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Guest Blogger: Traveling with Cloth Diapers

Periodically we travel to MN for my husband’s work for about a week.  I debated for the longest time about how to manage this or if it was just easier to buy disposables.  As most of our stash was make up of pockets and all in ones that made for at least one, very large, extra bag to tote around.  My other challenge was what to do about having diapers sitting for more than 2 days, as I habitually have to do diapers every two days otherwise the smell is overwhelming to me.  

With an impending trip coming up I was excited when Nicki’s Diapers had a sale on flip diaper covers I decided to see what I thought and how they would work for being our go to diaper bag diapers.  So I stocked up and we made with 5 covers, 17 inserts, a large planet wise diaper bag, a small planet wise diaper bag and a planet wise wipe bag.  All in our backpack diaper…. 

I started with the planet wise bags and folded the large wet bag so it was about the same size as the other two and put them in the main compartment of the backpack. Then I followed with the flip inserts. 

I finished it all off with the covers stacked on top and was even able to manage to put my makeup bag and burp clothes in the front small pocket!  This addressed the first major issue I had of trying to keep the bags at a minimum.

 

 

I found that this was perfect as I had 5 covers that I could easily rinse out and hang dry over the shower at the hotel if he poo’d and have them air dry every few changes.  But my other worry was 17 inserts for a week-long trip to MN…  At my calculations he goes through about 6-8 a day.  So if I washed every day we should survive.  I measured out a tbsp. of rocking green into snack baggies and packed them for the trip.

So my game plan…. After every diaper change we immediately rinsed out his diaper, if we were out and about we put it in the small wet bag and then put it in the large wet bag when we got back to the hotel.  At the end of the night, while my hubs (who was sick for most of the trip) walked the hotel room trying to get him to sleep, I stomped the diapers clean.  I filled the tub with water and did my “pre-rinse” and wrung out the inserts by hand.  I then filled it with luke warm water and the soak and back in they all went.  I then proceeded to agitate the diaper inserts with my feet for at least 20 minutes and at this point, inevitably my husband would come in with the baby; laugh at me being goofy to entertain myself, and we would chat and talk about our game plan for the next day.  Next I rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed.  With wringing them in-between until I was satisfied that they were properly rinsed out.  Since we typically only had 8 or so we could lay them on the window sill to sun dry until the next day.  All in all it worked well, but only because my husband was so supportive of the whole process.  For short trips, I think just rinsing them would tide me over until we get home. 

This Guest Blog post was written by Shanda. If you are interested in being a future guest blogger, please email annie@nickisdiapers.com.

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Day 4: 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge

I am participating in the 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. Today's blogger topic is "How's the Handwashing Going?"

Since this is the first F&HWing Challenge that I'm participating in, this is also the first time I've really hand washed diapers! I was a little nervous going into it, but I've found it to be pretty easy. Since I'm washing each day, I'm just storing the dirty diapers (once solids are removed) in my dry washing bucket rather than my diaper pail. This means my pail liner is staying clean (yay, one less thing to wash!). Each day we have dirty diapers coming home in a wetbag from daycare. I clean them off and put them in the bucket right away.   Normally I wash my wetbag each time I was diapers, but this challenge has made me realize I could probably go every other wash day, it's not getting stinky at all! This will also prolong the life of it I'm sure!

I've been doing my washing in the evening. I fill the bucket with water and place it in my slop sink. Then I just do some good hand agitation to really flush everything out. I drain the water and squeeze it out of the flats by pushing them down with the bucket on it's side. Then I fill the bucket with hot wash and a tablespoon or so of Tide Original. In just these few days, I quickly learned that a little detergent goes a LONG way! I was doing a LOT of rinsing the first day when I used way too much! I do another few minutes of hand agitation then let them soak for a bit and go do something upstairs. Then I come and just rinse them in warm water till the water runs clean.

I hang my covers up right away and squeeze as much water out of the flats as I can. Then I hang those up as well. I have a folding rack (pictured on Day 1) that I use outside, and when we have less than ideal weather, I use my Duo Drying Rack hanging on our shower bar. It takes a little longer to dry inside, but still only a few hours.

I never would have imagined just how easy handwashing is. We have several camping trips planned this summer and I'm excited to try hand washing in the great outdoors!

Day 3: 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge

I'm participating in the 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. Today  was Day 3 in the challenge and it's an open topic day for blogging. My original plan was to talk about my new favorite flat and cover combination and show off some adorable action shots of 18 month old Emmett in his flats. Unfortunately Emmett wanted nothing to do with the camera, so we're postponing that till later in the week :)

I want to talk about perhaps a more important topic. Something that's kept millions of Americans glued to their TVs and news feeds for the last couple days: severe weather. I will be the first to admit I'm slightly over-paranoid when it comes to the threat of severe weather. When the air gets humid and the trees get still, I starting breathing hard. While we're not in the middle of tornado alley here in Wisconsin, they are certainly still a threat and there are several tornado touchdowns in our state each year. Last year we decided to put together a severe weather kit and keep it in our "safe spot" in our basement. When it came to the choice of what kind of diapers to put in the kit, we chose flats and inexpensive covers.

We chose flats and covers for many of the same reasons that one who is on a restricted budget with limited or no access to a washer and dryer would. Here's why:

*Flats and one-size covers truly are one-size fits all. Just change your fold to change the size of your flat. This  means you're not sizing up to buy more diapers down the road (saving $$), and it means we don't have to worry about Emmett outgrowing the diapers in our kit.
*Flats are incredibly forgiving when it comes to washing. Whether you're hand-washing, or washing in non-ideal conditions, the natural fibers and single layer makes it very easy for flats to come clean. If we were to be without power, we'd still be able to hand wash our flats and not worry about stink.
*Flats air dry very quickly. Because their just a single layer of material (usually cotton), flats can air dry very quickly. If we didn't have access to an electric dryer, these could be draped just about anywhere to dry in a short period of time.
*Flats are multi-functional. Beyond the cloth diaper years, flats can be used for cleaning, washing your car, and much more. In a severe weather situation, they could be used for first aid, a lightweight blanket, or to provide a clean surface.

Our thoughts and hearts are with all of those affected by the tornado in Oklahoma. It's important that we make sure we're prepared for any situation in our own homes. So if you're participating in the challenge with me, it's worth considering putting your flats and covers somewhere with easy access if you were to need them in an emergency after the challenge is over. If you don't own flats, there is no better reason to add them to your stash than piece of mind.

Day 2: The 3rd Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge

Today is Day 2 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days and nights, we're using only flats with covers and handwashing/air drying. Today I'm going to tell you about the supplies I'm using during the challenge. I actually didn't purchase any of it new for this specifically, but I will break down the cost of all the items I'm using to give you an idea of just how inexpensively this can be done!

Flats-

*One 6-pack Imagine Bamboo Flats $19.95

*Two 6-packs of Imagine Printed Flats (1 Rawr, 1 Tree Friends) $14.95 each, $29.90 total

Covers-

*Two Imagine One-Size All-in-Two Diaper Covers $11.95 each, $23.90 total

*Two Imagine One-Size Diaper Covers, $8.95 each but one was free with a Nicki's Diapers Special of Buy two 6-packs and get a free cover! 

*One Thirsties Duo Wrap Size 2, $12.25

*One Bummis Pull-On (this is specifically for my overnight diaper) $6.50

Total- $101.45, all purchased at Nicki's Diapers

Realistically, this could be done on even less! You could get basic cotton flats rather than printed or bamboo flats and save $10-$15, and you could even get away with 12 flats if you're planning to wash every day. I have 5 day time covers since we're using them with our childcare provider and they're not re-using the cover each time, so here is another place you could reduce your costs but using 3-4 covers. 

I'm handwashing in a bucket I found in our laundry room, so my washing system was free :) 

Pictured below is my FAVORITE combination so far... an Imagine Printed Flat padfolded in an Imagine All-in-Two Cover. More on that tomorrow... including some action shots!