Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 Day 7 #notoveryet

Today is officially the last day of the challenge, but the deal is not over, you see, it includes tonight's diapering and then hand washing those, which can occur either tomorrow or even Monday, so it still feels like I'm only half way through
. Yet today is the last day of posting about the challenge in DDL and conclusions  need to be made.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

Well, I'd say the most important thing is that I'm still learning different approaches to footwashing. It works great with both boys in the bathtub, my husband's bath chair helps tremendously, and I may even consider doing it for other items. My biggest limitation is the space I have for hanging.

I also learned a lot by checking on the Facebook group, which has become a small community on its own. Found out that dollar plungers are a waste of money, that I could fold the flats ahead of time, that tye dye diapers look extraordinarily cute and that a challenge becomes easier by the day if you have a backup in the form of amazing moms jumping in to help.

I also learned different ways to use rags for diapering purposes and the advantages and disadvantages over big squares of fabric, commonly used as flats (receiving blankets, flour sack towels, etc.), and how cheap a mom could get diapering material by just getting scraps from seamstresses, fabric stores or even ebay.

If Tiny Guy is not potty trained yet by next year, my next goal will be to use non PUL covers, which is still my biggest fear, since I would have never made the switch without those.

WILL I SWITCH TO FLATS?

No. I love my system, I love my AIOs, my prefolds, my minky FB, cotton/bamboo and cotton/hemp inserts. I know I can use liners for stay dry, so that wouldn't be a problem if I switched, but I have a nice routine for washing, haven't had rash or stinky problems for a long time and a wonderful tiny washer that I miss when being away. But, I'll certainly consider using the drags as doublers, since they wash well and dry fast. And I may do more footwashing, as long as I don't have to wring the clothes and I toss them in the spin dryer, it can even help me catch up on back laundry later on.

DID I ACHIEVE MY GOAL?

Not yet, laundry basket is still full. I started to see a little progress yesterday, but I did finish the back diapers until Tuesday, and I still will footwash today and tomorrow, so my goal of clearing the laundry basket can still be achieved. I am very limited by the space to dry clothes, and weather has not helped this week, but we'll see on Tuesday where we're standing.

IS IT DOABLE?

That, in an on itself, is a silly question. Our grandmothers did it, some of our mothers as well, and in several other parts of the world it is still done. It would be more practical if access to water was easier, if women were thinking outside of the box and the rules and used whatever they found to diaper the child, if we just didn't care that much for clothing or accidents. Had I known what I know now, I may have used cloth with my first child, even without a washer.

I had only 3 minor leaks and all could have been prevented. I had much more leaks a day using disposables, so that would not be a reason for not considering it. As for vacation backup, I may think about it, depends on the situation. But I don't think it is affordable to buy a full stash of flats for going on vacation instead of an $8 disposable bag.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 Day 6 - Honoring Eva

Eva works for my parents. She has done so for more than 20 years. She is uneducated but very smart and extremely hardworking.

When we met her, she had just given birth to her 9th child!! I know I shouldn't be surprised, since my dad has 11 siblings, but it was a different era in Mexico when he grew up, and his dad could afford a cook, 3 nannies and 2 or 3 cleaning ladies. Eva, on the other hand, was raising her family mostly by herself, with an abusive and alcoholic husband that would only provide what would be now about $20 a week.

So, for her, cloth diapering, more specifically flats and handwashing was not a choice, or a week's challenge: it was the only way of diapering. And she would do that after a full day's work, with more than one baby at a time.

The thing is, it never occurred to me how women would diaper their children in Mexico until I went to the mountains and stayed in one of the typical country native communities: poverty like US has never seen. And why do I say the US has never seen it? because even when they didn't have money, their clothes were wasted down and a lot of times they would go without shoes, the basic food is always available, and they live in small houses made with bricks and wood, with tin roofs.

Being there, I saw babies crawling, undiapered. If they peed, they would just get into the floor and absorbed there. I felt these people were totally free from the burden that city people has to face.

But that's not Eva's background. She is from the city, and poverty is way tougher. When I went last year to visit my folks, she was only too happy to help with my diapering duties. She says her daughters won't do it, they are just using disposables for their little ones and spending fortunes on it. She says they are lazy, but I can't blame them.

Washing diapers for a week in a tiny apartment, when they are only rags, when neighbors won't be spying to see if I have a spot, and doing it in the shower with little helpers that take it as a game doesn't seem like a burden, or even a challenge, when you realize that, for some, that is not a choice, but the norm.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 - Day 5 No folds for me!!

Seems to me, and so did last year, that I am alone in this enterprise. While I see moms all enthusiastic about the challenge and showing off bums covered with tye dye designs and rocking t-shirts,I literally did not prepare, did not even attempt to use a T-shirt, am as lazy as it gets and did not stop using my highly convenient covers (and pockets a lot of the time).

I learned something very valuable for my sake last year:
 I am not good at folding!

So, for today's post and folds, I can safely say: there aren't any. If I was using regular flats, even T-shirts, it would at least require padfolding, which is not as bad and was highly used last year in my T-shirts and Handwashing in a utility sink challenge.

But this year, in my "Sleeves and other rags and Footwashing Challenge", the kicker comes in: I don't have to fold!!!!

As you can see in this last year's pic for the challenge, I am only so happy that I am in this situation. Another thing I was thinking about yesterday is that one of my weirdo quirks is not liking to change the baby like the usual lying down.
Almost always you will find me changing a diaper while Tiny Guy is standing. I don't have space for a changing station and I have to bend down to do it in a bed or a couch, so it's easier to slap a new one while he is coming to see me, or while he is sitting on my lap. This week, I've found myself doing it a lot, and of course, it's not my favorite part. Usually, the diaper is ready with the desired amount of pieces lying on a cover or already stuffed into a pocket, if I had to be doing origami magic on top of that, and have a squirmy toddler to deal with, I would have dropped out on Sunday noon.

So, does lying on top of another work? yep, only one leak and I should have changed the diaper sooner yesterday morning. No poop in the diapers as of yet (Yay for EC!!!)

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 Day 4 #footwashingrocks

I think, for some of us, the challenge should be called "Flats and Footwashing Challenge"

So, for the casual reader learning about cloth diapers, or laundering in general, I took this week as a chance to test my abilities at such a task: doing laundry with my feet.

After all, feet create the best wine, so, why not washing the best diapers?

MY FOOTWASHING ROUTINE

First time I knew about this technique was due to another blogging mom, who did all her laundry in a small appartment without any equipment.

The technique is very simple: you turn your bathtub into a washing drum and your feet into agitators. That's it. Of course, since you get very wet, a bath comes with the package.

What I was not counting on, and I should have, is a couple of little helpers. Well, inf fact, a Tiny one. Apparently having small pieces of fabric inside the bathtub is just as fun as having rubber duckies, and he's old enough to be aware of water and not to try drinking it or lying face down, so I've allowed him to come in. What does he do? he plays! (and subsequently, agitates, hehe).

So, for the "washing" part, I start like any other shower, filling the washer with water, setting up a load, and having the water hot at that point, jumping in, the only difference is that I empty the wet bag first. Easy enough?

Tiny Guy follows and we do the usual shower routine, but I stop the drain, so the tub gets filled with the water I use for showering. After some 3 or 4 minutes of bath, I reach out for my Zote soap inside its baby sock and turn the handheld shower into "massage" mode, aiming it at the soap. Suds immediately start appearing in the surface of our little pool. Tiny Guy loves that. Bath continues as usual, but I constantly remind myself to "Stump my feet and mov'it to the beat". Tiny Guy is at this point doing the heaviest work (a.k.a. having fun!).

At some point, I pull up the drain stopper and start finishing the bath for both of us. Reach a towel and get out. Tiny Guy keeps playing and I have to stay there until the water is gone. Then comes the tough part. I try picking up all the pieces and placing them on top of the bath chair, but Tiny Guy keeps pulling them down, so I turn on the cold water and aim the shower towards 4 or 5 pieces, rinse them directly and wring them. They are very small, so that takes me no time. I go to the drying rack and hang them.

I do that 2 or 3 times until Tiny Guy has decided to finally come out, I wrap him in a towel and leave the rest of the pieces inside the washer (only as a bucket) soaking in water, for later rinse and wringing.

Now, that's when we get into trouble. Yesterday, I had left the remaining flats (mostly sleeves cut down from t-shirt) inside the washer that had been full with the bathroom mat. Came in the morning to do the rinsing and wringing and Tiny Guy followed. He started tossing them back in the bathtub, I started picking them up. This cycle continued until I simply lifted him and sat him on top of the washer. Little Guy came in, liked the idea, and climbed to sit besides his little brother. So this is what I had in front of me while rinsing and wringing:

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 - Day 3

Today is an open topic, so I will talk about the principal component of this week's stash:

THE CUT SLEEVE

My husband is a rare entity, he's literally one in a million and it is easy to see why my prior relationships didn't last: those men (good people, all of them) were not him. ´

Among his countless singularities is the fact that, when he is home, he likes being extremely comfortable, and for some reasons, wearing sleeves does not enter into that category. Having been single for decades, he took it upon himself to cut the sleeves of old cotton T-shirts and turn them into "sleeveless T-shirts" (isn't that name super creative?).

Lately, we didn't even bother to get "old" ones. After he got sick, and overwhelmed with laundry piles and clothes gone to the laundromat for weeks at a time, I bought him several new T's and they became sleeveles from the go. All those cut out sleeves went into a "rag bag" inside a closet, to use for cleaning and such. And this week, they are being used as inserts.

I've never used regular flats, since we're living on a very limited budget and even an extra spending of 10 or 20 bucks can get me into trouble. and we had the same situation last year, so I used very very old sleeveless T-shirts, which are a little more rectangular than the typical square. But here's a comparison table between those two:

	SHIRT	SLEEVE
Size	Huge	Tiny
Pieces per change	One	4-6
Wringing time	1 min	4 sec
Drying time	~18 hrs	~8 hrs
Trimness	Disposable-like	Falling pants
Easiness	needs PHD	Hubby friendly
Cover versatility	All types(and coverless)	Needs cover to hold and fasten
Folding options	Several	None

As to which one I prefer, if I had more space, a utility sink and an outside rack for sunning, definitely I would go for the shirts (even though last year my hands suffered a lot during the challenge). But being in an apartment without such privileges, specially the space, makes the whole flat situation extremely hard, specially with Tiny Guy grabbing wet diapers constantly and tossing them in a wet environment.
Being able to wash the diapers while taking a shower and then rinsing and wringing them in less than 10 seconds each, plus being so small that I can hang them to dry in different spaces, makes the ordeal actually doable. On the other hand, it takes a lot of little squares for every change, and I already finished the entire bag, fortunately, they dry fast.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 - Day 2

Today's topic is cost. At the beginning, I thought it would be an easy one, since the amount of extra money that I'm spending for the challenge is as low as it can get:

$0.00

Since all I'm using as flats are old rags from a couple of bags we had in the closet, I'm using the same detergent and mostly covers that I already had (and some pockets), there was no need to rush to the store.

That is, in part, because this is sort of a training. You see, about 18 months ago, we were hit by a hurricane. And it was bad.

I was still using disposables, but with a couple of boys, one of them a newborn, I panicked and did some panick shopping: diapers. It only took me about 40 minutes to pay, yes, the lines were that long, and I was lucky.

Fortunately we only lost power for a couple of hours, but friends and family were trapped for days on end, without power and, in some cases, even without water. Transportation was halted, gas was scarce and for a few days not even the Subway was running.

Now I know I don't need to go panick shopping for diapers in such situation. I can diaper this guys (well, guy know) in any circumstance, without the need to go out.

But let's get back to the basics. Why, then, is it not as simple to do the math?

Because, I'm still using detergent, and I'm still using PUL covers. I may not have bought them for this purpose, but I wouldn't be doing the challenge without them.

Most of my covers (12) are Real Nappies. Eventhough they are sized, I have used them since Tiny Guy was literally tiny, and I used them with Little Guy even after he turned 3 and needed overnight diapering. Got them on Amazon for $40 a six pack. If I survive with only using 6, that would be a very good investment. But there's a reason I have 12: I use one cover per diaper change.

I don't think I'll be using more than 12, for sure. Now, the soap, I'm using Zote, which costs $1.19 at the 99c store, if I need to buy a new one at the end of the week, I would add that to the money spent, but I doubt it.

Finally, the water and gas. Well, guess what? I don't get billed for water, hot or cold (NYC regulation for appartment buildings).

So, I guess the cheapest you can go if you are not good at sewing and cutting, or can't find fleece or plain simple don't like it, is $40 for a six pack of covers.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2014 - Day 1

Well, I bit the bait again.

I'm doing this year DDL's challenge. And I'll try to do posts every day instead of one huge one like last year.

Today's topic is a very complicated one:

WHY!!!!

As last year, I had a million reasons for not signing up. I'm not as active as I was in the cloth diapering online community, I'm home in NYC in a small appartment and I'm  2-3 weeks late in laundry since my clandestine machine only washes 6 -7 pounds at a time.

On top of that, I have arthritis, so hand operated machines are out of the questions, they would result in severe pain in my shoulders really fast. On top of that, I'm broke.

So, besides some self pride, I have one, and only one reason for doing this: I need to catch up with laundry. If I don't use inserts for a week and wash the diapers outside of the washer, I may be able to lower the monster down.

Just like last year, I did not prepare, but instead of using old sleeveless t-shirts, I'm using discarded rags. We have a couple of bags that I dug out of the closet, old sheets, pants, sleeves, etc. I can't afford to use shirts because of the delay in the laundry, every single one is either used, wet or being used at the moment.

And I'm using my stash of covers and pockets, maybe even the snappis. Some reusable liners are there as well.

I'll do the stomping method and give a little extra exercise to my legs, and will see what happens if my boys sneak into the shower. Use Zote soap, which is what I use all the time for diapers, and see where I land.

So far, after 2 changes, I have half a wet bag full of wet rags, placed on 10 layer pads, one on top of another, inside a cover or a pocket....

Let the games begin!!!

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.

---------

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

See you later beautiful ladies.