Like any other devise, they might. In order to wash the ammonia buildup away, you need a combo of temperature, detergent and time washing. I use a ton of soap, hot water and 12 minutes in the wash and that keeps it down. I actually have an easier time dealing with ammonia with the Panda than with a regular Maytag.

Will my diapers get stained?
They might, I get less stains than in a regular washer, but if they do, I just hang them by the window and they are good as new after 2 or 3 washes (stains do not affect the diaper's funcionality).

What do I do if the washer starts walking?
Your spin drier is out of balance, open it and reaccomodate the clothes on top, trying to put them evenly and flat.

I like my puffy prefolds, can I get puff in the spin drier?
No, you need an air based drier for that. Time also helps, sometimes prefolds I haven't used in weeks appear fluffy later on.

How long does it take to get the diapers clean?
50 min to an hour according to my routine. About 2/3 of the time, the machine is doing its job by itself, no need to stay and babysit.

Can I leave the tub filling and come back later?
Yes, the machine has a hole on top that keeps the water draining into the inner tub and out, so it won't overflow (you still need to save water).

Can I leave the tub draining and come back later?
Yes, but there is no timer in the draining pump, so I wouldn't recommend leaving it on for  an undetermined period of time.

Can I leave the washer and/or the spinner working and come back later?
Absolutely!

Will my diapers get damaged if washed in the Panda?
I've been using diapers for more than a year in a very limited stash. The Fuzibunz look good as new and so do the Tots Bots and the Blueberries. The Grovias do look wasted in the leg elastics, but I bought those used already.

How many times should I wash/rinse in the tub to get them clean?
As many as you seem appropiate. I do 4 (3 min hot rinse - 12 min hot wash - 5 min hot rinse - 3 minute cold rinse) and do not spin between 1 and 2. That's the equivalent to 2 cycles in a regular washing machine but with hotter water.

Can I use Dawn or Oxyclean in the Panda?
I do. Much safer to use Dawn in a Panda than in a regular washer.

Do diapers get moldy if left inside the spinner?
Depends on how long, the only times I have had mold issues the diapers were inside a bag damp for several hours, it was only the Grovias. I would still recommend not leaving them overnight in the spinner (no problem with leaving them soaking in the big tub).

I hope this helps, feel free to ask more.

Different Brands for Different Situations

Over the past year, I've used cloth diapers almost exclusively. I got different brands at different times and they have more than paid for themselves at this point.

I have different brands and my stash is definitely small but varied. Anyway, this is a comparison of what I have and what works better for different situations.

I have Blueberry Econappi, Simplex and prefolds. Grovia AIO, Bumgenius Freetime, Tots Bots AIO, Fuzzibunz OS Elite, Flip OS Covers, Real Nappies covers, Flip organic inserts, Unbranded prefolds and Kissaluvs hemp fitteds.

The Confy One.

My favorites are Fuzzibunz. They have the best fit, they always look perfect, they dry fast and there's always one ready to use. I generally grab the diaper and a couple of inserts and in 10 seconds stuff it, it takes me no time to put it on and the three snaps on each side and waist adjustment make them a total winner.
My second choice is Blueberry Econappi. Not as fantastic fit as the Elites and not as dry due to being all natural, but the bamboo inserts last longer and are less bulky, I just love those diapers.

The Outsider

Econappi most likely will be my diaper to go, and Grovia AIO will be my diaper on the bag. Fuzzibunz tend to have compression leaks in the car and the inserts don't last as long because they are polyester. Econappi will last longer. Grovias are the least bulky, great for tight pants and for bringing in my tiny purse or in the baby carrier, just in case Tiny Guy needs a change and the ordeal is longer than 3 hours.

The Daddy-doer

This one is tricky. If they are ready, the Fuzzibunz are the best choice, and he always put them right. Also a great choice is a prefold in Real Nappies covers, since they are velcro, there is no room for making mistakes, and he doesn't mind that they are not a pocket or an AIO.

The Daddy Impromptu

If there's nothing prepared ahead of time, the Freetime is the one that I've seen best placed on Tiny Guy from all the AIO for a person that doesn't know what he's doing. The snaps are the easiest to put and press and the 2 flaps are easy enough to figure out.

The Trim One 
Grovia AIO. Period. I don't think disposables would look as trim, even before the gel fills up.

The Night Cruiser

Trifolded prefolds "girl mode" as inserts of an Econappi. My boys are not heavy wetters, several things and combos work for night time, but that one is the best of them all. Rash free and durable.

The Cutest Print

Tots Bots New York. The only diaper I have bought because the print was just perfect for a baby boy.

The Baby Model

On my sister's wedding day, the photographer went to the house for the dressing part, she saw the baby and started taking shots of him. He was wearing a prefold with a snappi. I immediately went and changed him. Grovia AIO was my first choice in the rush.

The Baby Proof

Fuzzibunz Elite. Why, I don't know, but Tiny Guy has yet to take that one off. He has disposed of every other one.

The Staywet

Blueberry Simplex OS. If it is not wet with urine, it is wet with water. It takes so long to dry and my stash is so short, that it spends more than two thirds of the time wet.

The Staydry

Tots Bots AIO is the dryest. It takes a couple of hours after the spinner and it does not need stuffing.

The Explosion Container

Believe it or not, Grovia AIO has contained every single explosion, even when it doesn't last that long for regular wetting (I change it within an hour). None other holds such an honor (although explosion leaks are very rare in general).

The Leak Proof

Freetime has so far proven to be beyond leaks and in a class of its own on that regard.

The Rash Free

Fuzzibunz Elite and Tots Bots are my to go every time Tiny Guy gets a rash, they disappear by themselves with daily baths and

Overcoming the Stink Monster of the Uncovered

The only item I got with my first order of diapers a year ago was a small wetbag. I was washing every day with 2 boys and a tiny bag. Eventually I got another 2 (one of them a little bigger) and closed my non diaper budget.

I was very aware that a dirty diaper had to go in a place that would keep it safe and sound until washing time, and the smell away. My 3 wetbags have seen a lot of washes and traveled all over the place.

But when I started having stinky problems, realized 2 things:
1) My dirty diapers were smelling through the wet bags, creating a smelly monster that I didn't have space to place.
2) Being in a closed area without much air to breathe was not helping the ammonia wrecking when getting wet.

So, whatever was the motive or the discussion, I started dumping the dirty diapers in the dirty clothes hamper, with all the dirty clothes, dirty towels and dirty sheets. Result: less stink.

By no means the stink monster disappeared, but the dirty clothes are much better at hiding the 2 day old urine than the wet bags with one miserable layer of PUL, and even in my second home, where the hard water makes it more difficult to clean, the overall smell is almost negligible compared to the stay away from me wet bag.

I still use them, they are great for outings and travelling, but for inside the house, nothing like dirty clothes to keep the smell at ease.

Oh, the dirty clothes have not expreienced any change once they are clean, they have my favorite scent when out and dry: nothing.

The Ugly Pocketling II

I have a clean freash ready to use orange Fuzzibunz Elite OS in my hand. 48 hours ago that was not the case. After looking at it and feeling it, I must say Thereson Dupuy deserves a monumnet, cause I don't know what other diaper would be like that after what it went through (Grovia AIOs definitely wouldn't).

But let me go back a little bit. I know it will sound gross to you, but among all the little things I've done to accomplish my no-stink life is the no wet bag. You heard it right, I don't use a bag, a pail or any other device to shield the diapers from the outside world. I throw them in the dirty laundry or place them on top of the hanging rack. Sure they smell if you approach too much, but otherwise, the overall odour in the house is safe to breath.

However, poop complicates this arrangement. If there's a poopy diaper (which, thanks to bf, doesn't happen on a daily basis), it gets sprayed with the hand held shower into the toilet and further into the sink until there's practically nothing but stains left. Of course, I'm left with a very dripping diaper that can't go anywhere but a wet bag and a tub. Sometimes I just leave it in the sink and do a load of diapers right after, but anothers, well, it goes into a wet bag and then a hanging tub in the bathroom wall. It hides it pretty well.

As you can imagine, I think I hid it too well, so much that next time I washed diapers, I totally forgot there was a poopy hidden one. And the next time, and... I can't recall.

One day it stroke me I hadn't seen the orange FB for a while. My stash is so varied in color and so small, it's easy to notice when a diaper is missing. And it hit me: I could look inside the white tub. Yep. There was a wet bag there. It was late at night, so I decided to do something next morning.

I took the bag and plain emptied it directly in the washer with another load. Then I left it soaking in Murphy's oil soap. Got it washed with another load of clothes again (I didn't care about detergents or fragances, just wanted the diaper clean!). Rinsed, spinned, I put it in the sun. Inserts, wet bag and all.

Next day: a clean diaper!!! Of course I needed to strip the oil soap, but there were no signs of mold anywhere, or any other residuals of any kind. I tossed it with the regular diaper wash (which includes a couple of drops of Dawn in the rinse cycle) and it was good to go and smeling like a clean diaper smell: nothing.

So, if you happen to forget a dripping diaper, please, make sure it's a Fuzzibunz!

Fears, Rules and Detergents

Like most moms, I bought my fluff and wanted to do everything right. That included the religious washing routine that required a special detergent.

My first choice was All Free and Clear. Later on I saw that the cloth diapering community had mixed results on it. Some approved it but not as the best, some completely trashed it. It was a pain trying to keep the build up down, but the reason I gave up on it was that it wasn't getting the job done. Great for poop stains, but not so fantastic for urine removal.

I switched to ECOS, since it was relatively cheap and "all natural". Remember what I said about All and the stains? well, that's why I missed it. Not only did it not remove stains, it was so gentle on the diapers that it left the ammonia there,  just in case the diaper would be too stressed out with the chemical reaction.

In the meantime, I spent some 10 weeks of the hot season out of here. Near Lake Erie, I asked before hand what detergent worked nice in the area, the answer was Tiny Bubbles, so I rushed to buy it so that it would be waiting for me when we arrived. It was my first time with a cd specific detergent!
 Too bad it doesn't clean. I couldn't stand the smell, even when it was supposed to be perfume free, having to dilute it in hot water was a pain and Little Guy started having rashes within a week.

Fortunately, the Flats and Handwashing challenge came, and for washing my t-shirts I used a bar soap. It didn't work great either, but survived the 7 days. Came back home one week later.

After that, I went to see my folks in Mexico and walked throuhg all Walmart trying to find a perfume free detergent - not such luck. So, when asking my mom what she used to wash baby clothes, she said Zote

Of course, Zote has been around since way before I can remember. It is a bar soap, and every house in Mexico, regardless of having a washer or not, has a bar at hand. I did not want to spend time grinding it though, but happened to find a washer friendly version in flakes. OK, I guessed I would strip my diapers when I came back.

2 weeks later, I couldn't believe it. Certaintly it wasn't great for the stains (sun helped with those), but all the ammonia smell had completely dissapeared. I was slightly bothered by the perfume, but no rashes and no stinkies at all!

I came back and started using ECOS again. The amount of boosters was unbelievable. I was adding baking soda, Dawn, Castile soap and Hidrogen peroxide to the mix and still no results. Stink had come back in a week.

Back in the lake, I found Eco Nuts in the coop and decided to give them a try. Stinkies decreased, much better than Tiny Bubbles, but terrible with stains. I'll keep them there for sure, but I'm not convinced that they work for everything as they claim.

Back here, I remembered I had a small piece of Zote that my uncle gave to me in our Christmas trip to Texas. Couldn't hurt to try.

So, since my washer is so primitive and I fill the tub with my hand held shower hose, I just put the Zote piece below it and allowed whatever it released into the mix. The results were immediate.

I had finally found a way to wash my diapers without spending tons of money ($2 a bar) without buildup and without theneed of boosters. I've been using it for 2 months without a problem. In fact, I'm using it for all my laundry, leaving ECOS only for backup.

This was the epiphany: "Detergent buildup is easy to remove, ammonia is not". Truth is, most of us are so scared about our investment being ruined and warranties being voided, that we forget the most important function o fa detergent: to clean.

Later in the Cloth Diaper Support Group I'm enrolled, a lot of requests for help have appeared. Ammonia is a big monster, one you need your best arsenal to fight. Sometimes, that arsenal implies breaking the sacred rules. A lot of moms just plain and simple go with Tide. Others use tons of hot water and some more use more detergent than the mandated, bleach or even boil them. Remember, the most important thing is to keep the baby safe and rash free, not to keep your diapers with a valid warranty.

Sometimes we need to look back and see what our moms did, and this is what they did in Mexico to wash flats. This soap is so good that Mexicans are not wondering around the grocery store trying to figure out the best detergent for their babies. Sometimes, what has always been done is what works best.

I don't know if I'll keep using it, but so far, it has the least amount of buildup and usage with the highest efficiency. Suds are mostly gone after the first rinse, by the second, the smell (that is strong, have to admit) is gone.

I put the soap inside a baby sock and just toss it with the wash in hot water. couldn't be happier with the results.




 

Reasons for using disposables

In the past couple of days, I've found several posts of people that see cloth diapering mothers as nazis, that think it is not worth it and no money is saved, which they use as pretext to go back to disposables.

Instead of getting angry and answering them, which others have, I want to approach the subject as saying: YES, using disposables is allowed, at least in my book, and no, I'm no better than other parents just for using cloth.

But if they choose disposables, I think there are valid reasons out there, instead of trying to pretend that you don't save money or the environment (neither of which were my reasons for switching), I'd like them to be honest. Here are real situations in which it is valid using them:

• Because you want to. I know it would be obvious, but for me cloth is a choice, and it is not all or nothing, I still have some disposables around, although the last bag has spent some 3 or 4 months in the closet. It is not up to anybody but the user to decide, and it is way more valid than attacking cloth. A lot of moms won't want to get bothered, or get overwhelmed, or simply think disposables are cute.
• Rashes. Yes, certain babies do better with disposables. Although many people switch the other way due to sensitivity to chemicals, it happens. I did almost quit once for Little Guy, until I found a way to keep him from getting burned. Sometimes there is no perfect washing detergent, or water, or routine and the need for constant creams and ointments makes them a necessity.
• Droughts. I go to the sink, water pours. We're connected to the city system, sometimes certain activities like watering your garden, can be restricted, but in general we take it for granted when it comes to laundry. Not everybody has this situation. A lot of houses in rural areas have their own wells, and sometimes they need to be extremely careful or they run dry. Yes, I don't spend extra water, I do less baby laundry, less flushes, and fill the washer with the water that is spilled waiting for the hot to kick in during a shower, but not everybody has those choices.
• No washer. Yes, I did the Flats and Hand Washing challenge, yes it was doable. Yes, I'm not working out of the house, yes, it took some 30 minutes a day and not everybody can afford such a luxury. There are plenty of hand operated washers, but they save no time. Portable ones like mine are great, but they are unknown, even for the cloth diapering community. I know that some use the laundromat, but then it becomes more expensive than disposables. It is doable, but not easy, and I wouldn't hold anybody responsible for not going cloth on that one.
• Economy. Wait, isn't it cheaper on the long run to use cloth? Yes, but the initial investment can be impossible for some. But even if they use the cheapest diapers out there, or get them donated, or use their old t-shirts, sometimes the water bill comes too high and low income families can get free disposables from diaper banks. Those banks will tell you over and over that cloth is not a viable option (if our cleaning lady in Mexico clothed nine babies and worked full time, anybody can!). Water bills can be the turning point for low income people and diaper banks. That's the reality.
• Laziness. Moms like what they see other moms use. Being innovative and exploring different approaches is not the common ground. I still see a lot of my friends using formula, strollers and cribs. They are happy, it works for them. They don't want to take the time to explore different options, research and come to a conclusion, having a baby is demanding enough. I could not stand disposables and that's why I took the time to research, but a lot of moms like them, they work for them and they don't mind the explosions and spendings. As long as they keep their babies safe and happy, they are doing a good job, and in many aspects I am a lazy mom myself (which is why I co-sleep, breastfeed and cloth diaper, it is easier for me).

Bottom line: I've had much more success not saying anything and letting my diapers speak for themselves. Being judgmental won't help to spread the awareness. Being dishonest and stating that they are not as green (due to a faulty study) or not as economical (using expensive detergents and old washers) won't help anybody's cause and will make you look like a bad mom.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge - The Good the Bad and the Ugly

I have to say, I admire all those blogging moms that on top of their regular activities, washed all their diapers by hand and blogged about it. That last part was too much for me. So instead of a daily report on my adventures, I'm writing a single post that sums them up.

For unfamiliar people with such challenge, here is everything you wanted to know about it and never dared to ask: http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/3rd-annual-flats-and-handwashing-challenge/

Why Bothering?

I learned about the challenge when I started reading Dirty Diaper Laundry, about the time I decided to make the switch to cloth (about 7 months ago). Although I saw the point, I never imagined myself doing it. Here are my reasons for not doing it:

• We're broke. Not only do we spend more than I earn, but whatever money I make is taken away before I see a penny due to my disabled husband's child support obligation. So I really could not have the luxury of buying a whole set of inserts and a hand operated washer, cheap as they are.
• I'm wimpy. I have the weakest hands ever. Playing piano and dancing ballet since early childhood may have improved their strenght, but all and all, they are still weak. On top of that, I have arthritis in the shoulders, so any repeated motion like pumping or turning that involves them results in severe pain.
• Tiny Guy doesn't like prefolds. He gets wet too fast and starts screaming. Having him in cotton 24 hours around the clock I thought would result in some 10 changes or more per day. (that was my weakest argument, due to stay dry fabrics).
• My husband is disabled. That means I have to take care of 3 people and try to make and save money at the same time. This was a big burden I did not have to put on top of my shoulders.

So, on May 19th, at 10:30 PM, I went on and signed for the challenge, without preparation, without any purchase and without any useful connection (did it from my smartphone, pointing to the window and holding it high, because the 3G barely reaches here). Was I crazy? Yes, I've always stated that I am. So here's my reasoning for doing it:

• I may be broke, but I am not poor. Those two things are different. In Spanish we have 2 different words for the verb to be. One is for a temporary status, like I am broke. The other describes you: I am Mexican, I am tall, I am a mother and I am not poor. The house I am at the moment ( I  live in an apartment) is fully equipped with a handwashing station in the basement. My husband has several old t-shirts that he cut the sleeves off and uses around the house, and they are almost in rags, we need to replace that stash at some point anyway, and I did have covers and snappis with me. So I really did not need to spend any money.
• I was behind in laundry. Diapers take a whole day for washing, I have to make at least 4 trips to the basement to wash them and the washer is barely used, so there was some buildup in it. I started noticing smells on them and rashes on Little Guy, so I needed to do something different while we stayed here.
• We have a salad spinner that we never use (I buy pre-washed leafy greens), and we miss our spin dryer badly, so I wanted to test if that could be a substitute.
• When hurricane Sandy hit us, I spent almost an hour the day before buying diapers. That was one of the decisive moments that made me switch to cloth. But although we were stuck and locked in for several days unable to get out due to gas shortages and the subway being closed, we only lost power for a couple of hours. We were extremely lucky, my husband's family in New Jersey was powerless for close to two weeks. I do not want to be panic shopping and I do not want to be helpless if power goes down. So I decided to improvise given those situations and diaper my boys with whatever I could find.I did also set myself to use less water than I use for the washer and tried to find creative ways to do so. I will later post about water and why it concerns me. 
• As a last thing, I'm very active online and dragged some moms into doing it, how can I convince somebody else to do something if I don't do that myself? If a wimpy mom with two children and a disabled husband can diaper her boys with no money, anybody can!

My Own Goal

From midnight May 20th to midnight May 27th follow all the DDL challenge rules linked above plus minimum water usage and no money or donations (improvise with what I already have).

The Stash

8 t.shirts, 2 boxers, 1 pair of small baby pants, 1 table individual mat, 2 snappis, 4 white velcro covers, 3 pockets and 3 thin square white face tissues.

Tiny Guy is diapered full time, Little Guy only at nights.
1 Salad spinner, 1 hanging rack, 1 Dr Bronner's bar soap.

The Good

Anything can be a diaper. I used some 6 or 7 very old t-shirts, a couple of my husband's boxers, an old and stained pair of baby pants, some white face tissues as liners (my step daughter had used them as chain links to rescue Rapunzel and tied them all together). I was tempted to use an old set of sheets for twin beds, since we don't have any, but it was not necessary. .

The Jo fold for T-shirts is fantastic. It looked trimmer than my AIOs, I don't think anybody outside of the house could tell he was wearing cloth. And they last for a while. Unlike prefolds, he doesn't seem to be uneasy with the moisture and the only rashy part was his legs, due to the fitting inside the cover.

I still remember how to hand wash. I ended up just doing it the old fashion way, with a bar soap and the tremendous help of a high pressure hose and an amazing hot water boiler that we installed 3 years ago. 

As for the wringing, believe it or not, I just did it and it was not a nuisance as I thought it would be. 

I caught up on laundry, which was piling up. Even did some bedding wash and some curtains too.  

I like my improvised liners. Unlike the flushables, I can wash them in 2 seconds by hand, and I can use any diaper rash cream (yes, purists are going to scream to the roof, but I have never had a problem using zinc oxide with a liner).

No stinkies! Even with some ammonia build-up due to my wimpy washing, I just took the soiled stuff downstairs and almost washed everything immediately. No wet bags dancing around.

I did spend the week as any other. We went out, visited thrift stores, went to friends' houses, had guests, it's not like I did not have time to enjoy my life because of the challenge. Quality time with my bundles of joy is always a priority. 

I did not feel like I was overtired or that it was a huge amount of effort. Certainly the diapers were not as sparking clean as they should have, but my washer here is not doing better than me. I did not want to stop at day 2 and just took it as it went.

The Bad

I have to say it: I don't like handwashing. Which is why I got a tiny washer in my appartment. Before my Panda, I used to put all my skirts, blouses and pants in a laundry bag and bring them here every time we came. 

I was all ready to use the salad spinner, but it just didn't work. The disk's attachment to the lid is not strong enough to hold when more weight is put into it and kept getting off. I tried several combos and approaches but I ended up just using it to soak mostly the poopy diapers.

I started to have ammonia build-up by day 5. So I'm not as strong as of taking those things away by scrubbing. I need to figure out a way of stripping without a washer if I ever find myself in a 2 weeks without power situation.

Little Guy got a rash from the only point in which the liner was not touching his skin when using a pocket as a cover. Thin cotton liners are easier to wash than attached cotton velour ones.

My index finger on my right hand, just where I scrubbed the most, started having wrinkles, peels and everything else. 

I fell behind yesterday because my lovely husband closed the main faucet without telling me, so most of the day there was no water downstairs. 

I had a couple of morning leaks, one was definitely because I had decided to experiment on a new fold and it backfired. Another was plain and simple wetness, because I put the night diaper on an hour before bedtime instead of when he was already asleep.

The Ugly

One simple word: poop. 

I am very fortunate that Tiny Guy is a very light pooper. I also should consider myself one since he started with solids and most of it comes in one single piece, although a very sticky one. But, there is still a lot of watery colors coming from this beautiful sack of potatoes.

So, after a very uneventful first day, to which I had said to myself: "yeah, I may be able to do this for more than a week", Tuesday came, and a big fat explosion accompanied. I'm glad to say that it was all contained, and he was wearing a pocket as a cover, so I had more fun stuff to scrub! 

I took it down and hosed it pretty good. Then I took the bar soap and did some general scrubbing, followed by spot targetet. I left it soaking with Murphy's oil soap. 

Later that day, I came back. No change. More scrubbing. Murphy's directly on the spots. More soaking.

Next day, no change.Some stains would become lighter, but still be there. I just forgot about the problem and left it soaking in clean water until new notice.

Tiny Guy pooped again on Friday morning, but it was a much smaller one and it all came off with one scrubbing and a tiny little spot was sunned away.

On Saturday, I decided to sun the rest of the spots and it did not come out totally clean, but it was good enough for usage the next day.

So, guess what? same shirt, Sunday morning... KABOOOOOOOMMMM yep, as of 5:09 PM on Monday (a.k.a. right now), it's still soaking. I still have some 2 t-shirts to catch up with, so I would say, I'm not totally done with the challenge.

The other ugly part was the noise Tiny Guy was making when being changed. He was like a little mandrake! And not only I had to change a diaper, it was putting on a snappi that he would take off within 3 seconds and then putting on a velcro cover that he would pull in 3 seconds more and finally a pair of pants that would prevent him from the prior 2.

The Cute Stuff

Most of the used t-shirts had something on them, some drawings were by ink, but others were glued and ironed in. I didn't want Tiny Guy's bum to get rashes because of it, so I used those shirts inside out. That ended up showing the tag just where a nice designer diaper would be: centered in the back.

The t-shirts were primarily white and dark grey. But there was a pair of boxers with blue squares that looked adorable (sorry, no pic for that one). By the way, old boxers make great flats, and old baby pants make fabulous doublers.

One of the t-shirts was grey with a Spider Man stamp on it, but I just couldn't figure out a fold that would show it properly,


The Flaws

First, I must confess, one of the diapers ended up in the washer by mistake. I made it up by hand washing the Sunday night ones (still used flats because I didn't know where I had left the cotton usual stuff). If that disqualifies me, it does. It was not intentional but definitely my mistake (I was actually looking for it all over the place not realizing it was in the washer getting a good agitation).

As for the not spending money part, well, I would not have survived with my covers and snappis. Certainly, I did not buy them for the challenge, but they are CD items nontheless, so I cannot say that you can "fully diaper a baby" without those two. You can indeed function without a snappi, using pins, laces, knots with the clothes, or the cover itself; that's another story. You can leave your child coverless at home, but nights and outings are hard without a waterproof layer. The only available option is to improvise with waterproof materials at home, which won't be very breathable (shower curtains, plastic bags, etc) and those would have to be kept away from baby's mouth.

What I Learned

I learned to improvise with whatever I can find and make a diaper out of it. Anything and everything can be a diaper.

It is empowering to set us up with seemingly impossible tasks just for the sake of it.

Believe it or not, T-shirts work better without sleeves  The t-shirt fold using sleeves for fastening gave me trouble all the time. The Jo fold with the sleeveless turned upside down (the waist behind and the top on front) worked much better.

The older and thinner the cotton, the faster it dries (plus you don't worry about stains that much) and the less stinky. Plus, if you don't have a hand operated washer, scrubbing hard to get the ammonia out will eventually create holes, so it only makes sense to use old t-shirts for diapers and the new ones from the thrift-store for what they were originally created to.

Salad spinners make terrible hand.powered washers and wringers (or at least MY salad spinner).

Everything is easier when you are part of a community supporting you and doing crazy things at the same time.

Blogging every day' is extremely hard when you don't have a hi-speed connection.

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I enjoyed your stories, your folds and the community environment', but I won't switch full time.

See you later beautiful ladies.

Appartment Living and Laundry Debate

The super came yesterday to fix a couple of tiles, of course, I got up and immediately took the washer out of the bathroom and into a bedroom, thankfully I had already taken care of everything and the unit was ready for moving.

The evidence and trail that we have a washer is huge: all of a sudden, the bathroom door opens out instead of in, there is a bench inside it (with a baby bathtub to disguise it), in front of it there is a hanging rack  with diapers, the main bedroom open can show more hanging clothes, including a sheet, there is detergent inside the bathroom and the laundromat boy has not come in several months. The main reason for having called the super is that two tiles fell, most likely due to the vibrations of the spin dryer.

But the super comes, does his job in 10 minutes, and leaves, either clueless or just playing dumb. I hate hiding it, specially since I think we're not doing anything wrong, but for those who wonder why it is forbidden to have washing machines in pre-war apartment buildings, here is the top 5 reasons for the ban:

1. Risk of flooding. Nobody likes getting water from your ceiling. That can happen if your neighbor upstairs has a flood due to a leak in his laundering system. Is it plausible? sure! indeed! It actually happened several years ago to me. I had a big washing machine in the kitchen, perfectly legal, with a place for it and installation and everything. Well, my washer was old and had been fixed before, I had gotten it from a friend that moved out of town. In any case, the risk is high when you have a device which require open faucets for installation and deals with large amounts of water.
   How I deal with it? my machine is not "installed". I fill it up with the shower hose, I never have a full time open faucet. On top of that, it has a limit placed on top, if you overfill, the water will automatically get into the inner tub and down the drain. And since it is lifted, I don't even need the draining pump. Just in case there is a double leak and water starts pouring out of the unit, well, it has less than 1 cubic foot capacity, less than 2 buckets. So that's my very unlikely worst case scenario: a bathroom flooded with the water of a bucket and a half.
2. Sudsy water in your sink or bathtub. Another annoying side effect for your neighbors downstairs. A friend of mine told me he once had a turkey marinating on his neighbors laundry water. Why does this happen? well, old buildings have a very old draining system, with a very limited capability in the water they can take. This flow of liquid can go to a max of 7 gal/min (or something to that effect, please correct me if I make a mistake). Pumping devices in washing machines get the water out at a rate higher than that. The time elapsed from having it full to having it empty and ready for spinning is quite short and the plumbing can't take it. Therefore, the water, having no place to go, gets out in lower apartments from the drain up.
   The solution is to have a buffer tank in which the water can go from the washer, so that it can get into the building's system at its own rate.
   In our case, the draining goes to the bathtub, which works as said buffer, and the water stays there until it can slowly go where it has to. Since it is a small unit, the bathtub is more than enough the size of what is needed.
3. Power capacity. Washers use a lot of juice. A brand new top load Maytag sucks 0.23 KWH per load. My Twin Tub Panda works on 250 W. That times .25  plus another 3 minutos of spin drying at 135 watts is 69WH, less than a third of a regular MayTag, and the equivalent of 3 light bulbs of full capacity for about 15 minutes, not a problem at all. Plus, my building does not have a ban in drying machines, dishwashers or AC, which can suck up much more.
4. Noise. That would be a good argument for newer buildings and hollow materials, but in pre-wars? I dodn't hear my machine from the kitchen, let alone from outside of the apartment, is that good enough? Just need to make sure the spinner is balanced, though.
5. Business arrangements with Laundromats. If there were coin oparated machines in the basement, this argument would be a little valid, not here, nearest place is a couple of blocks away. Since such agreement is not in the lease, I can't believe they would try this one on me, I didn't know I would surrender the freedom to handwash or wash in my spare house and have to patronize a specific partner of my landlord. Really?

So there you have it. I'm not breaking the lease because my machine is not "installed". But I don't think my landlord has the patience to come and look at it, he may just start a fight if he hears "washer", so we will keep hiding it.

I Washed a Disposable!!!

2 nights ago, I restored cloth diapers at night for Tiny Guy, but still used a covered disposable for Little Guy. Last night, Little Guy wore a trifolded prefold with a cover, and woke up without rash and without ammonia smell. All was well and good. I had a ton of diapers to wash this morning, so I emptied the bag, collected Little Guy's and tiny Guy's used for the night and started the "soapless" prewash agitation. Later on, I came to drain and fill with hot water, when I noticed small "drops" like cristaline, in the diapers. Didn't pay much attention, but then, I realized the water was not getting drained and the pump was suffering. All of a sudden, I saw that cristaline thing again, and then, surprise surprise, it was SAP!!!!!!! I located the diaper that Little Guy had used 2 nights ago, I totally forgot to toss it in the trash and totally forgot that he had used one, just had taken the cover and tossed it in the wet bag. My nightmare was just starting. I had a tub, a stash of diapers, and a bathtub full of SAP in my hands!!!!! I started with the tub. Passed all the diapers to the spinner and turned the drainer back on. Fortunately I have paper towels at arms reach from there, so I started getting all that gel out with them. Boy, that mass is sticky and hard to reach. The gel was preventing the water from draining, so the water itself was making my life harder. Another thing is that I didn't know what SAP would cause in the drainage, but I was in no interest to find out, so I put the hair stopper in the bathtub, so that it would not make it there. I had to go through the whole thing, fold a paper towel and clean all the edges, and not leave a single bubble of gel around. By that time, I was already exhausted, the kids were relentless and my husband was wondering what had happened to me. So I came back to the leaving room, told him what had happened and saw his face of "poor little thing, you have a lot on your hands". Believe me, I would have much rather had him saying "ok, I'll take care of the bathtub, just finish the diapers", but no such luck. So, after having taken a brake, came the cleaning of the diapers. I decided that the better and faster way would be to hose them. So I placed them in a plastic bin, right besides the washer's big tub. Took the shower hose, placed it in high pressure and turned it on. Started with the inserts and wipes. One by one, making sure there was no trace of gel in any of them. By the time I had done like 5, my shoulder was already hurting and the tub was already full. It was going to be a loooong day, so I took another break. Repeated this a few times. The situation got a little more complicated with the wet bag, then came the dreaded pockets and the Simplex. I had to hose them, hold them and turn them upside down and hose again. One by one, the wet bag too. I was done after 6 PM with severe arthritis pain and still a bathtub to go. I left it sitting for a couple of hours and made sure the tub was out of water and then went for the easy solution: the vacuum cleaner. It was a tough bet, since gel is not solid nor liquid. After 4 minutes it started smelling weird and I topped, it did most of the job, but I don't know the consequences as of yet. Finished with a paper towel. Took the vacuum cleaner out, there was a big black spot on the rug, so now I'm washing the rug too. Diapers seem ok, had to use some dawn and extra stripping. As I've said, it was a very long day, don't try this at home.

My Twin Tub Panda Washing Achievements

Before I bought my washing machine, we used a laundromat for all cotton stuff. They came, took a bag of dirty laundry and brought a bag of clean one.

For everything else, I would wash in our vacation house, 450 miles from here. I would get all the clothes in a huge laundry bag and come back with everything clean. That worked only when we went there every other 2 months, however, that is not always possible.

With a new baby, explosions every 3 hours became the norm, and I didn't have my husband available this time to hand wash those. I would leave them in the sink only to find them in the very same spot and remembering he's not able bodied like he used to be.

So, the idea of the washer was to help me with those delicate items that I wouldn't send to the laundromat, as well as those baby clothes that needed immediate attention. I never expected to wash absolutely everything in this little thing, but I just couldn't stop.

So far, in the 4 months that I've had it, the list includes:

• Baby clothes
• Cloth diapers and wipes
• underwear and socks for all the family
• pants and t-shirts
• jeans
• tons of towels
• sheets
• blouses
• sweatshirts
• a silk shirt
• a knit sweater
• a polyester blanket
• an army jacket
• a pillow (already bulky)
• bathroom mats
• a mattress cover
• a full size thick bathrobe
• courtiains

Since I have way more control than with a regular Maytag, I can put another cycle, regulate the water level and temperature, leave the clothes soaking after the agitation, etc. So everything can come cleaner than with an automatic. The trick is not to overload the washing tub and fill the spinner all the way to the top. Ah, and using very small amounts of detergent

Free of Chemicals? Not so Sure

I've been battling a chronic rash in Little Guy. It is incredible that he has it, given that he spends most of the day dressed in his Angel Costume wearing more hair than clothes.

I had to totally give up un cotton and start using pockets with him for nights and naps, which makes it harder to keep up on laundry since I only have 17  (including 5 AIOs) for Tiny Guy to use, and I can't use the Fuzzibunz on him because they are a little on the small side and it would require me sizing them back and forth all day long. I also can't use the GroVias because, as I've said, I've given up cotton on him, so that  leaves me to the Ecconappi (sad face).

So, how come Little Guy's butt is all burned if he's wearing diapers with "no chemicals"?

Well, here's the catch: no such thing.

Ammonia

First, and most important, is the pee itself, which is a very complex compound. Which is why I'm wearing a layer to take it away from his butt. The problem is that, contrary to what people may think, it is very hard to clean. Some fabrics tend to retain urea crystals, no matter how many times you rinse, and over time, the amount grows and decomposes to ammonia, to a  level that will at any contact with liquids and on some occasions  burn the skin.

Detergents.

No matter how hypoallergenic the stuff is, or how "free and clear". It needs cleaning agents. Period. No cleaning agents, no urea removal. If someone uses plain water to clean diapers, it would take some 20 washes or more every time. And those chemicals will, again, build up and leave residues in the fabric. Next thing you know, in the best case scenario you'll have repelling. In the worst, rashes again.

Water.

There's no place on earth in which you will get plain H20 from the tap. Not only it does not exist in nature, but as a solvent, it grabs whatever is there, so it would be impossible to keep it pure and clean. Some places do better jobs than others in keeping it free of toxins and adding a balanced combination of stuff to make it potable. Others have wells and water takes whatever is on them. In any case, water will mostly come with chlorine and fluoride and some other salts. That means that you can not trust your washing routine to work on a different location and that those salts will build up too. For some hard water places, the easiest solution seems to be Calgon. I'll tell you my experience when that happens. Right now I have extremely soft (and not good at removing soap) East Coast water.

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So far, no detergent has proven to remove all the crystals and leave no residue with just a couple of rinses regardless of location and water composition. We can only do the old fashion trial and error and do our best to keep those bums as chemical free as possible. As always, with cloth it's our choice and our chore, not a corporation's.

My Working Washing Routine

I have been cloth diapering for around 3 months. Has it been honey over flakes?* not exactly. Has it been better than disposables? In a lot of ways, yes. Of course, it would be better to have a leak proof diaper that you can reuse and doesn't need to get washed, but in a perfect world, we wouldn't need diapers at all (we wouldn't need toilets either and sewage wouldn't exist, right?).

The biggest problem hasn't been washing them, I have my panda twin tub that works like a champ. It is the behaviour of the fabrics once they've been washed.

Turns out I didn't have much problem at the beginning, but with time passing, I got a horrible cumulation of ammonia in the prefolds. The smell was so untakeable I needed to change diapers on Little Guy almost every hour.

I mentioned before that battle, and it seems I've won it finally. But I changed the routine and the devices for washing until I came up with my own formula. It may have ingredients not recommended, but, as everybody says, do what you have to do and what works for you. I use these things a lot, my stash is short, and whatever they last, they already paid for themselves.

So here it goes:

Prewash

I dump diapers and bag inside the washing tub. I fill it to the top. If there's poop, I throw some baking soda, otherwise, I don't. Then I leave it washing for 4-5 minutes and drain.

Wash

Turn on the hot water, fill the tank up. Put 10 drops of Free & Clear detergent plus 2 drops of blue Dawn plus 2 drops of Dr Bronner's peppermint soap plus one teaspoon of OxyClean plus half a teaspoon of Baking Soda in the detergent's lid. Aim the shower hose to it and let it drop on top of everything else. Set the timer to agitate for 7-8 minutes

Spin

Take all the stuff to the spin drier and let it spin for about 1 minute, while the tub drains. This gets rid of tons of soap.

Rinse

Fill with half a tank, or just enough to cover the diapers with cold water, let it agitate for 3 minutes, drain.

Re-rinse

Repeat rinse procedure but only for 1-3 minutes

Hose

Pass the pieces one by one through the high pressure of the shower hose to remove any remains of soap in the surface and drop them in the spin dryer.

Spin dry

Spin dry for 2 minutes

Hang

Hang the diapers in the clotheshanger. If there are stains (usually the Grovias are the only ones that remain stained after such an adventure), hang them by the window in the baby clothes hanger so that they get sunlight. Pockets just need to be put from the middle, prefolds require holders and shaking.

It may not be perfect, but it's working for now in preventing the ammonia from coming back and keeping my boys' butts all nice.

It is also very different than other moms due to my peculiar washer and my having the laundry room inside the bathroom, but I'm here to demonstrate that one can cloth diaper a child in a laundryless apartment and under a budget.

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* Mexican expression meaning perfect, beautiful and romantic.

My first ammobattle

When one of the reasons for having switched is the smell, having ammonia build-up defeats the purpose. My prefolds got so stinky that Little Guy would use them for half an hour and would be already dizzying me.

When you try your friend Google to tell you what to do, the options are quite a few. This is my nightmare experience:

• I separated them from the pockets and synthetic fabrics and used a little bit of Dr Bronner's peppermint soap. Useless
• I went against what the websites say and used oxyclean on natural fabric. Useless
• I used a little more detergent and rinsed more times. Useless.
• I used baking soda. Useless.
• I used a tiny bit of vinegar. It ended up burning both boys' skin and causing the worst rash in History. and, on top of that, Useless.

I finally broke down and bought a small Dawn dish soap and stripped them. It worked. I may have to do it again when the smell starts being unbearable, but since Little Guy is starting to use the potty by himself (only when not using anything at all), I may put them away in a few weeks for a while.

That has been the biggest nightmare so far. It all depends on the detergent you are using, the water in your town and your washing machine, so one of the methods above may work for you.

The Choice

Cloth Diaper rabid advocates got mad and cried all over the place when Pampers published a claim attacking them, saying that there was no ecological difference from one to the other and that kids in their diapers lived in a wonderland in which they pooped in recycled material that used hardly any water to be created and was going to biodegrade maybe in 350 years instead of the dreadful 500 that their counterparts proclaimed.

That post quickly disappeared from the American website, but not from the British one. I didn't find it offensive, they attack something that they don't know and take them as if they were flats with rubber pants and the methods for washing would require boiling them and raising them over and over and over.

At the same rate, advocates for cloth attack the big corporations making the assumption that you will change a diaper some 15 times a day and will buy weekly the most expensive brand there is, so I don't really know why they get so offended.

Reality meets somewhere in the middle, I was lucky enough to spend $30 for an 8 week supply of pull-ups some 4 months ago (just before Tiny Guy was born), and before that I had gotten some other deals. I never just went to the store to buy whatever I could find. I searched online, hunted sales, joined online stores, etc. Always trying to bring the cost down. I was very successful on some occasions.

But when we make the "cloth" choice, then we have to keep making more and more choices, natural or synthetic  tumble or line dry, CD specific (an expensive) or general detergent, 12,24 or 36, prefolds, pockets or AIOs.

 I remember a joke about a man that wonders if taking a cab or a bus, and the 2 possibilities of sitting or standing inside the bus keep having 2 more possibilities with one of the picks again and again, and he gets so overwhelmed that he just decides to take a cab.

Big diapering companies claim that 95% of parents "choose" disposables. I tend to disagree, I would say 5% choose cloth, and a large percentage of the other 95 doesn't know that cloth exists. They take disposables for granted, ignoring their possibilities.

The question is if they ignore them because they want to or because really nobody has told them. But, in any case, if they go that route, the conventional one, they are free of making decisions, they are set to a standard of quality, performance and environmental impact. They don't want to be overwhelmed with possibilities, they just take the cab.

So, don't be judgmental, don't overwhelm people and don't get offended by their claims. You choose what you think is the best, and just because it was what you decided, it is correct.  We are polluting the planet anyway.