Flat Butt: Day Two - The Stash

Some of my goodies

We are on day number two of the 2nd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge. All is good so far, but I have a confession to make. I was going to start handwashing last night, but it didn't happen. I'll be handwashing lots of diapers today.  I haven't been too adventurous with folds. I'm mainly stickign to the pad fold or the diaper bag fold. I have used the origami fold a couple of times, but it leaves so much material and isn't a nice tight fit for my taste. I'll have to keep working on it.

Today, I'm discussing everything I am using for this challenge - the diapers, the accessories and the wash gear. Using flats can be pure and simple - just a flat diaper and a cover. Fasteners such as pins, snappis and boingos are optional depending on your fold and your cover. Some parents are opting to make flat diapers out of found things such as t-shirts, flour sack towels, old sheets and receiving blankets. Others are buying new or they're using items they already have. I only owned two flats when I first read about this challenge. They are the craptastic Gerber flats, which aren't even good enough to poop on - ironic since that's their original purpose. I only have 4  flannel receiving blankets and they are rather pretty and we actually use them as blankets. Any t-shirts or sheets in this house are used as actual t-shirts and sheets. That means that any flat diapers were going to be bought. Part of this has to do with the fact that a little fluffy mail makes my heart sing.

Diapers:

IKEA burp cloths - these are sold in packs of two for $2.99. They are marketed as burp cloths, but are actually fantabulous gauzy flat diapers. Each pack contains one plain white diaper and one white diaper with an embroidered animal design. They are cute, soft and function very well. I have 4 of these.

IKEA "burp cloth" - diaper bag fold and fastened with a Snappi.

Swaddlebees - I believe I bought one of the last packs of these flats in the country. They are on back order at every store in America. I bought mine very late one night at one of the last stores to sell them. By the next morning they were all sold out. I've only used them once so far, but I like them. I have 6 of  these.

Gerber Craptastic Flat - I have two of these leftover from when my son was a baby. I am only using these pad folded in conjunction with another flat. These majorly suck by themselves and they are tiny compared to the other diapers.

OsoCozy - I have one dozen of their unbleached flats. I have used these the most so far and I really love them.

Covers:

I have a ton of covers. I actually have so many that I could go through all of them without washing them. That would defeat the purpose of the challenge, though. Last year, participants were limited to the number of covers they could use. There isn't a limit this year, but I plan on imposing one on myself and I'll wash my covers each night to be fair.  For whatever reason, both my small Proraps and my Bummis Super Whisper Wraps don't work well for me with flats. I use them just fine with prefolds and fitteds, but there seems to be a small gap at the thigh when I'm using flats. Weird. I'll be using Thirsties covers - both the Duo and the regular - as well as my Mudshrimps covers and a few from Econobum. I also have two gorgeous wool covers that were given to me by a generous fan on my Facebook page. They fit her perfectly and I can't wait to try them out at night for this challenge.

Liners:

I have homemade fleece liners to help deal with poo clean up.

Wipes:

I have some homemade flannel/terry wipes as well as cheapie and super soft baby washcloths. No 'sposie wipes here!  I just wet them with water. If I make a wipes solution it's merely water and baby mild Dr. Bronner's soap.

Fasteners:

I am jealous of those who can use pins simply because they are adorable. I haven't been able to use them successfully yet. I have a bunch of Snappis and one set of Boingos. I really dislike the Boingos. I don't feel like I can get a tight enough fit and it seems like they could rub her thigh depending on how she moves around. They also come right off if she does the alligator death roll during a diaper change, which she does quite often.

Wet Bag:

I have three wet bags from PlanetWise - small, medium and large. I only plan to use these for travel and not for storage of diapers at home.

Diaper Pail:

I keep a dry diaper pail most of the time, but it's going to double as my wash bucket. I've been throwing soiled dipes in there and when I'm brave later today, I'll be filling it with water and soap to start beating  my diapers clean. As I mentioned in my previous post, I will not be making a camp style washer. The husband used the brand new plunger that I bought for it and defiled it with his cooties. I'm going to be handwashing bare bones - just my hands.

Laundry detergent:

I had really wanted to make my own detergent before the challenge, but I have not gotten around to it. I have one bottle of Seventh Generation Free and Clear in the new compostable bottle. Seventh Generation is not one of my favorite companies, but I scored this detergent for free so I will probably use it. Or....I may just use Dr.Bronner's with a boost from the Biokleen Oxygen Bleach if things get nasty.

Drying Rack:

I live in an apartment so my dream of freshly laundered diapers billowing in the gentle breeze  will not be realized. It's probably a good thing because the Pine trees are going insane with their pollen this year and there is a fine coating of powdery lime green tree semen all over everything outside. I have a large drying rack that will live next to a window this week.

Iron:

You can iron damp flat diapers in order to both dry them quicker and sterilize them. I have only ironed once in my life and I was actually wearing a gorgeous dress, high heels and pearls. I kid you not. We were on our way to a wedding and my sweet husband discovered that he had balled his dress pants up when he stored them in the closet. My mom wasn't home to answer my panicked phone call, so I ended up looking at "how to iron" videos online. Isn't that sad? I'm going to give the iron another go for this challenge.

Muscles:

I'm going to be packing these one with all that handwashing, baby!  Damn, I should have done a before picture of my biceps...

Coconut oil:

To soothe my hands after all that hand washing.

There we have it - my Flats Challenge supply list. We're only two days in and things are going well. My first round of handwashing will commence after I am done writing this. I'll update you on that experience tomorrow!

P.S. The picture above of the IKEA diaper is not a perfect diaper bag fold. I hadn't rolled in at the legs to make my little gussetts.

Here are some extra links for this challenge:

My original post about joining the challenge - Flat Butt
Yesterday's Post - Day One: The Small Print
The Original challenge post by Dirty Diaper Laundry that explains this challenge and the rules - The 2nd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge
Today's post by Dirty Diaper Laundry - Day 2.

Below, you will find the linky grouping of all the blogs that are part of this challenge.