With Dirty Diaper Laundry’s second annual Flats Challenge quickly approaching I thought it’d be fun to take a closer look at flats. What are they exactly and why should you try to use them?
- Flat cloth diapers (AKA flats) are a single layer large piece of absorbent fabric. If you’re familiar with the more popular prefold diaper, a flat is the same thing without the multiple layers.
- Flats are really inexpensive so if you’re on a very tight budget they will not hurt your wallet. The average cost for a dozen Birdseye flats (one of the more popular brands of flats) is $12.50. That’s $1.04 per diaper. You’re going to be hard pressed to find diapers at that price.
- To use flats you’ll need either diaper pins, one or two Snappis or Boingos. These fasten the flat so that it doesn’t come undone. You’ll also need covers. It’s suggested that you have about three to six covers and that one cover is used for two days. If any excrement gets on the cover it needs to be washed. You can also have a few fleece and/or wool covers around for a different change up.
You can do pretty much anything to your flats and it’ll hold up. What I mean is that you can be careless about using bleach, vinegar, drying on high heat or even washing in hot water that’s over 180*F. This diaper is so simple that it can take the abuse we some times put our diapers through. I think it’s perfect for the mama who does not want to have to think or remember a diaper washing routine. Flats are also less expensive because they are one size. By using different folding techniques you can customize your flats to fit your tiny newborn through potty training.
For some great Flats Folding Tutorials please check out Diaper Juntion and Dirty Diaper Laundry‘s Youtube Channel.
Elizabeth (aka Bert) is a stay-at-home-mom and contributing writer for She Thinks Media. She lives in the Twin Cities with her husband, Ben, her son Buggie, and daughter Lady Bug. When she's not trying to convince Buggie to expand his interests beyond Thomas the Train or put his pants back on she's writing about her experiences as a mom on her blog, First Time Mom (FTM). After all, Bert maintains there's a first time for everything, even if you have more than one child!
I'm Julie, a former cloth diaper retailer who discovered a passion for the industry. Now, instead of selling cloth diapers, I advocate them and promote small businesses I love who sell and manufacture them.
I'm the wife of a fireman and mother of three. I have a daughter and identical twin sons.
Angela says
don’t forget the simple pad fold! That is my favorite, no pins needed
Boise Wiebers says
I loved the origami fold until my baby grew a bit too big for that. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying the Jo fold. Jo is so simple and closes much like my favorite prefold fold — the angel fold.
Laurie P says
We are new fans of flats. Mostly because my little chunk has the meatiest of thighs and most cloth diapers are way too tight. Once I found out about a couple brands that make an XL cover….flats were the way to go. I also have to pocket diapers (that are almost to small now) that we use on the go, and we’ve replaced the micro fiber with a pad fold flat. Works very well.