Flats&Handwashing Day 4

Day 4 of the 3rd Annual Flats and HandWashing Challenge. The challenge is to use only flat cloth diapers and handwash them for 7 days. No washing machines or dryers allowed!

Let's talk about hand washing.

My basic routine is to rinse the diapers out in my shower as soon as I can, whether they're wet or unspeakable.
Warm wash in the bathroom sink, followed by two rinses. I wring the diapers out as best as I can, and then I hit the diapers against something hard a few times before hanging them on the drying rack.

Beating the diapers is a great trick to keep them soft as they dry. I do not appreciate folding stiff diapers, and I imagine that Spain appreciates a soft pliable diaper on his derierre, than a stiff scratchy one. So I use this technique. 

We have a handheld shower head that packs a wallop with water pressure. After I rinse the diapers out, I throw them in a diaper pail. I learned last year, that washing through out the day is less tiring than washing all at once. This year we're working on the joy of using the potty, so Spain isn't going through as many diapers in a day as he was last year.

Last night I had a total lightbulb moment. We'd been running around all day trying to check things off the always growing to-do list. I hadn't had time to wash diapers until 10pm. I stared at the pile of diapers in dismay. Washing them in the sink was going to take forever, and I just wanted to crawl in bed. Sleep deprivation is mother of invention. As I began to resign myself to the fact that I was going to spend an eternity washing diapers in the bathroom sink, inspiration struck.
I dumped the diapers on to the shower floor, flung the pail liner across the room, and proceeded to fill my now empty diaper pail with warm soapy water. After a thorough rinse, I tossed the diapers into the diaper pail and gave them some manual agitation TLC.

After two rinses to make sure I got all the soap out I deemed them clean and loaded the drying rack. Sidenote- I love that I can load the drying rack at night, and have a full rack of dry diapers by morning!

I even gave myself extra points for being green, and poured the wash water over my pitiful flower garden.