Cloth Diapering Without a Washer and Dryer

Remember when I participated in the Flats and Hand Washing Challenge? I can’t forget it, it was awful. So awful that, as much as I love and advocate for cloth diapers, I skipped the challenge this year. Ironically, I found myself without access to a washer and dryer just a few weeks later.

Since we’re staying in an RV right now, our washer and dryer are in storage. Prior to the flats challenge, I would’ve recommended flats and hand washing to anyone in my position. Having tried it, I know that is not a viable option for our family. I love flats, but I despise hand washing.

I decided to stick with what we currently use, fitteds and wool, and use a laundromat. I generally try to wash our diapers every night or every other night. Since we would have to drive to a laundromat and pay for each wash, I decided to switch to every 3rd day.

Let me tell you something I didn’t consider when thinking about laundromats: you can’t adjust your wash cycles. That means you need to run three washes to wash your diapers “the right way.” One without soap for a pre-rinse, one with soap for a wash, and one without soap as an extra rinse.

Something else I didn’t consider? The dryers only dry in one cycle on high heat. I try to dry my diapers on low heat only. This means another three cycles.

The laundromat I went to this morning cost $4.00 for a wash and $1.25 for 30 minutes in the dryer.

That’s $15.75 to properly wash one load of diapers. Do that 2.5 times a week and we’re talking about almost $40. Considering my kid only goes through 4 – 5 diapers a day, that is WAY more than disposables.

I’ve been in Oklahoma for a little over 1 1/2 weeks. Switching to every 3 days made the diapers kind of smelly in our 216 square foot RV. After the first wash at the laundromat, I knew something was going to have to give. The second wash at the laundromat was just as bad. The next time I washed diapers was at my husband’s nanny’s house while we were back in Texas for the funeral. Then I washed at my sister’s house.

I found myself at the grocery store eyeing a pack of 7th Generation disposables. But I just couldn’t do it. I left and drove to Target. We bought MEL-MOWM (that’s Elmo, for those who don’t speak toddler) big boy underwear.

And The Gnome hasn’t worn a diaper in two days.

I was going to wait to really push potty learning until we got settled in the new house. I thought that it would be too stressful on all of use with all of the changes. But, he’s 22 months and he’s doing really well in most areas. Potty learning is our last resort before switching to disposables. Because I can not believe that I just spent over $15 to wash the last of the dirty diapers before putting them away for good. And they weren’t even dry, I still had to lay them out around the RV (clotheslines are strictly forbidden in most RV parks).

When did you potty train? Any particular reason or was it just time? If you enjoy reading about The Gnome & his family, like us on Facebook, add us on Google+, and follow us on twitter! While you’re at it… check out our Networked Blogs box in the right sidebar!