Flats and Handwashing Challenge: The Conclusion

Well, I/we did it for a whole week... Matt asked "are we doing it again next year?"  Well, the jury is still out on that one.  It was a bit crazy because I had an "extracurricular" activity that week so the hand washing was rough that night.  Here are some of my final thoughts on the challenge:

Handwashing was definitely not as hard as I thought it would be, but I did get frustrated with trying to get poo off of diapers.  I had stains on ever poo diaper and that just worried me that I wasn't getting them clean enough.  I know that's silly because even my washing machine doesn't always get the poo stains off of diapers (or onesies from the days of Jack's newborn poo explosions).  I could do it if I had to... but I don't think it is right for my family.  We're lucky enough to have a washer and dryer and I will continue to use them for our diapers.  I did enjoy the one day (Saturday) I was able to wash diapers first thing in the morning and put them outside to dry.  The flats were dry in less than 2 hours and the covers and pockets were dry in less than 6 (but more than 2).

Using flats, I think I will absolutely use flats more often.  They were less bulky than any prefold I had tried using before and I was able to make sure they fit Christopher really well!  I was always impressed with how trim they were.  I used both pins and Snappis with the flats and using a pin through a flat was way easier than the other diapers with which I had tried to use pins.  I am currently debating on whether or not to use them while traveling in the future.  They dry so quickly and are trim enough to be packed.  Maybe I'll get (and use) newborn sized flats if and when we're ever blessed with another baby.