Flats and Handwashing Challenge

Okay folks, this is it!  I'm joining up in Dirty Diaper Laundry's Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  Oh good Lordy, WHY OH WHY would you submit yourself to such ICK?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  I started cloth diapering my daughter when she turned 1.  I probably wouldn't have even considered cloth diapering IF I had heard about it while I was pregnant with her, but when baby number two started cooking, I heard about it and thought, "Wow, I could really save some money!"  So, I did my research and despite all the confused, baffled looks (some were even the "I'll just humor you for now and I'll laugh and say I told you so when you throw your arms in the air in surrender to the TRASH you so easily disregard now") and discouraging words that came my way, I dived in and did it.  Cloth today is so much nicer than it was in the past! DD turned 2 over a month ago, and though we had some disposable moments (daycare, especially...that's an entirely differently blog that I didn't do), we're still cloth diapering.  The cuteness, the fluff, the good green feeling (no, not the green I'm going to spew any minute green...more like the fresh cut grass green)...it just works for me and my little ones.

Okay, so now I get to the part about why I want to regress a few decades and do the flats challenge.  Well, being that I am a cloth diapering addict, I don't think I could hear about a challenge that includes cloth and simply look the other way.  I have to admit, I was really on the fence about it until, oh, an hour ago.  While trying a "new" cloth method can be fun, this one is definitely dirty.  I had to stop and think about it. What it comes down to...the biggest challenge of the challenge for me will be the actual handwashing of the diapers.  I already rinse my diapers (ya know, the poopy ones), and for a while it has been completely by hand until I just recently (last week--funny, huh?)  reinstalled my diaper sprayer.  So the real work will be in the agitating and being a washing machine.  What's the worst that can come of this?  Some muscle toning?  Snickering on the part of my friends and siblings?  All in all, nothing terrible.

AND THINK OF THE MONEY I'LL BE SAVING!  Perhaps not a huge heaping load, but I do wash diapers at typically every 1-2 days.  This is a key reason to participate.  I think it speaks for itself, so I'm not going to say anything else about that.

After this, I can take that camping trip and be the hip(pie?) mom that keeps on the green in the green. (Good Lord, I am incredibly entertaining to myself!)