Flats & Handwashing Challenge - Day 7

Day 7: Overall experience. What did you learn? Would you do it?

So here we are, day 7! I honestly can't believe it's already day 7. Probably because I only washed every other day, so I washed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm debating on whether I should wash the diapers tomorrow morning by hand (since they were from the challenge and, therefore, should technically be handwashed, or if I should just throw them in the machine (hey, the challenge is technically over, right?).

My overall experience was a positive one. I was surprised at how easy it was to handwash stuff. I didn't have anything fancy. I had no camping washer with a plunger, I had no washboard (yes, I'm calling these 'fancy'! *laughs* )... I just have me, a bucket, water, and soap. Oh, wait... I had my fancy IKEA octopus hangers. They were awesome! (Especially since it rained most of the week here and I had to dry inside!)

The diapers were easy to clean. I always knew which she pooped on, but thankfully the diaper sprayer was allowed to be used. It would have sucked a bit more if I didn't have one. I still would have done it, though. I didn't wear any gloves. I didn't see the point. Most of the poo was off thanks to the sprayer, and when we visit family we don't really have a sprayer to use (well, we do at my mom's, but not hubby's mom's) so I dunk and swish as best I can without gloves. I figured that was a waste of money I just didn't have to spend.

I learned diapers are easy to clean. That, and flats are pretty darn awesome. My heavy wetter that needs two inserts (and sometimes a booster) at night in her pockets? Yeah. ONE FLAT and she was good all night. I'm starting to wonder if the pockets have issues simply because of the absorbent material being in one strip as opposed to wrapped around baby. Compression from baby moving in a flat (folded around baby) would just send extra moisture to other parts of the material. Compression of baby in pocket with inserts (or maybe even a flat? I haven't tested that one at night...) would just expel the moisture. I'm thinking we will stick to flats for night time. They don't hold smell as much as MF. I will still use some of my fitteds, of course, but the flats don't hold smell like fitteds. Much easier to clean. It just boggles my mind that ONE flat can do what multiple MF inserts can't.

I would totally do this if I needed to. This is a much better option than a laundromat! In fact, I'm contemplating getting a washboard and trying my hand at our clothes, now. I'm rather curious...

Oh, one more thing! This is QUICKER than doing diapers in the washer/dryer for me. Namely because I can't forget about them in the washer, run a million rinse cycles because I can't remember if I did it or not already, then forget to put them in the dryer. My husband is normally irritated that diaper laundry takes "a full day" to do (because of the above), but my washing took about 30 minutes by hand, and then I would just let them dry until the next morning, take them down, use them, repeat.