Flats Challenge Day 2: Supplies and Preparation

It is Day 2 of the Flats Challenge! Today we are talking about the supplies needed and the preparation we made for the challenge. I began preparing for the Flats Challenge a few months ago, actually. I tried to get a little bit of everything so that I could compare and review the different types I am trying. Once I started trying flats, I really fell in love and have actually started to switch the bulk of my stash over to a flats and prefolds stash. This is why I have a relatively large flats stash right now! For covers I am using a mix of wool wraps, one size covers, and sized covers.

My flats:

• 5 flour sack towels - $4 for the set, purchased from Meijer on clearance. The regular price for these is $5 for five flour sack towels.

• 4 receiving blankets - I pulled these out of of my newborn baby clothes box. I had quite a few that were given to me when Ava was a newborn, so I chose 4 cute prints to become diapers.
• 2 Sweet Bobbins bamboo fleece - I paid $10 for these on a diaper swap page in EUC. I bought these especially as a nighttime solution. If you bought them new they run $9 each.
• 3 Geffen Baby hemp jersey - I bought these new from a website where I found a flash sale price of $13 total, though usually you would find three of these for $21.
• 3 Rebourne Cavewomen flats - I bought these new from Rebourne Clothing for $11 for three.
• 3 Diaper Rite large - I bought these used off of a swap page for $6.
• 2 Diaper Rite unbleached smalls - I bought these used off of a swap page for $5.
• 6 Imagine printed flats - I bought these used off of a swap page for $13.
• 2 Imagine Bamboo flats - I bought these used off of a swap page for $4.
• 2 Flip flats - I bought these used off of a swap page for $4.
• 1 Baby Monkeys Bamboo Terry Flat - I received this diaper at no cost to review (reviews will be posted once the Flats Challenge is over).
• 2 Orange Diaper Company Bamboo Terry Squares with doublers - I received these diapers at no cost to review (reviews will be posted once the Flats Challenge is over).
• 1 BumbleBeeBum Daddy Flat - I received this diaper at no cost to review (reviews will be posted once the Flats Challenge is over).
• 1 Urbun Sprout Fitted Flat - I received this diaper at no cost to review (reviews will be posted once the Flats Challenge is over). 
• 1 Brown Cow Cotton flat and cover - I received this diaper at no cost to review (reviews will be posted once the Flats Challenge is over).

My covers:

• Four Rebourne Woolie Wraps - I received one to review, three purchased by me later for about $30 each.
• 1 Gordy's Girl wool soaker - I received this to review. 
• 1 Flip cover - I purchased this used for $5.
• 3 Blueberry Coveralls - I purchased these new (seconds) a long time ago for $10 each.
• 3 GroVia covers - I purchased these used for $10 each.
• 3 Bummis Super Whisper Wraps - I purchased these new a long time ago for $14 each.

My first load of hand washed flats, covers and wipes!

My other supplies:

• 5 gallon bucket with lid - $5
• plunger - $5 (you can get this cheaper, but I wanted the blue one to match my bucket.)
• I use Soft Bottoms detergent which is around $10 for a 32 oz bottle. A bottle this size typically lasts me about two months for normal washing, and I think if I was to exclusively handwash flats I could make a bottle last four months. So the cost for this week should be about $1.
• I am not using a wet bag this week to see if I could in fact get by without one!

So my total flats stash cost is: $70 for flats, $102 for covers, $90 for wool, and $1 for detergent. Now, if I was just setting up a stash and not thinking about reviews I could definitely do with fewer covers and fewer flats. In fact, if I was on a tight budget I could easily have gotten my whole stash for $100 or less! Even so, with this larger stash that includes wool, the grand total is only $263. Compared to the $1500 - $2500 that most families spend on disposables during the diapering years for ONE child, this is still a huge savings!