Flats Challenge Day 2

Sore, dry hands. That’s the result of day 2.

Yesterday I washed as often as I could. And that meant two or three flats a time in the bucket. This morning I washed, in one hit, four birdseye flats, four bamboo flats, and four PUL covers. Rinse, wring; wash, wring; rinse, wring; rinse, wring.

Ouch. Lesson learnt. Wash little and wash often.

My nappy wash routine starts with a rinse to dilute the pee and clean off more poop. I add a sprinkle of bicarb soda to the water to neutralise the pee smell. The flats get dunked up and down and swirled around for a bit in a bucket then pulled out, folded in half then half again, and wrung by hand. This is what I’ve been doing not just for the past couple days but for a few months now as I’ve found that hand rinsing is quicker than rinsing by washing machine.

Then I washed the flats with a couple spoons of Aware Sensitive washing powder dissolved in a cup of hot water. And by wash I mean I dunked the flats and covers up and down in the soapy water and then walked away and did something more important like have morning tea!

After half an hour or so I drained the water, wrung them all out by hand (How many? Eight flats and four covers!), and rinsed with plain fresh water. Then wrung out again, and rinsed one last time with a splash of vinegar in the water. Finished!

Not yet… I wrung them out one last time and hung them out to dry. So a bit of maths, my poor hands this morning wrung water out of cloth 12 x 4 = FORTY EIGHT times. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the result of today is sore and dry hands.

(I’ll be using rubber gloves tomorrow!!)