Flats and Hand Washing Challenge-Introduction
I am so excited to be participating in the 3
rd
Annual Flats and Hand washing Challenge hosted by
Dirty Diaper Laundry May 20
th
through 26
th. I am honored to announce that I have been asked to be
the guest blogger for
Kissed
by the Moon, so this will be the only post about the challenge that will
appear on the
Parenting and
Living Our Way blog, all the rest will be linked in the Guest Articles tab
at the top of the blog page. You can visit Kissed by the Moon’s blog directly
by clicking
here. Feel free
to subscribe to Kissed by the Monn’s blog so you can have the articles
delivered directly to your e-mail inbox.
Here’s the skinny on the challenge:
- This
year it will be a full 7 days.
- The
purpose is to bring awareness and education about the benefits and feasibility
of using flat cloth diapers and hand washing. Families struggle everyday to afford to
diaper their children. There are no government programs that fund diapers.
This means that some families resort to changing diapers less often or
attempt to reuse disposable diapers. Both of these bring serious health
risks to the baby. Flat cloth
diapers are and expensive way to provide clean and sanitary diapers.
- Not
everyone has access to a washer and dryer in their home, or can afford to
go to the laundry mat to wash diapers regularly, so hand washing saves the
families time and money. Yes, that’s right, I said it saves time. Washing
one day's worth of diapers takes about 30 minutes. It can easily be done
in the bath tub or using a bucket and plunger system.
- Flat
cloth diapers can be anything: commercially available flat cloth diapers,
receiving blankets, sheets that are cut into squares, or even t-shirts.
- A
complete list of the allowed items and rules can be found on the Dirty
Diaper Laundry website.
I first heard about the challenge last year while I was
researching cloth diapers. I couldn’t participate because Emma wasn’t born yet,
but I made sure to bookmark the website and I’ve been checking in regularly for
updates.
I’ve seen so much negative press about the feasibility of
low income families using cloth diapers for their babies and I am determined to
show that it is possible to do. A washer and a dryer are a luxury, not a
necessity and by washing diapers by hand for the week, I am hoping to show
other families that this can be done. I am also hoping to empower myself to
realize that I can cloth diaper Emma all the time, even when we travel and camp
because all I need are flats, a few covers, a Snappi or Boingo, and a little
time to wash.
I already had 12
Osocozy
Flat Diapers,
diaper
fasteners, and a couple of
covers
that I bought from
Kissed by
the Moon, but I knew that wasn’t going to be enough. I collected some
receiving blankets and purchased 8 flour sack towels. Robert watched the video
about how to make a camp style washer and picked up everything at Home Depot;
it cost less than $10. I have calculated our cost and we will be diapering Emma
for only $75.
I can’t wait for the challenge to start and to share
our experience with you. Again, I’d like to thank Kissed by the Moon for asking
me to be the guest blogger for the challenge and Dirty Diaper Laundry for
coordinating the event.
