8/24/22 6:45 AM
After about two weeks of sewing and prepping, I think I have enough diapers in my stash to start the second half of my challenge- to use what I made/gathered.
My goal is to use them exclusively for one week. I hope that I can use them for longer than that. But, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.
As I'm writing this, the kids are asleep. Today is diaper laundry day, so I'll be using my regular stash until I'm ready to start the first load of diapers. Then we'll be switching over. So, before I get started officially, I want to talk about my final (for now) stash, and what my biggest concerns are for the week ahead.
The final stash
Honestly, I still haven't finished using all the supplies I purchased. I may continue to sew on that today. For now, this is what I have in my $50 stash:
Absorbency
2 flats
3 fitted diapers (thrifted)
6 preflats
9 boosters - some of which may actually qualify as stand-alone prefolds. Most of them are pretty small and will just be used for added absorbency.
10 flour sack towels
8 fleece diapers covers
2 traditional diaper covers (thrifted)
My concerns
I'm a little concerned that I haven't washed the flour sack towels enough to get good absorbency. I also haven't ever used them for cloth diapering, and I have heard mixed reviews as to how well they work. Since I'll be using them quite a bit over the coming days, I'm hoping I'll be able to at least add a booster to them if they don't seem to be working well.
My second concern is that I won't have enough diapers. We go though a lot of diapers. I wash my diaper stash every other day, and it's always a full load. So we'll just wait and see how 21 diapers work out for us.
Fleece covers are another element I haven't yet tried out. I'm interested to see how well they work for us- particularly since they are homemade. I also noticed that some of the thrifted blankets I used to make them had a strong smell of detergent (despite careful washing). My baby has sensitive skin, so I'm hoping that won't bother her.
Those are my concerns. Overall though, I think I'm just excited to get started. I'll try to update frequently through this blog and through my Instagram page, so everyone can find out for their own future reference what worked and what didn't.