Out and about with cloth diapers

So were on a day trip out of town and using cloth the whole day. I thought what better way to show how easy it is to use cloth while home or out!
I change Sweetness about 6 tines a day now and at night she gets put in a double stuffed diaper for the whole night. (No changing overnight).
So I "packed" 8 diapers with one insert(microfiber)  and 3 with two inserts( one mf and one bamboo). The doubles will be for the car trip as its a three hour ride one way. I took a disposable wipes bin and loaded it up with cloth wipes and ran some water over them ahead of time.

I also packed a giant(think bigger than a pillowcase) wet bag and a small one for the diaper bag.

Before leaving the house I took sweetness to the potty( we practice elimination communication. More about that at another point. ) and she not only peed but pooped in the potty too! Horray one less thing to worry about! Into the double stuffed diaper and away we went.

Here she is on the ride home:

the white with blue stars is one of her cloth double stuffed diapers. :)
We had no issues with the cloth at all. No leaks and even went swimming later in the day and changed out of cloth(mama forgot the swim diaper. *facepalm*) and back into it and it worked out great. Would highly recommend using cloth on a day trip. A little extra work to prep ahead of time but well worth not having to use sposies.

How I Wash My Diapers

So I've gotten lots of questions about this from various friends and family and thought I'd share a little post on how I wash my cloth diapers. 

So lets start with changing the baby. Uh ooh! It's a poopy diaper. Mommy's EC senses must have missed those ques! So what happens next? I change the baby to a clean diaper toss the wipes(cloth) into the diaper "pail" (a trashcan with a lid and fleece liner) and then take the baby to her safe play area.
Then I take the dirty diaper to the bathroom. I have a diaper sprayer hooked to my toilet that my wonderful hubby installed. I call it my "ninja diaper tool".

 The thing is awesome and will get off pretty much any icky poop. Since I forgot to take pictures of this process we'll pretend the diaper in the photo is poopy ok?

 I take the sprayer out of it's little holder and spray the diaper, Then it goes into my dirty pail in the bathroom. For really smelly ones I spray with a bit of vinegar and they will not smell. (I keep this pail in my tub which is right next to the toilet and no one has ever smelled it unless I forgot to spray the diaper with vinegar.)

So now let's say it's laundry day. I remove my fleece liner from my wet (not poopy) diaper pail in Sweetness's Room, and I tote it and the smaller pail of dirty diapers to the laundry area. (which happens to be in my kitchen.) 

I dump everything in the washer and try to get it distributed evenly. I have an old fashioned top loader and I love it. I hope we never have to replace it. Might even take it with us when we move out of our house one day. So MUCH easier for cloth diaper washing. 

 

(this load is technically been washed but once again let's pretend it's been just tossed in.) I set my washer to warm wash, cold rinse . And a large load as when dry the washer was full. (usually I wash less at once and do a medium size load. Contrary to popular belief washing on Hot does not kill germs as it is not hot enough for a long enough time period. But I'll get to that later. Also Hot can delaminate the waterproof layer on your diapers or covers over time. (if your water is hot enough to kill germs) and Can ruin your velcro or applix eventually too.
I add this much detergent:

See where my thumb is? That's all the more I use. For info on good cloth diaper detergents Check out this site:

http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm

I use Publix brand free and clear. And only use it for diapers. I bought the BIG container of it with the little spout and haven't bought more in probably 6-ish months. I originally used Rockin' Green and found it caused me to need to strip my diapers every month. I found this ridiculous. I will say the stuff works great for soaking stubborn stains but for regular use. Not for us. 

Anywho. 

Wash through the whole cycle. Then I set my washer to cold wash/rinse, large load and start the wash cycle over again with NO soap. Just to make sure all the soap is rinsed out of the fabrics good. 

I also use a downy ball and fill it with vinegar. I do this for my first cycle of washing with soap and it works great. Vinegar has natural disinfecting agents in it and removes stink like nothing I've ever used before. 

Now the fun part! lol I open the washer  and remove the inserts and they go into the dryer:

I stack my covers on the dryer as I go. Occasionally I get one that the insert didn't agitate out of. (the one in the photo was double stuffed for night time and I forgot to take the inserts out. they rarely agitate out on their own) 

I also try to make sure not to toss my smaller wetbags in the dryer. I have the 10.00 munchkin wetbags from target and they are not dryer safe. So here's my stack to hang up:

I have a wooden collapsible drying rack that I use outside on sunny days and inside over the air vent on rainy or "questionable" days. Today it looks like it could rain so they are inside. They will dry overnight. I have enough diapers that this does not put me in a tough spot if I wash about every 3 days. Much longer than that I would have to toss a few covers in the dryer. I do this every so often but over time it can cause wear from the heat and the snaps can crack.

I prefer the sun to inside as the sun is a natural stain remover and germ killer. Also I dry my diapers with the white side up as I found they dry so much faster this way. When the cute side is up the PUL lined inner is facing down and holds moisture still as it can't evaporate out as easy. 

That's all I do! Next day I stuff the inserts back in the diapers and put them away. Easy peasy. I guess for some it seems complicated and you might wonder "how do you have the time with a baby?" Or "will you still do this with multiple children". As to the time question, you find time to wash your clothes, and towels and baby's clothes. An extra load of laundry isn't that big a deal. It took me 4-6x's as long to write this post and take the photo's than it did to do the laundry. What takes the longest is the drying and wash time.
Once I got into a routine with it it is not a big deal at all. I wash diapers on Saturday and Wednesday usually. But we had a weekend trip this week so I washed a few extra times to make sure we had enough. :) When we have multiple children I will definitely do this. We RARELY use sposies as a result of cloth diapering. Only while traveling for longer than a day or two as I haven't figured that out yet. But trust me if I do I will be using cloth all the time! I've only bought 1 package of each size of diapers since he baby has been born for this reason. And the best part? When I am done with babies, I can resell my diapers and make some of the cost back(how much depends on wear and stains). 

Slipcovers for kids chairs

I was given(upon my asking for it) a small kids chair for sweetness. 
The previous owners where not careful with it and it had seen better days. But I just knew sweetness would love a chair all her own.

(It looks nasty but I assure you its, just marker and dirt. Nothing icky. And it's been cleaned.)

I decided to make two slipcovers for it. That way when she'd spitup, drooled on it, or her diaper leaked,  it could be washed.
Now I've never slip covered anything before. But I refuse to let lack of experience dictate my crafty mojo. So I went through my fabric stash, and pulled out a swath of blue fleece and started at it.
I read a few blog entries on slipcovering, and I've watched enough hgtv to know if someone with barely any skills can make a slipcover for a sectional sofa then surely I could do so for a miniature chair.
I started with the seat and draped, and pinned.then hacked at the fabric with scissors.  Next the front of the arms, then the top and sides, the front if the back and last the back.
Next basting so I could remove the pins and the cover from the chair and take it to the sewing machine.

(BTW I did trim that left corner to match the right. I took the picture before that though. )

After sewing up all my basted stitches it's not bad for a first try! My next one will be a little more planned and  made from a cloth backed tablecloth so I can wipe it clean.(or hose off if need be. lol) But for now it's functional and not bad for my first try with no pattern! 

 
I can't wait for Sweetness to wake from her nap and see it! She's going to love it!