Let's talk about diapers! No washer. No dryer. No problem.
Diapers! This is exciting stuff.
Seriously, though, 1 in 3 families can't afford to buy the disposable diapers they use for their children. There are no federal or state programs that help pay for diapers, and many moms admit leaving babies in diapers too long, blow drying used disposable diapers to reuse them, and even scraping out poop to reuse. Ugh. But whenever I mention cloth diapers as a viable and money saving option, I am smugly informed that the cost of laundering them cancels out the benefits (no, really, it doesn't - but no one ever believes my math). And I am told that truly broke folks don't tend to have access to their own washers and dryers, and that the cost of using laundromats is prohibitive. Again, that math doesn't work out (if it did, wouldn't we be using disposable clothes?) but this challenge is about showing that cloth diapers really can work for everyone.
My materials:
The 12 Green Mountain Diaper flats I already owned (cost ~$24)
6 square cotton flannel receiving blankets I've been given (It seems like everyone has a million of these. They cost as much as official GMD flats, but I mention them because most folks have extra of them if you have a baby.)
10 diapers I made in half an hour with scissors from 5 t-shirts we'd been gifted that I was going to donate (These t-shirts were free, but you can buy them from thrift stores for $1 each or less - and make two diapers from each!)
My Flip PUL cover (I was given it to review, but they cost about $14)
My 6 wool covers (3 were gifts, 2 I was given to review, and 1 I crocheted. Wool covers are expensive if you buy them, approximately $20-$40, but you can also make them out of thrift store sweaters if you are crafty.)
Diaper pins and snappis (I was given them to review or as gifts/add-ons, but they are cheap. Snappis are $5.75 for two. Diaper pins can be found for 4/$1. Personally I prefer pins.)
Cloth wipes (I bought mine back in the day, and today they run about $1 each and I'd say you need 12 - but you can use washcloths or cut up receiving blankets or t-shirts. Or buy the Babies R Us 12-pack for $8.)
Camp washer: 5-gallon bucket and lid, and plunger. Total cost $8.
(Many moms use FSTs, flour-sack towels, sold at Wal-Mart and Target for $1/each, often going on sale for less. I may test them out another time, but I don't have time or money for a Target run at present.)
So...
The average disposable-diapering family spends $66/month on diapers. There have certainly been times for my family that that would have been a dire hardship. But I can totally see how a family could handle the "high initial startup" of cloth diapering this way. I have way more than you actually need to diaper a baby, even if you only count what I have above. Really, you need 12 flats (single layer cloth diapers; they wash easily and dry quickly), say two Snappis or two sets of diaper pins, two covers, and some wipes.
If you spend your $66 all at once at the beginning of the month, it's super easy. $8 for a washer, $28 on covers, $1 for diaper pins, and that leaves $29 for diapers and wipes - you could buy the fancy diapers and improvise on wipes, or buy the fancy flannel wipes and improvise on diapers, or whatever combination you liked. Myself, I'd probably start off that first month with t-shirt diapers and washcloth wipes, either raiding the closet/dresser for old ones or buying 6 t-shirts for $6, then $8 for the 12-pack of baby washcloths. This would use $14 and leave me $15, which I could either save up to expand, use for groceries, buy some more detergent, whatever. The next month I could drop $24 on official GMD flats, $12 on flannel wipes, $7 on shipping and have $23 left towards either groceries or a wool cover, assuming I'm not crafty enough to make one. You can only really wash about 8 diapers at a time in a camp washer, but with this many diapers you could go two days if you had to and do a big washing session of several loads. The next month I'd buy another wool cover, and I'd be set to go, $66 a month freed up and my baby's bottom happy and dry, spending the days in cotton instead of chemicals and plastic. Win!
If you don't have the $66 to start off, presumably you have roughly $16.50 a week you've been spending on diapers. So the first week, $8 on a washer, $1 on pins, and $7 on t-shirts to make 12 diapers and 12 wipes. ($16) My baby would have to live life cover-free that first week - if he had to ride in the car seat I'd put a cut-up plastic grocery bag under his bum so he wouldn't soak through his diaper onto his car seat cover. The second week I'd take my hard-earned $16.50 and buy a cover - at this point I have $3 saved towards extra detergent costs, though I can use whatever detergent I do on the rest of the family's clothes. The third week I'd buy another cover and add another $2.50 to my savings for a total of $5.50. The fourth week I'd have $22 to buy wipes, detergent, whatever.
So this week, I am committing to diaper wee Flipper, age 2 months, in only flats and covers, no fancy pockets, fitteds or even prefolds. And I will wash them in my super-fancy camp washer, lovingly constructed from a 5-gallon bucket and a brand-spanking-new plunger. I might splurge and invest in some rubber gloves. Pictures will follow. This is, of course, an experiment - my hypothesis is that by the end of the next 7 days, I will be able to state that no baby should have to sit in a dirty disposable diaper, and no family should have to empty its pockets and fill the landfills to take care of their baby.
Stay tuned for more!