Flats and Handwashing Challenge - Prep Work...

Last week I introduced you to the Flats and Handwashing Challenge that our household will be participating in. As with any big challenge, there are preparations that go into it. For this one, we needed to update a few supplies.


First, I had a few "flat diapers" - Gerber brand. This worked pretty good on our little girl until she was about 6 months old. Then, they were just too small. I did fold them up and use them as "doublers" for our newer pocket style diapers. Some even made it to the kitchen for use as bibs (our little bean can take any bib off except these when they are tied) or paperless towels.


So, I needed to get some flats. I started following "Flat Cloth Diapers" on Facebook. Seriously, what don't they have a page for?!? I asked if someone could suggest a flat diaper that had good "bang for the buck". Many suggestions later, I ended up with these from Diaper Junction. I had never worked with Diaper Junction before and was pleasantly surprised with how professional and helpful they were. I also received an excellent instruction sheet on washing diapers. I've never had one so thorough before. I saved it a put it in the washing machine. Plus, they offer free shipping on orders $49 or more (same as Kelly's Closet).


I purchased 2 packages of a dozen natural Diaper Rite birds eye cotton prefold diapers for $17.95 each. Additionally, I will be utilizing some flour sack towels that are also 100% cotton that I had here at the house. I checked the store where they were purchased and they retail $3.99 for 3. Additionally, I took 3 flannel receiving blankets from storage and we will be using those, too. I wanted a variety to choose from to see how someone could take things from around the house to diaper their baby. Particularly if funds were that tight.

The new diapers did have to be prepped by washing alone 3-4 times. This will allow them to achieve maximum absorbency.

Modeling her new Tweedlebugs diaper cover. She is standing on the two types of birdseye flats.



The Diaper Rite natural flat - spoon gives you an idea of how big these are. These are size large and they are quite large. They did shrink about 10%, though. You can see the flour sack towel just under it. So can see they are smaller but still fairly large.

This is the flour sack  - smaller than the Diaper Rite one but still big enough to fold and fit nicely in the covers.

I also allowed my self to get a couple new covers. I went with very cost friendly covers: Bummis Super Lite for $9.99 and TweedleBugs one-size for $9.95. The Bummis is sized medium but the TweedleBugs is a one-size so would fit throughout the diapering years. Other covers we'll be using come from our current stash - Bummis Super Whisper (medium, retail $11.95), Bummis Super Bright (medium, retail $12.95), and a homemade fleece cover (took about a day to make sewing by hand and about $4 in materials). I also had some Bummis fleece liners from our tiny baby days that we'll be reusing, too. These cost about $5 for a dozen. Although, easily made for much less that this.

TweedleBug One-size cover - front view.

TweedleBug One-size rear view.

Bummis Super Lite - size medium - front view (so far my favorite diaper cover yet).

Bummis Super Lite, size medium, rear view.

Here is the diaper folded into 12 layers laid with a fleece liner into the Bummis Super Bright cover.



The "Flats Stash" prepped and ready minus the cover being worn at the time of the photo.

After looking at these photos, I had forgotten how trim flats are, even when folded into 12 layers like these have been. As you can see, at this point I have opted just to fold the diapers as if they were inserts so they can be laid into the cover and then just change the "inserts" and the covers as needed.

Lastly, I will add the price of soap. We use Rockin Green retailing about $13.95 for 90 loads. This tends to last us about 2-3 months.

This entire package would cost $112.69 (30 diapers total). If one-size covers are purchased instead of sized ones, then this would be enough to diaper a baby throughout his/her diapering years and only wash every 2-3 days. So, if it costs about $2000 to $2500 to diaper a baby (and prices are only going up) in disposables, then this is a significant cost savings for those financially strapped families. There would be cost of wipes and additional laundry detergent. I am not including laundering costs since for this particular challenge we will only be utilizing water, not a washing machine or dryer. We use reusable wipes and I make my own solution (also a significant cost savings).

When our son was in disposables, it cost us about $100 a month for diapers and wipes. Thank goodness he was out of diapers by 18 months! We've spent about $750 on "modern cloth diapers" for our daughter. If we decide to add another baby to the family we won't have to spend a dime, except for maybe some more detergent and the optional new diapers to satisfy my diaper addiction! (Newborn diapers are too cute for words.)

If you'd like to see some of the other 300+ participants in this challenge, feel free to visit Kim at Dirty Diaper Laundry.

So, what should I do with the $1500 we've saved from utilizing cloth diapers on our daughter? (wedding fund, college fund, shoe fund, horse fund, charitiable donation, other fund...)