Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Flats Challenge Part 3

Day 4
I just about threw the towel in last night.  It was not a good one.  Mary was crying most of the night with an ear ache and the thought of taking care of a sick toddler while hand washing diapers was not high on my list.  We also have about 20 people coming over on Saturday and my husband is planning to smoke some meat and have a BBQ.  Anyway, since I am literally hand washing my diapers, I wanted to quit.  It didn’t seem worth it to me.  However this morning my tune has changed a bit.  I really felt like I couldn’t quit; almost like morally I couldn’t quit.  I have been cloth diapering for so long that giving up is not an option.  Plus, we are planning to take a family vacation this summer and we will be gone for about 5 days at a camp where there are no laundry facilities.  I refuse to buy a box of diapers when I already have diapers.  So the plan today is to go to the local hardware store and get me a plunger and bucket for my bucket washer.  I need a washing tool.  The diapers that I washed last night were okay.  They didn’t smell strongly, but there was still a faint lake water smell.  I will continue to wash every night, but this time I will use the bucket.  If that works, then I know I will be able to take all my flats and covers with me on vacation.
I didn’t get my bucket washer yet; however I do have a plunger and a 13 gallon trash can so I made my own wash bucket.  The plunger makes a huge difference.  When I put my diapers in (10 flats 2 hemp flats and a handful of wash rags) I could see the soap residue.  Argh!  No wonder my diapers stank.  So, I did a soak with some vinegar and plunged it for a while.  I did a hot wash with detergent and let that soak as well.  Then it was all followed by three cold water rinses.  With each fill I plunged and hand wrung out the diapers.  At the end, there was just a slight (ever so slight) cloudiness to the water and so I called it good.  I’ve been using the diapers from the first wash and though they smelled while drying, after being peed on they don’t have a stench to them.  Ahh, the beauty of flats.  HA!

Day 5
I’m losing steam.  I really enjoy using flats, but I really do not like washing them by hand.  I’m not sure I will be making it to Sunday before quitting.  Here it is at the end of the day and I haven’t washed the diapers.  I have plenty of diapers to get me through Saturday, but then I will be trying to wash 35+ diapers again.  So I’m just tempted to say I’ve tried it and throw all my diapers into the washer Saturday evening.  With all our family coming over I will be wiped and not in the mood to wash diapers by hand.  I will definitely be keeping my flats in my diaper rotation and they are nice to use. 

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