Life Is Neat: Flats and hand washing challenge 2013 Day 3

I am taking part in the Third annual flats and hand washing challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and hand washing 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 430 participants from all over the world!

Today I figured I would show you my routine during the Flats and hand washing challenge.

I keep a bucket in the bathroom, about half way full of water. This is where I store the flats/covers and wipes waiting to be cleaned. I thoroughly rinse and scrub poopy diapers in the toilet before putting them in here to soak. I leave the plunger in there so I can agitate the diapers a bit when I am in the bathroom.

I dump out the water and diapers into the tub... not too many today :)

I squeeze them as good as I can with one hand against the wall of the tub.

I put the squeezed flats/covers and wipes back into the bucket.

I fill with cold water for the first rinse.

I agitate with the plunger for 3-4 minutes.

I pour out the water and diapers into the tub again. I squeeze out the excess water the same way I did before and put the squeezed diapers back in the bucket.

Now I get the water really hot for the hot wash.

I put in a teaspoon of Tide free and clear liquid HE detergent.

I agitate for 5-6 minutes.

Now I let it soak while I go eat breakfast/lunch (depending on what time I get to them).

Once I come back to the diapers, I agitate a bit more and then dump/squeeze and put squeezed diapers back in the bucket. I then fill up the bucket with cold water while agitating with the plunger. This is just a super quick rinse.

As soon as the bucket is full, I agitate a bit more and then dump/squeeze and put diapers back in the bucket for the final rinse.

After the final rinse, instead of dumping the bucket, I pull the flats/covers and wipes out and leave the water in the bucket.

This will now be my soak water for the rest of today's diapers :)

To dry the covers, I roll them in a towel and they come out almost dry!! It is great!

For the final squeeze, I first squeeze out down the length of the flat.

Then I fold in half and repeat.

and again :)

Then I squeeze and twist until there is little to no dripping of water into the tub. They end up looking like this. As I get them squeezed, I lay them on the bucket lid. When I am all done, I can just carry the lid over to my drying rack! :)

Here is my drying rack, I have just hung my flats/cover and wipes.

I then check out the weather forecast to see if I should dry inside or out. Looks like a great day to dry outside!

However, it is super windy so I decide on the car port so that my rack doesn't blow over!

The flats were dry in no time thanks to the very windy day! I then fold them so they are ready for use :) The top is pad-folded and the bottom ones are folded in a kite fold.