Thursday, February 17, 2011

Taking The Cloth

I got a couple of twitter questions about taking cloth.  I'd planned on posting about it in detail upon our return, but for now, here's some answers to those folks while I'm planning and packing.

This time I am only going Friday-Monday, so I won't need to do laundry.

My daughter is down to about 5-6 diapers per day, plus a nighttime diaper.  That means for the whole trip, I'll need about 24 diapers.  Factor into that (a) she will be swimming some, so will be wearing swim diapers too, and (b) the theme of the weekend might end up being "teach Wee One to use the potty" and we are also taking panties.  Given that I have about ten thousand diapers, it's not hard to pack a stash to take.  Okay, slight exaggeration.  But I can pack that 24 needed diapers in prefolds or I can pack it in pockets and still have plenty.

I am taking both.  I am on a prefold/cover kick whenever I can put those on her, so we are taking a bunch of prefolds and all our covers.  It's easy to pack those in a tote bag.  However, for the long car ride there and the long car ride home, and for naps/nighttime, I prefer the pockets.  I have diapers in the washer right now that just need a rinse/dry, and then those can be packed.

I am taking all our wetbags.  I will have two big wetbags at the hotel to keep diapers in, and I have three small ones that can be interchanged in the diaper bag for out-and-about.  I'll just accumulate 4 days of dirties in the two large wetbags, and wash as soon as we get home.

When we went on a road trip last June, I used cloth the entire time as well.  That was a bit longer trip, but still not a full week.  The first night we scouted out a laudromat to use, just in case.  That's what I would do for a longer trip.  Not necessarily because I would need more diapers, but because more than 4 days in a wetbag isn't a good idea.  (I still recommend an oxyclean hot wash upon the return to help keep the stinkies at bay.)

On that trip I did need to wash a poopy cover in the sink.  I take Thirsties detergent with me, so I can do any emergency washing in the sink.

Swim diapers will be the issue this time.  I only have two swim diapers.  Those I probably will have to rinse out in the sink and hang to dry and reuse if necessary.  I have packed two old, small pocket diapers, as I have heard those can be used well (that's really all the Bummi's swim diapers are anyway).  We will see how those work.  I also have a pack of disposable swim diapers in the trunk.  I don't want my kid to be the reason the pool has to be drained.  No sir, not me!

Hey, Jellybean Mama, aren't you excited about seeing cloth in action??!!

I'm trying to get used to referring to her by her real first name, but in my head she's still JM.

4 comments:

Betsy said...

In my experience, the swim diapers rinse and hang dry pretty quickly. They WILL fade, btw. Quite dramatically, too, so be prepared for that.

Will the two of your be blogging from the vacation? I would personally love a Vlog of you all together. =)

MommieV said...

I am taking my laptop and phone. The phone for pics and easy upload to picasa, the laptop because it's hard to blog from my phone. If I'm putting you people through all of the packing crap, I might as well share the 70-degree sunshine and my kid in a bikini with you as well.

Besides, I have to keep my parents apprised of us remaining alive despite meeting a stranger off the internet for vacation.

Esperanza said...

How frequently do you wash cloth diapers at home? I usually wait four days because we have to use coin laundry and so every load costs me $4-$5, especially to get those suckers dry! I have to have them in the dryer for 80 minutes!

I'm starting to wonder if I should just stop using the cloth. Needing to pay for each load makes it cost as much as disposables. I don't know. Spending $200 a month on laundry sucks.

Genkicat said...

Jellybean Mama has a real name???