Day 6 of the Flats and Handwash Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world! 

I had to laugh when I read Kim's post this morning over at Dirty Diaper Laundry because I had just left B with some friends while my husband and I went out last night. I did sort of agonize over what to do about diapers while we were away. Which covers do I have clean and available? How much can I ask of this particular friend? Should I just stuff a BumGenious 3.0 with a flat even though that isn't technically a pocket? I ended up just doing a pad fold in our regular night time wool wrap, and everything went perfectly. I think sometimes the concept of a cloth diaper or a flat diaper is more overwhelming than being faced with the actual diaper itself!

I also had to laugh because I ran into the very topic of hand washing in the book I am reading. I shouldn't have been too surprised because I am reading about rural life in old timey Appalachia. I have recently picked up the Foxfire series and I am loving them! The Foxfire books are a compilation of the magazine that came out of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. This is from the New Georgia Encyclopedia:

During the 1960s the school reconnected with its mountain heritage in an innovative way. In 1966 Eliot Wigginton, a young English teacher, was struggling to teach bored students. Seeking to make his courses relevant, he encouraged his students to interview older people in the community about their lives and southern Appalachian culture. The students documented such traditions as planting by the signs of the moon, building a log cabin, and mountain lore, then published the material in a magazine called Foxfire. The Foxfire program continued until 1977, when Rabun Gap–Nacoochee School became a private institution. Foxfire then moved to Rabun County High School to serve the local public school population.

The section I just read from the second book was about washing clothes in an iron pot. It is almost exactly like what all of us participating in the Flats and Handwash Challenge are doing this week. The only differences are that we have hot water coming out of our tap, and we don't have a "battling bench", a waist high, rough, split log table used as a surface for beating out the dirt. One tip the interviewee, Mimi Dickerson, gave, was to hang the washing out while completely wet. She says this reduces the wrinkle, and the clothes dry softer than if you wring them. Probably not a good idea for our particular challenge, but I thought it was interesting none the less.

One last thing that I have been wanting to share is a new (I think!) fold for flat diapers. I was in need of a diaper fold for those times around the house when I wanted to allow B to "air out", but I was too busy to follow him around and clean up after him. I thought, 'wouldn't it be cool if I could just tie the diaper on?' So, here is what I have come up with. If this already exists, I am sorry for  stealing the inventor's thunder! Please feel free to claim it if it's your's.

I call this either the Sumo Diaper or the Egyptian Diaper because, to me, it looks like a little of both.

Start like the kite fold:

1. Lay out flat.

2. Fold right side in.

3. Fold left side in.

4. Fold down top.

5. Turn the whole thing one point clockwise.

6. Fold right side in again.

7. Fold left side in again.

8. Fold the top points out to the sides.

9. Fold up the front point. Then, fold it up again. See how this makes a little tunnel through the front of the diaper?

Here I have pulled the left corner through the tunnel.

10. Again, as you see above, I have pulled the longer, left point through the tunnel in the front of the diaper. Then I tied the left point to the right point.

Action Shots!

 This fold isn't meant to keep in solids, but to act more like a trainer, catching one pee. It's great for airing out. I have found it to be very useful!