Flats and Handwashing Challenge: Day 1 - Why I Am Taking The Challenge

Today is the day.  The Flats and Handwashing Challenge starts today.

I really wanted to do this challenge last year but life was very overwhelming at the time.  I was a new mom with a 6 month old and although I was 6 months post partum I was still struggling to recover physically.  The idea of flats seems impossible.

The whole idea of cloth diapers seemed impossible when I first started learning about them.  When you are pregnant or preparing for a baby there are several topics that can overwhelm you but cloth diapers is one of the biggest.  Seriously, I was more worried about cloth diapers than I was about breastfeeding (and both ended up working out well for us, thank God!)  I had read so much and watched so many videos about cloth diapers and I never felt like I was making any headway, I still felt so confused and had no idea where to start.  I watched one video which broke everything down in the simplest terms.  I am grateful for that video because it really helped things start to fall into place in terms of understanding how to use cloth diapers but there was one single comment on that video that put me off flat diapers.  In the video the person was telling about all of the different types of cloth diapers.  Prefolds, pockets, all in ones and......flats, but nobody uses those.  I remember that off hand comment all the time as I am folding my flats, or whenever I tell someone I use flats and they tell me they use them (and love them) too.  Lots of people use flats and those who use them love them!

Now one year later, with one year more of mommy experience (but still feeling lost and overwhelmed a lot of the time) I am taking on this challenge.  I already use flats.  They are my primary diaper.  My Little One grew so fast and furious in the beginning that I had to size up her prefolds 3 times in the first 6 months.  I went online to buy toddler size (TODDLER SIZE!!) prefolds when I decided to give flats a try.  I ordered a couple and started using them.  I was able to get a perfect fit around her chunky thighs and I fell in love :)

I guess I am sort of cheating on this challenge.  I am all gung-ho and feeling confident but would I be if this was my first attempt at using flats?  I already use flats and I already hang to dry so the only challenging part of the challenge is the handwashing (which I admit, is a big part).

So what a difference a year makes.  Flats no longer seem so daunting, they seem like the easy part.

I think the challenge was meant to target people who never used cloth before, or had limited incomes.  Showing how accessible cloth diapers for someone with no experience and/or no budget for fancy fluff is an important message but when I was first starting with flats I ate up all the information about using flat diapers that was now available because of this challenge.  If not for this challenge I am afraid that the only information out there would be similar to the "nobody uses flats" message
I had heard.  I am grateful to the people who took this challenge before me, and who documented it.  I am taking the challenge this year because I want to add my perspective to the collection of other people who have documented their experience with the challenge.  I want there to be so much information out there that the "nobody uses flats" message is not as powerful to anyone else as it was for me.


******My cloth diaper favorites *******