This is the 4th year of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge, and yet it's only the first time I'm actually participating. I always had reasons not to before. I didn't have many flats, I didn't have time because I was working overtime, I didn't have time or energy because I was working and heavily pregnant.... Okay, I didn't say they were GOOD reasons!
This year is different. Last summer I got laid off. Now, almost a year later, I still have no employment. I can't use the "too busy working" excuse this time. Squiggle, my youngest, is nearing 1 year old, now. I can't use pregnancy as an excuse.
Then, a few months ago, my washer wouldn't work. I kept turning it on and I could HEAR it turn on, but nothing would happen. No buttons would light up, no settings would change no matter how much I turned the knob... nothing. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew that my load of wash in the washer was a load of diapers. That's when I realized I was in trouble. I had no idea what to do. I had no idea how to handwash diapers, and I most certainly didn't have the money to fix my washer or get a new one.
Thankfully, the washer randomly started working normally a couple hours later, but I had decided it. I am doing the flats and handwashing challenge this year. Thanks to this challenge, there are all sorts of posts for me to read to figure out how to clean my diapers. If I can wash cloth diapers, which catch poop, clean by hand... then I can clean our laundry (clothing) by hand, too. I am taking this challenge not only to help spread awareness of how you can cloth diaper with no washer on a low budget, but also to prove to myself that I can do this if our situation with the washer goes down hill.
I am using all store bought flats and covers. Some people are using T-shirts, but I have a handful of flats and plenty of covers. Bobble only wears a diaper at night time now (and even then it is usually dry... last night was 4 dry diapers in a row!), and Squiggle is not a newborn, so she doesn't go through a million diapers a day. Still, I only have 15 flats, total. I don't have much of a choice but to do laundry daily, I'm assuming! We'll find out as the challenge progresses!
Morning 1!
Are YOU taking the Flats and Handwashing challenge? Why or why not? What holds/held you back from taking it?
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