Handwashing cloth diapers?!? Why I'll be doing it all week.

As I said in my last post, my new love affair with natural fibers (bamboo terry, to be exact) led me to discover an event that is happening this week:
 

The Flats & Handwashing Challenge, hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry has invited families to try simple, cost-effective cloth diapering for the past 4 years.

I was drawn to this event because the knowledge of how to hand wash would have been very helpful for me just a few months ago.  We dealt with an abnormally cold winter here in the midwest, with temps dropping below zero quite often in January.  Our washing machine is in our garage and the frigid temps led to pipes freezing & subsequently bursting.  We had no water for 3 days and then had to wait for the electrical elements of our washing machine to dry out before it would function again.  For 11 days, I had no way to wash my diapers at home.  Luckily, my parents let me use their washing machine but...what if we didn't have that option?  January was also a fairly difficult month financially so buying disposables would have been quite a burden.

So, when I saw this event pop up in my quest to find out more about bamboo terry...I knew I just had to attempt it.

It has been a crazy week for our family and next week will be filled with some unexpected and unhappy events.  This endeavor may prove more difficult than imagined, but there are people that do this *every* day, through all of life's ups and downs.  If they can do this all the time, I can make it through one week.

Tomorrow I will be sharing my "stash" for the week!

Are you attempting the Flats and Handwashing Challenge? If not, have you tried flats or have you handwashed your diapers in the past?