My CollageItPro Review

I had a good time putting together these collages with  my new CollageItPro software. It's really simple to drop in a bunch of pictures and allow the randomizer to place them around the collage.  I'm AWFUL at making collages, by the way.  Once things are where you like them, you can easily crop/adjust photos, switch out position, and customize frame and background. It's a pretty simple program.  The free edition is good to get an idea of whether it will work for you, but you quickly realize you'll need to upgrade or find a different program.  With the Pro, it really opens up the possibilities.  There are several layout options. You can adjust the number of pictures to add.  It has easy sharing capability to social media.  One thing I think is missing is an ability to add text, but I suppose you could export and use a web-based program like PicMonkey to do that.  One advantage of this program over PicMonkey, by the way, is that you have more options for picture lay out and cropping without having to save each individual edited picture.

So, do I like it?  Yes!  Will I continue using this program in the future?  Of course.  Would I pay $19.90 for the upgrade?  Probably not.  But the good news is, you can still get one of 20 (12 windows, 8 mac) codes for a FREE upgrade.  Enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway.  The giveaway is ending soon!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Flats Challenge Day 7: What did I learn?

Day 7: What did I learn/How did it go?

Final day in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

Here's what I've learned so far, in no particular order.

• I was surprised to know that I had PLENTY of flat diapers for daily hand washing: 28 diapers, 6 covers, and 3 pockets!  I'm going to make a bundle of flats, covers, soap, and a camp washer for emergencies and when we go camping.  It's one less thing I'll have to gather for those occasions and it's so low-stress knowing I can totally do this with 2 covers and 8 or so flats.
• Flats are way more absorbent than they look.  Just because it's only one layer of fabric doesn't mean you only have that one layer between baby's bottom and the world.  Depending on the fold you could have 8-12 layers of fabric just in one flat.  Then you can add a pad-folded flat as a doubler and that's even more!
• Washing by hand took a lot less work and time than I thought it would, but experimenting with the right amount of soap and soaking times was a little frustrating.
• You can't trust the weather!  I had expected to line dry everything all week long, with few exceptions.  But I had to learn to roll with the punches and let things dry overnight hanging from curtain rods, hangers, and chairs since it stormed half the week.
• If you over stuff a pocket diaper, it's much more likely to leak.
• There are DOZENS of ways to fold a flat and each is good in it's own way.  There is no one RIGHT way to fold it and very few wrong ways.  So long as all the cloth is stuffed into the cover (or you're a really observant parent) it's probably a fine way to do flats.
• I actually like flats. More than some of my other diapers.
• Once you've used flat diapers for a week, you start evaluating all the cloth in your house for diaper potential.  I look at my towels, dish cloths, and clothing differently now.  During this challenge, I added two blankets and a t-shirt to my stash. This has put my husband on alert!
• My daughter is a diaper escape artist.  Snappis were not a barrier to her curiosity.  Covers were, however.
• When hand washing, a "wet bucket" was almost indispensable.  You probably could get away without using it if you washed as soon as a "dirty" happened, but if you've got diaper laundry, you probably also have children who need watched and sometimes it's just not convenient to wash right then.  Especially not for as long as is needed without soaking.  So I change my stance on the dry vs wet bucket controversy from "absolutely not" to a "yes with cautions."  I put my laundry right into the wash bucket which stays in the bath tub, except when people are bathing. While it's possible someone could still get in there and cause mischief or drown, I also keep the lid on the bucket that is nearly adult-proof and that helps me feel safer about it.  I still don't let kids play in the bathroom, and I'm in there washing diapers at least twice a day, so I know it's not always full of water.  I'm cautious about it.  When I go back to using my washing machine and dryer I will stop using a "wet bucket."
• When hand washing in a camp washer, less really is more.  Wipes, 2-4 diapers, and a cover wash just fine.  Don't even try to do 5+ diapers because you'll be rinsing FOREVER.  They don't get as clean in your usual cycle, so you'll end up washing them again.  And again.  It's way better to plan on washing twice a day.  That way it takes 10 minutes from first rinse to hanging up.  And it's a good excuse to visit the sunshine. ;)
• If I didn't have a washing machine, I could totally wash my diapers every day in my camp washer.  But I'd rather spend all day at the laundrymat than try to hand wash and dry the mountains of clothes these kids wear!
• Every time I turn on the water to wash diapers, my littlest daughter chases me down asking for a "tubby."  Every time I go outside to hang up or take down diapers, my bigger girls chase me down and want to play outside.  Maybe we need to play outside more often.  (That was several things I learned, but they're a bit connected, you know.)

The important point, here, is that this is POSSIBLE.  It's not roses and I MUCH prefer using my washing machine.  But if I had an emergency, I am confident I could hand wash and line dry as long as I had to.  If I was in extreme economic trouble or without a washing machine, I would be content knowing that I was doing what I could and that I didn't have to worry about buying more diapers.  I would probably be looking around to "evaluate things for diaper potential" when I got behind on washing.  And that's okay.  Because so many things can be used as a flat.  You could probably get your entire stash at a yard sale or thrift store (minus the covers unless you're super lucky!) for $10.  If you knew what to look for.  We need to spread the word that this is a viable solution!

So, what did you learn?

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?
Day 3: Dealing with Overnights
Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?
Day 5: What's working? What's not?
Day 6: Babysitter/Outings

Flats Challenge Day 6: Babysitters and Outings

Day 6: Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

This challenge could have brought some interesting issues for babysitters and outings, so I wanted to share my experience planning for and adapting to them.

Babysitters

I'm blessed to have some great flexible babysitters and to only need a sitter once or twice a week.  During this challenge, I had to be away from my girls for a prenatal visit with a client.  This sitter is great.  My kids adore her and her kids.  They always have a great time.  Plus, she's cloth diapered her kids in the past and has been following me on this challenge and knew to expect this.  Even still, I wanted things set up and easy, so I stuffed pad-folded flats in my pocket diapers and was ready to go. My little lady woke up wet from a nap just before my friend was expected to arrive, so I changed her to a clean diaper and gave a tour of the bathroom and a quick overview of my diapering routine.  I showed her where the diapers were kept and where to put the wet/dirty diapers. No problem.  Then I found I wasn't actually gone long enough for a diaper change to be needed, so that was even better.  :) The kids had a great time and knowing everyone was safe and happy meant I could focus my attention on my client.

Outings

Normally, I reserve my AIOs for outings and babysitters because they're so simple and require no skill except the ability to snap the snaps.  For this challenge, I packed two diaper bag-folded flats and a cover and one pocket diaper with pad-folded flat insert into my diaper bag/wet bag.  This arrangement was fine, except that I didn't do a good enough job stacking the flats so they would keep their shape and ended up having to refold at a diaper change. Not a huge deal for me, but the Boy Scout (my husband) probably wouldn't have loved it if he were the one doing the change and dealing with the tangled flats. In the future I'll either clothespin the flats in place or only bring pad-folds. Also, I was warned that using flats in a pocket diaper might mean leaks, but this was not my experience.  I would think a heavier wetter would have a problem and we never did pockets overnight, so maybe that's the difference?

I still have two days to go (counting today), and it's important to realize we all learn as we go. So far I haven't had any poo diapers while on the go, but I do have a homemade double pocket wet bag for my clean and dirty diapers that works nicely.  I usually keep a disposable shopping bag in it, too, in case of extra smelly diapers that may have to wait a bit for a wash pail.

Some day I may give a tutorial on how I made this, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with inspiration to make your own and probably make it better. I've learned a few things since putting this one together. The white side is the PUL layer of this material I got from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  That made it about $6.50 a yard and I used a bit less than that to make this bag!  The white-lined pocket is for the wet/dirty diapers and the white/flower-lined pocket is for the clean.  I despise sewing in zippers, so this just closes with hook and loop, but it works nicely for a usual day outing.  It has been used for an entire day out but that's when I augment with shopping bags for the poo diapers to keep a handle on the stink.  Since it's PUL, I wash it with my diapers as needed.

What about you?  Did you expect any special challenges you had to plan for?  Or did you come upon a challenge that you WISH you'd planned for?

Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge! I'll certainly keep flats in rotation with my diapers, but I won't be hand washing except in emergencies and while camping.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?
Day 3: Dealing with Overnights
Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?
Day 5: What's working? What's not?

Day 7: What did I learn?

Flats Challenge Day 5: What's working for me?

Day 5 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

To those of you who have starting following or reading along since the flats challenge, welcome! It's an honor to have you here and I'm so excited to share future posts with you.

So, let's talk about what's working for me, and what's not.  I'm still perfecting which folds work best with which diapers. I located a couple receiving blankets to add to my stash, so that makes for more things to play with!  The t-shirt flats work very well in the t-shirt fold and the pad fold. Most of the other folds simply don't work with them because of their shape.  They might work on newborns, though since they would fold down smaller.  The receiving blankets work with the kite fold, airplane fold, origami fold, and another fold I may have invented.  I'll have to research around to see for sure! What I do is take my square flat (or make my rectangle into a square) and fold corner to corner to make a triangle.  Then I do a sort of accordion fold across the crotch area, so it's like a combination of the origami and the triangle fold. Then fold up the tip a little to adjust the rise, or not.  Then fold into your diaper.  And bring in the wings.  I do better with pictures, so try to follow along here.

This fold is especially nice for those flats that are just not quite the right size for the other more complex folds.  In the picture above, I took a very large, but very thin, receiving blanket and folded into quarters to do this fold.  But I also have a flat that's too small to do anything but a pad fold, or this fold.  The absorbency is as good as most folds, but it doesn't form a "poop pocket," so beware of that. And because of the padding fold, it can't be just pinned on.  The waist would fall off.  So, there are drawbacks, but I like that it has padding where it's needed and I already use my covers all the time anyway.

The covers have been working fine since I bought them years ago.  I love that they are one size, so they can fit my newborns up to my potty-learners.  For other families with bigger potty-learners or smaller newborns, they may not work the whole diapering time, but they sure last a long time. The camp style washer works great to agitate.  The jury is still out on how the dish soap is working.  Other bloggers suggested using it exclusively and I'm just not sure how well it cleans the poop diapers.  I may try my regular detergent again on the next wash and report back to you.  Line drying is working beautifully.  Inside drying takes considerably longer unless there's a fan blowing right on them, but they still usually dry by morning.  Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised how much I really like flats.  They're so adaptable to needs, which, to me, is a major bonus.  A decent flat could be used as a blanket, nursing cover, burp rag, or diaper.  And that diaper could be adjusted to fit a newborn, toddler, or potty-learner, with or without a cover.  It could probably be used for other things I've not noticed yet.  I'm so glad I took this challenge!

Being on the computer most of the day everyday to edit photos, ask and answer questions on the facebook group, write blog posts, edit blog posts, comment on various blogs and so forth is NOT working well for me.  I did much better with posting a couple of times a week and sometimes even scheduling a posting ahead of time.  This meant I was able to spend more time with my kids and budget my internet time a little better.  The house is not in order, meals are barely getting cooked, school is a little behind.  But on the flip side, I've enjoyed seeing more people visit my blog, reading more comments, and I'm learning a lot, so I recognize this as a good thing. I need to learn to roll with what I get, I guess. ;)  Oh, and schedule better.  Maybe only write posts during nap time or set a timer for an hour while the kids play quietly or work on school work alone.

In other news, I feel like I've spent a lot of time looking at many of these views: wash bucket, line dry, change diaper, line dry, new fold, wash bucket, so I figured I take a moment to play with my new CollageItPro software.  Would you like to win a code for a free upgrade?  There are many different layouts, changeable options, you can crop pictures to fit, or just dump in and randomly re-order your pictures.  It's a nice, easy way to make a quick collage, if you want.  Or if you put a little more time into it, you can get a great customized collage, too.  Enter here:  a Rafflecopter giveaway .  There are low entries and TWENTY (12 windows, 8 mac) winners! Giveaway ends May 31 and winners will be selected June 1.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge

Day 2: How did I prepare?

Day 3: Dealing with Overnights

Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?

Day 6: Babysitter/Outings

Day 7: What did I learn?

Flats Challenge Day 4: How am I doing with Handwashing?

Day 4: How am I doing with handwashing?

 Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

We're on to the fourth day of the challenge.  It's actually become just a touch boring.  Using flats is very simple.  It's very much like using prefolds, but in some ways it's way better.  I've been handwashing in my camp-style washer about twice a day.  I'm still working out the kinks on using soap, but so far it looks like poop diapers need to agitate immediately then soak in detergent and baking soda.  I haven't timed the soaking.  I just set them in the bucket to soak and go about my day.  After an hour or two, I may have another diaper to toss in, too.  Then I do my usual, agitate 1 minute and drain.  Add hot water and soap, then agitate 5-10 minutes and drain.  Then one or two more rinse cycles.  I twist the wet flats to  get out the excess moisture then hang in the sun, if I can, or in the laundry room if I have to.  Within 3 hours they're dry, sometimes faster if the wind and sun are just right.

Yesterday I had to get inventive since I had my regular clothes laundry drying in the beautiful day, too. They still dry, though it would be faster if they were hanging on the line.  Luckily, I have more than enough flats and covers clean and available.

And, bonus, I got my hubby to help out with washing when I was out one day. :D

A special note I will add is that I decided to handwash the AIOs and microfiber inserts that were stinking up my diaper pail and it was a LOT of work.  They smelled awful and I think it's the microfiber.  I washed them many times and when I thought I finally got them clean, I decided to just toss them in the dryer since they have so many extra layers and we've had some humidity.  When they came out, they STILL smelled.  That's a real puzzler for me!

Tune in tomorrow to find out what's working for me and what's not.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?
Day 3: Dealing with Overnights

Day 5: What's working? What's not?
Day 6: Babysitter/Outings
Day 7: What did I learn?

Flats Challenge Day 3:Overnights

Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry

Day 3: Overnights

Let's be honest.  When I first started this challenge, I was SURE that we would need some serious overnight help.  I was determined to use just flats, though, so the first night I put two padfolded flats into her cover and put her in her wool longies, expecting a mess to clean up in the morning.  Ms. K is 16 months old but on the small end for her age, but I really thought she was a pretty heavy wetter at night.  When she woke up in the morning, she wanted to eat instead of a change. I'm a pretty easy going mom, so I let her, but I didn't want to push things too far so made her get a change after that.  I was surprised!  She had wet the first flat, but the second was only barely touched.  Although it was certainly time to be changed, the first wasn't even completely soaked.  I was amazed.  I didn't realize just how absorbent these flats could be. So then I thought, "Well, maybe today was a fluke.  Tomorrow it'll be heavier."  The second night I put her in one t-shirt flat using the "t-shirt fold."  I expected this would get soaked through.  Nope!  To my surprise, she woke up with a normal wet and the shirt wasn't fully soaked.  Maybe if she were older and a heavier wetter, I might need 2 but I would be surprised if she needed 3, even as an older toddler.

I just can't get over how doable this is.  I wash the diapers twice a day in a bucket in my bath tub.  It takes me ten minutes, tops.  They dry on the line or hanging in my house. They're wonderful, soft, and absorbent.  

And look how cute!  I made this diaper from an Angry Birds shirt.  It matches her face at this moment.  She was not thrilled with being a model, much less being out of my arms!

Many people have great success using a Snappi and no cover when at home, but as you can see here, my little escape artist is far too interested in this thing within her reach.  Within seconds of this picture, she was crawling away from the diaper.

What about you?  What have you tried for overnights?  Have you tried flats?  If not, why not?

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge
Day 2: How did I prepare?

Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?
Day 5: What's working? What's not?
Day 6: Babysitter/Outings
Day 7: What did I learn?

Flats Challenge Day 2: How did I prepare?

Day 2 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.

Well, I've already told you a little about how I got ready for this challenge, but I'll give you a few more details.

Camp-style washer and clothes line

This is my camp washer without the lid on the first wash of
the challenge yesterday.  Doing well so far.

I made my camp-style washer about a year ago.  We are of the "prepper" mind-set, so we like to have back up options for catastrophes.  I got my bucket and lid for free from Walmart bakery.  I know some of them still give them free.  Others charge $1-3.  Either way, it's still cheaper than buying one from Lowe's or wherever.  I drilled a 1 1/2" hole in
the lid for my new, clean plunger handle to go through.  That was a year ago, so I don't recall the price, but I believe it was about $5.  I drilled 1/2" holes in the plunger to let the water flow more easily through it. I use the same laundry soap I've been making for a while.  You'll use a LOT less in this camp washer.  Start with about a teaspoon and see if you need more or less. Start of my preparations was testing out the washing and drying time, as well as the effectiveness of the washer.  It's pretty awesome. My clothes line came with my house.  It's just a simple line, but it works.  The clothespins were about $1.

Total cost: about $5

One of my t-shirt flats. One layer of fabric.
This is the back of the flat.

Flat diaper supply

I already had one cotton hemp flat that came with some pocket diapers I bought and a few Gerber bird's eye flats I bought before I knew anything about cloth.  I went through a pile of shirts I was going to donate or throw away and decided I could get great use out of it.  Simply cut the shirt along the sides so you have a front piece and a back piece.  You can remove the sleeves if you want, but I find they add absorbency right where Ms. K needs it.  Plus they make the wings extra long, so you can actually just tie them on instead of using a Snappi or Boingo.  So I now have 20 flats. A friend gave me 2 Snappis.  Another is loaning me a couple Boingos. Total cost: about $2

Covers

I already had my one-size Econobum covers I've been
using for years.  I dug out my pocket diapers for the baby sitter.  I decided not to use wool for this challenge.  I just love my Econobums! I bought them from Cotton Babies for about $4 per cover.  The pocket diapers I got used for $3 (including the insert).  I also have an Alva pocket diaper I got through a co-op for about $4. I saw no reason to limit my cover supply for this challenge.  I'm sure I could get away with using 5 or less, but I didn't reduce my current supply. Total cost: $30

Total cost of my supplies: $37 including what I purchased in the past
Total cost to do this challenge: FREE!



Can you see now how this would be completely doable for someone in diaper need?  For about the cost of a month's supply of diapers (or LESS), you could have more than enough flats, covers, and washer to get by.

Day 1: Why I took the Challenge

Day 3: Dealing with Overnights
Day 4: How am I doing with hand washing?
Day 5: What's working? What's not?
Day 6: Babysitter/Outings
Day 7: What did I learn?