Today is the third full day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge. As a reminder, this is a 7 day Challenge where participants can only use flat cloth diapers and have to ditch their washer and dryer in favor of good ol’ fashioned handwashing. We are close to 500 participants this year and many are blogging their journey. You can find their posts linked at the end.
Since we are a few days in I’m hoping many people have begun finding their groove with using flats. The learning curve is certainly steep and because we lost a few generations to disposable diapers the wisdom of flat folding is non existent. These days we can easily turn to YouTube for tutorials (I even have a playlist with all of my flats video tutorials) but many people need in person guidance.
Last year I scoured the internet for folding techniques and found that the Pad Fold, Origami fold, and Kite fold were used the most and referenced often on diaper forums. I found another fold I adopted as my favorite and since then it has seen quite a bit of popularity. It is called the Diaper Bag fold and is my go-to for overnights. I have pinned in the past and I prefer my snappi but for now I am testing out Boingo’s to see how those work.
Beyond the Flats Challenge many of us will go on to use the diapers even if we start washing them in our machines once again. Here are some of the amazing things flats will come in handy for-
- They work as Pocket inserts- pad fold them and stuff into your favorite pocket diaper for a natural fiber, inexpensive, fast drying, easy cleaning insert.
- If an emergency arises a stash of flats can come in handy as long as you have a water source. Your handwashing experience will once again serve you well.
- Changing mats- I often grab a flat and lay it under my son if I know it is a messy poop. If it gets soiled it gets tossed right in with my other diapers.
- Traveling? Consider only packing flats and covers. They pack tight and will withstand the differences in water types/detergents when away from your usual wash routine.
- Burp cloths/cleaning cloths around the house for the big messes.
- Pay it forward by passing your flats on to a local family or mail them to GivingDiapersGivingHope.org where they will be sent to a qualifying family.
