Day 1 Flats and Handwashing Challenge- Why I am taking the Challenge

We started cloth diapering when my daughter was about 16 months old and I had found out baby number 2 was on the way. I had seen how much it cost for disposables in that first year, and was just angry. I had stopped working after my daughter was born, and we were still getting used to only one income. Trying to cut costs (and make our home as natural as possible), I decided cloth diapers would be a good transition for us.

My husband wasn't really on board at first, but he changes maybe one diaper a week, so I kind of won that debate ;). We wanted to go pretty cheap with our cloth so we started with prefolds and covers. A good friend was kind enough to let us borrow some of hers, and I loved them! We did try some BumGenius pocket diapers, and they worked well, but I just loved the simplicity of prefolds and covers.

So after a few months of prefolds with the new baby, I kept seeing other cloth diapering moms talking about flats. Something cheaper than prefolds? Yes please! So my first flats were flour sack towels (FST's) from Walmart and Sam's Club.

When my son started getting a little bigger, he was wetting a lot more, so I ended up buying some small and large Green Mountain Diaper's flats from another mom. Those are what we still use today.

I heard about the Flats and Handwashing Challenge a couple years ago, from my friend (the one who let me borrow her prefolds). You know who you are, Mary! Thanks for being my cloth diaper guru! I knew the Flats Challenge was something I wanted to participate in as soon as I heard about it.

We switched to cloth mostly to save money. I do like helping the environment, and keeping natural fibers on my babies' bums, but really, the biggest reason was to save money. So this challenge, was right up my alley! I want to help spread the word about how cloth diapering can be a great alternative to disposable diapers, for families in hard economic circumstances. They are actually a great alternative for ANY family!

We go camping and hunting throughout the year, and usually we use disposables while in the camper. But I am very excited to now have a wash bucket I can take with us! I just washed my first load of diapers and it worked better than I was expecting! Now to hang them out on the line. That's probably my favorite part.

I'm hoping to really enjoy this week, and this challenge! I'm still pretty excited about it and I hope that doesn't fade in a couple days.