{Flats Challenge} Day 3 - Wordless Wednesday - Sort of

I am taking part in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. From May 20-26 I will be joining families around the world in using only flat diapers and only hand washing what we use. No dryers, no washers, no fancy cloth diapers. Just the basics for one week, though this could be done full time if the situation warranted. Join me in spreading the cloth diapering love. :)

Until next time... Happy Diapering and Picture Taking!

{Flats Challenge} Day 2 - What do you use for such a time?

Today is day two of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge that is being hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. This is a week where I will be only using flat diapers on BG and hand washing each and every one. I will also hand wash all covers and anything else I use to diaper BG. It runs from May 20-26.
Yesterday I talked about why I have wanted to participate in this event. Today I want to give you an idea of what I using this week. How much would something like this cost a family? Now, keep in mind, I am all about frugality, and I did not let that get in my way, and I had fun finding the cheapest things I could.
Bear with my as we go through some pictures of my supplies.

So, I have most of my supplies in one location. The diaper caddy holds most of my flats, that I have pre-folded. My flats consist of receiving blankets and flour sack towels from Target. I also have some doublers (smaller flats) in side pockets for naps and such. Liners if I really want to use them, but usually we go without. Also, two wetbags (Kushies brand) and a pockets with my pins and snappis. I bought the pins at Baby R Us because Walmart and Target both did not sell pins. I love that I was able to find cute pins for my girl. They did also have solid blue and solid white pins.

I also have a wooden bucket that holds all of our cloth wipes and a solution spray. Many of these wipes were made by me. I cut up one or two old receiving blankets I found at a consignment sale for really cheap. I also found the cute fabric that you see in the picture on clearance at the store and bought it to make more wipes. I do have a few in there from a store, but they were sent to me for review on here, so they were free. I like free.

Here you see pictures of my washing bucket (plunger and lid are upstairs, though I have not been using the lid). Also, I have found that using the iron can really soften the flats when they are line dried. It works! The Iron was a great find on Freecycle.

Here are my covers. The two light pink were made by me with some fleece I found in the remnants bin at JoAnn Fabrics. Remnants are 50% off, always. The two one size covers are from a great store (Assunta Store) and really low cost. I really like them a lot! There are two covers missing. A Thirsties cover and another cover made by me (You will see it soon on BG). The last cover is a gDiaper. The "g" has since come off since it has been in our possession since LJ was in diapers.
There you have it! These are my supplies. There are some flats not pictured because they are still drying. I washed them last night and they are still  very wet, because it is very humid around here right now. The sun is shining at the moment, so I am going to hanging them outside to get them drier faster.
My Cost Breakdown:
Iron - FREE
Ironng Board - Bought for the house years ago (no cost remembered)
Bucket - About $5 at Walmart
Plunger - About the same as the Bucket ? I truly do not remember the cost from two years ago (say $5)
Cloth Wipes - Mostly FREE ( say $5 for the fabric I bought for the cute ones)
Wipes Solution - FREE (reviewed item on here) normally $10.50 at Kelly's Closet (affiliate link)
FST from Target - FREE from Freecycle
Receiving Blankets - Mostly FREE (bought maybe 4 for $3 at consignment sales years ago)
Fleece covers - $6 for the fabric tat can still make 3-4 more covers
One size covers - $5 each at Assunta Store (not affiliate, but I love their store!)
gDiaper - paid for itself years ago
Pins - $3 at Babys R Us
Snappis - $5? No clue as they were bought when LJ was still diapered
Total cost that I remember: $53.50 to cloth diaper my daughter. This is enough that I could cloth diaper her full time as well. If you wanted to factor in costs I may not be thinking of, I would maybe round to a max of $75.
As you can see, I have found ways to get things for very low costs. Yes, I can sew, but it is something that is very easy to do and can save you much money in the long run. I use Freecycle as much as I can. If I am looking for something specific, I ask, otherwise I just keep my eyes open when seeing what others post.
Now, to leave you with a picture of BG sporting her red cover that her momma made. :)

Do you think you could do this? If you are unsure, talk to me, I think we could easily find how you can do this. You can save the money you would normally spend on disposable and use it for other things that have to be paid, like bills. Let's chat it up in the comments!

Until next time... Happy Diapering!

{Flats Challenge} Day 1 - Why would you do such a thing!

I'm participating in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  This event Challenges moms around the globe to use flat diapers for one week and only hand wash them. This year over 400 people have signed up. Today is the very first day. Each day of this challenge those who are participating and are bloggers are going to blog about their experiences. Kim from DDL has provided prompts to help us mommas who cannot always think of what to write about. It also helps to guide each one of use to hit some key points during this challenge. 
This is the third year that this challenge is taking place. You may or not may not remember that I participated in the very first challenge when BG was just a few months old. We didn't take the challenge last year, but I had to do it again this year. I was compelled. This all began when it became known that more and more families were going to some pretty yucky extremes to diaper their babies. Even going so far to re-use disposable diapers. Drying them for later use. I am having trouble even understanding this. I mean, those SAP inners swell so much, would they really go back to normal size when dry?
Anyway, I took this challenge a few years ago to see if I could do it. I also had never tried flats and I was intrigued. Now with BG being 27 months instead of 3-4 months, I wanted to take the challenge again. 
I want to diaper a toddler who is a decent heavy wetter with just flats. Flats do not have to be just to little ones who don't wet much at one time. You can use these for any stage of diapering. You can use them for any season of life you might be going through. I have two very active children. BG holds her own when playing with her 5 year old brother. She is squirmy and doesn't always want to lay there while I figure out a new fold with a flat. But I can still do it! Once you use a flat for a few changes, it is so quick and easy. 
I have two children who want to be around mommy and be big helpers. This can make hand washing a challenge, but I can still do it! 
We do not have money to be spending on all kinds of diapers and accessories. I can still do it! I have found different things that I probably have around the house that I can use for diapering BG. Most of my little girl's stash cost very little. If I only look at what I use for say, this challenge, then it is even less. I find ways to cut the costs and it works! 
I can still do this, even though it may not be the most convenient thing in the world. I hope more people see that we can do this. We can diaper our children for very little. The ick factor is not as big as some think it is. 

WE CAN STILL DO THIS!

If money is tight, you do not need to reuse disposable diapers. You do not need to feel like it costs too much money to cloth diaper your child. If you are willing to put in a little effort, you can do this!

That is some of why I am doing this. If I can do this, so many more families out there like mine can do this too!

If you are taking this challenge with me, why? If you are not, would you consider it? I can help you get started. It is very simple, really. 
Let's hear it all in the comments! 

Until next time...Happy Diapering!

Get your covers ready!

We are quickly approaching the beginning of the Flats and Handwashing challenge. It starts in just 6 days. I am so happy that I will be able to participate in the challenge this year.
When this year's challenge was first announced I thought I might not be able to participate because BG is such a heavy wetter, we cannot use cloth at night. There was no way we could use just flats at night and not have her waking every couple hours with a soaked bed and jammies. Right now she sleeps through the night and I really don't want to break that. That is when Kim so kindly pointed out that the rules have changed since the first challenge and I can use my diaper of choice at night. What a relief! I quickly signed up to participate.
Now I have the fun of making sure we have the flats and covers to last us the week. Flats are not too much of a problem. We have a bunch and I have hundreds of t-shirts sitting upstairs unused. I can easily have more than enough flats to last a day or so between washing. I also have my camp style washer from the first challenge.  Now, the covers are a different story. We would have had enough if we didn't have to retire two awesome covers. We have two Mother-ease covers that I really liked. They worked so well and covered so many different diapers. Well, Bg's legs don't like those covers. The elastic around the legs always leave bright red marks that seem fairly irritated. It was saddening when I had to stop using them. I really did like them. I have even considered if I could redo them with new FOE and see if that makes them better for her. Who knows.
Well, luckily I get in kicks of wanting to sew. Yesterday BG got a brand new mommy made fleece pull-on cover. I even put a piece of PUL on the outside of the wet zone to help hold in extra wetness. I literally whipped it up in 30 minutes. It was so easy to do and I may end up making more because of that ease.
So, what does that leave me with for this challenge?

I have these four covers plus two more that are either on BG right now or in the wash. thepink one in the upper right corner is the one I just made. I am thinking of making a tie on patchwork kind of cover to use up some fleece scraps I have filling a drawer upstairs. That could be pretty cute. I want to use things I have already on hand to complete this challenge. Cloth diapering does not have to cost a lot of money. Even my regular stash did not cost as much as some. I got many for free or very cheap (used). I also tried winning as many as possibly. I believe I have maybe 4-6 that were won. This point is one thing that I always try to stress when talking cloth to those who do not know.

Are you preparing for the Flats Challenge? Would you ever consider participating? Tell us your thoughts!

Until next time... Happy Prepping!

3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge

It is getting to be that time of year again. Flats Challenge time, that is! You may remember that I participated in the very first flats challenge when BG was very young. I even cloth diapered and handwashed diapers while camping with her during this time.
I was not a part of "The Challenge" last year, but I am thinking that I may do it again this year. I love my flats. I also think that we need to spread the word that it is not that difficult to use cloth diapers. You can even do it if you have very little money to spend.
The Challenge will run from May 20th through the 26th. Six days is not very long. I think anyone can do this for 6 days. I am posting this because I want to help spread the world about the Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  If you click on the picture above, or the link in the post, you will be taken to the very first post for this year's challenge. There you can put your name into the preliminary list of possible participants.
The first year there were 200 families. Last year, 260 families participated. Can we get over 300 this year?

Do you cloth diaper? Would you participate in a Challenge like this?

Who is with me!?

Until next time... Happy Diapering!