Today, was cloth diaper laundry day. (all photos in this blog were added 2 days later, when I had laundry day again!! Except this day was Sunny, Warm and perfect weather for laundry day, unlike the previous day, which is the one I wrote the blog about.)
I know some of you who do not understand where I live, would not understand the significance of my writing an entire blog about it. So I’ll explain.
This is how cloth diapers are washed at the dome.
First you collect all the ingredients, see below:
1 – empty reclaimed 5 gallon frosting bucket filled to the brim with cloth diapers and covers, ever so thoughtfully separated into 2 groups (the diapers in one group, the covers in another)
1 – manual washing machine
1 – small cup of biodegradeable dish soap or whatever I happen to have on hand at the moment that is natural and safe for the forest and babies.
Warm cloths, very important when the weather is misbehaving as it is..I mean its supposedely spring for crying out loud!!
Once I collected all the above mentioned items, put the baby down for a nap, and head down to the spring dome.
I think maybe I need to give you some photos for a better description…Okay I’ll add some later…like next time when it isn’t so dang cold.
Finally I’m down in the spring dome…
…after digging through the collapsed Banana building trying to find the manual washer, which apparently was buried under parts of reclaimed styrofoam fishboxes that fell off the ceiling, with the ceiling and various other debris.
Oh My! J has his hands full fixing that mess.
But that is another adventure of its own.
Back to the laundry.
I set the washer up on the rocks that surround the spring water pool below.
Yea, you are definitely gonna need some photos. (Good thing I finally added some right?? So much better now you can “See” what I am babbling on and on and on about)
Okay I’ll update this blog with photos as soon as I get my camera from the car. (Hooray!!)
First I wash the washer off and clean it out.
Yea it hasn’t been used in about 7 months, since I only use it when I am too “lazy & cheap” to walk into town and spend $5-10 bux on laundry at the laundr-o-matic, so the manual washer is pretty dirty…
Which would NOT be helpful in getting my diapers clean, for obvious reasons.
(In this picture I am obviously NOT putting diapers in, but I thought you needed a visual)
I put all the diapers (now these are just the pee’d on diapers, no poo that will be another day when I get more) into the now clean washer, I set the covers to the side, they get washed separately.
Taking the now empty 5 gallon reclaimed frosting bucket, I dip into the FREEZING cold spring pool and fill the bucket about halfway.
I dump the water into the washer and secure the lid.
Remember my saying earlier that the water is FREEZING cold.
Okay.
Just checking.
I’m doing all this with my hands and they burn and hurt and are bright red. It’s pretty great. Not.
Once I have the diapers back in the washer, I fill it up with clean water and seal them in with the screw on lid. I repeat the same rotating process of the washing cycle.
Then I repeat the wringing out process.
Maybe tomorrow it will rain. That would be nice, since it will rinse the diapers and covers really well.
But if not, maybe it will be nice and sunny and dry them really fast.
Either way is fine by me.
I LOVE the way sun dried laundry smells
…..and apparently so does my daughter. 🙂
And to think, I complain about having to carry our cloth diapers all the way to the cellar! Haha.
Oh, and I as wondering, do you use a particular kind of cloth dipes? I've actually been most pleased with some diapers I made for Mason with a super easy pattern.
Hey Emilia! hahahaha..about the cellar. To answer you question, I found a pattern when Aurora was about 1 month old, I think I have a blog about it "Cadillac Bum Covers". I was really happy with them, except I only made 3 and then she grew out of them by the time I got home from winter travels. I didn't have a sewing machine available while in florida. So I went on ebay and found these pocket nappies that adjust with the baby for $4 each in sets of 12 free shipping. LOVE them! Will probably write a blog about it soon! Can't wait to see Mason in person!