Origami & Broiler pans: Flats Challenge Day 4 & 5

Hi & welcome if you are visiting from the DDL link up!!  I hope you enjoy my little space on the blog sphere.

I'll begin with some honesty...I am a blogging slacker from time to time and honestly yesterday got away from me before I remembered.  Today we are going to do Day 4 & 5 of the Flats Challenge in one post :) 

Day 4's topic was: What is your washing routine?

Day's 5 topic: Flats experience, Fav Folds & What's working (or not).

Don't expect there to be a distinct answer for all the above.  I am going to address all the question as I go expect for my favorite folds which I will cover at the end.  

My washing routine is quite simple until we have a mishap.  Which just so happens we had on Monday evening, that really presented itself Tuesday.  Monday was a CRAZY day around the farm.  

Farmer is in the middle of chopping silage and the farm baby had to hang with him some. 

After spending some time doing that he got to haul cows with the Farmer as well...

which he loved but his unchanged bottom revolted against it.  (read TERRIBLE ammonia burn)

Why was the Farm Baby with the Farmer and not Momma...

well cause Momma had the Farm Boy...

Picking up 4-H project chicks,

Checking cows with the kitten in tow, 

Getting the barn ready for 4-H project #3 to arrive Sunday,

Playing ball,

and attending a Young Farmers & Ranchers committee meeting. Oh and did I mention I went to work for most of the day Monday as well...

You see farm life often means you divide and conquer :)

So how do I have time to handwash???

Well simply I do it all along.  I don't have one huge allotment of time each day to dedicate to washing diapers but I do have 5 minutes here and there.  

My 1st step is filling the sink with cold water. 

While it's filling I empty all the pocket diapers out and swish them around in the cold water.

(Yes there is a microfiber insert in there...the Farmer grabs whatever is available to use). 

I let them soak for a few moments while I usually tend to something else.  Sometimes this is 5 minutes...sometimes it's 5 hours...just depends.  After the 1st cold soak, I boil some water in my kettle, drain the soak water and let the tap water heat up.  

Once the water is hot (my kettle isn't ready yet) I use a broiler pan and scrub my diapers using Zote, while filling the sink with "hot" water and a little blue dawn.  Once I'm done scrubbing diapers and the kettle is done I poor the super hot water over the diapers and let them soak again.

Once they have soaked again (at least 5-10 minutes) I drain the water and rinse all the diapers clean.

I then hang them on our back porch/laundry as it gets great sunlight but is still protected from all the elements.  Typically my diapers are completely dry within 3 hours or hanging them up (expect last night due to the rain and cooler temps).  

My wash routine also took a little longer last night as well.  And in favor of complete honesty...I'll tell you we used a disposable for one change because Farm Baby's bottom was BAD...he needed some HEAVY DUTY diaper cream that I didn't want in my diapers...I was so tempted just to throw everything in the washer with some bleach and then the dryer, to fix our problem.  After thinking about the fact that I'm sure there are moms out there who face this situation without the luxury of a wash & dryer 10 feet away...I figured I would find another solution.  So I boiled all the diapers to ensure any ammonia build up was completely gone.  

Once diapers are dry I let the boys twist, scrunch, and wring them to make them soft again.

After we play laundry ball for a few...I then fold anything I am going to fold so that it's ready for the next diaper change.  

I love the......

 pad fold (because how much simpler can you get)

Origami Fold (My ABSOLUTE favorite fold)

Happy Anteater Fold 

and occasionally the Kite Fold

Overall the challenge is going well.  I don't mind the hand washing and really could see us doing away with many of our pocket stash for flats and covers over the next few months.  They take up so much less space than our pockets.  

How's the challenge going for you?  If you aren't participating are you a CD mom?

Until we meet again...

Caci