How I learned to love Flat Diapers in the midst of Chaos

Frugality has never been as important in my life as it is right now.  No need to go into details, but things are not good financially for us at this time period (which is not unique for Americans today unfortunately).  So when my clothes washer died, and my bathroom sink fell out of the vanity, I was teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

How am I going to continue to cloth diaper my infant WITHOUT A WASHING MACHINE?

Enter, the flat diapers.

I have had numerous conversations with my grandmother about her bleaching, boiling and hanging out the cloth diapers when my mother was a baby so I new I could handle this. And even better, I still have a dryer so even though it has been snowing ALL MONTH I could still DRY diapers, just not wash them mechanically.  By the way, the washer died during a large load of prefolds, which had to be rinsed twice in the bathtub and hang wrung before putting in the dryer. Awesome.

So I started using the flat diapers on V.  I have decided origami fold doesn't work for us, but kite fold is not so terrible, and her slightly tight ProWraps Classic "small" diaper covers hold them nicely.  The diapers are compact, travel well and, hand wash pretty easily!

I had to use the kitchen sink since the bathroom sink is now residing on the floor of my basement. I would use an old nail brush and running water to scrub off any poop, then fill the sink with about 1-2 gallons of warm water and a very small amount (a quick squirt) of Dr. Bronner's Baby Castile Soap.  Then I would agitate the diapers and scrub with the nail brush any stains.  Once everything appeared clean I would rinse twice, then put them all in my super huge Emeril Stock Pot and boil them until my house smelled like wet cotton.  I also used this technique with the prefolds a few times, but they are so thick and absorbent it was exhausting and very hard on my hands and wrists to wring them out.

Diaper covers got scrubbed in the sink and rinsed, but not boiled. That would destroy them.

The end result was fine.  Obviously I ended up spending a lot more time with the diapers than normal, but they got perfectly clean and the flat diapers dry almost immediately.  The last bunch I hand washed I actually hung on a drying rack in my kitchen and they were ready in the morning.

I will admit that I have been bringing my laundry to my parents' house since the washer broke at least every three days and that has reduced the need to hand wash, but now I know I can and that it is perfectly manageable.  I have also decided to stock the diaper bag with flat diapers almost exclusively as they are so compact and easy when out and about. The bag is lighter, the ziplock bags I use as wet bags don't fill up as quickly, and because they are less absorbent she tells me immediately when she needs to be changed.

All in all, I've decided flat diapers definitely have a place in my cloth diapering experience and I am glad I got them. I'm still not sold on the econobum diaper covers though, it will take me a while to love them, if ever.