Friday, October 30, 2015

Lots of Littles in Cloth Diapers

Pretty soon we are going to have 4 kids in diapers still.

FOUR.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Maybe ten minutes.


Yes, we are a crazy. But that has nothing to do with the size of our family. God had his hand in that. That is a WHOLE 'nother story for another day.

The twins are now 2 years old and not close to potty training. The little one is 9 months old. And the newest baby due in early February but making her appearance no later than January, will of course be in diapers as well. This will be the most kids at one time in diapers that we have had. Not a milestone I was looking to achieve. But go ahead and level us up and give us some gold starts or a bonus pack or something. *laughs*

So with this pregnancy, I have gone a little nutso on the organizing our home. We currently live in a 5 bedroom, 1600ish square foot house. Trust me, its not that big. Its actually quite small. We have, however, gotten a lot better at decluttering and letting go of excess "stuff". You know what I'm talking about. We all have it hidden somewhere in our homes. I still have some that I am having a hard time letting go of but need to due to lack of space to store.

But back to the nutso on the organizing...  I started out be rearranging our entire downstairs. (Well, not the kitchen of course.) Then rearranged it again 2 months later. Hubby did all of the heavy lifting. Then we rearranged all the bedrooms upstairs except for our master bedroom. Took bunk beds apart, sold them, bought different ones 3 months later, painted the bedrooms, then a month later took those new bunk beds apart. Those didn't work either.

The garage got completely cleaned out and made into a new usable space during this time also. I'm still need to get a portable air conditioner for this space before its really usable. The weather this week has started cooling down, so I could start using it now earlier than expected for where we live.

Then comes making room for changing diapers. Since we have 3 now in diapers and will be adding another one. We went from full cloth diapering to full disposable diapering. Then the twins started getting a rash again so I started cloth diapering them again. They've been cleared for a while now but the Hubs would rather use the disposable because its easier for him. (And easier for the kids too...) I have 2 diaper tables set up now since all the cloth diapers would not fit under one table. I am a bit of a cloth diaper fan. I like to have options. And I'm really starting to not like the pockets. I HATE stuffing those darn things. And unstuffing them for the wash. I have a few more things I need for the new baby. I sold the majority of my cloth diapers right before I found out I was pregnant with my last baby that is now 9 months old. So I'm having to restock. The good news is we now know what we like and don't like.

Pregnancy hormones can do numbers on you. Let me tell you. I could spend hours looking through pinterest at cloth diapers. Go on YouTube and watch videos on packing diaper bags, cloth diaper organization, cloth diaper stashes, ect. I got some great ideas to streamline and make things more efficient that way though.

God has really blessed us and its my job to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible. Because with the amount of people we have living in this house, it can get pretty chaotic pretty fast. I wish I was better at homemaking and cleaning though.
The dreaded before picture. How the kids put away clean diapers. :(
Top drawer. Diapers needs. Top shelf, more diapering needs. Cloth wipes go in the wipe warmer already soaked in solution.
Second drawer- disposables for the youngest, for the current needs.



Third drawer- disposables for the twins.

Bottom drawer- extra diapers that didn't fit in drawer. Extra disposable wipes, travel wet bags...
Left diaper table first shelf (left to right)- pockets unstuffed, covers, prefolds to fit the 9 mo. old.

Bottom shelf (left to right)- inserts for pockets (hemp and bamboo), inserts for pockets (cotton), prefolds to fit the twins.

Diaper table on the right, first shelf, left to right- homemade doublers and preemie prefolds, newborn workhorses, newborn covers.



Bottom shelf, left to right- potty trainers, fitteds and a wool cover in the back, box of extras.

Finished.
We like to put our diaper pail in the middle for easy access from both tables. Dirty hamper is on the far left.