Why I am glad I have a Juicer! No more pink diapers!!!!

So I made a novice cloth diapering error yesterday. A BIG ONE! I was washing my entire diaper stash. I had waited till the last possible moment to wash and had both the kids Snappied in doubled up Gerber prefolds (I have about a dozen that I keep for these moments). Therefore, I wanted to hurry. I knew the Gerber's wouldn't last long! So I threw everything in the wash and started it as fast as possible. In all the madness I did not notice the bright red dish towel that fell into the wash with everything else.

Needless to say, my diapers were all an awful shade of pink when the exited the washing machine. I wanted to cry (and will admit I think there was probably a tear or two). My ENTIRE diaper stash was pink and not even a good pink. It was a blotchy, mismatched pink. Fortunately, only one cover got the pinkies and the others were fine. So I promptly removed all the covers and knew I had to do something now if I wanted my precious diapers white again. 

We have a juicer and we had a nice big bag of lemons. We love making Green Lemonade at our house so lemons are a staple in our kitchen. I immediately juiced about 5 lemons and poured the juice directly in the washing machine. I washed all the diapers on hot twice with lemon juice and like magic they are almost back to new!!! 

 Before and After

 Before and After

Moral of the story, lemons are handy, and watch out for red hand towels!  

Why I love the Snappi

The Snappi is a great and easy alternative to traditional diaper pins. It makes using prefolds and flats a breeze, but did you know these can work great on contour diapers, fitted diapers, and even to "adjust" diaper sizes?

Snappis

For those of you who have not used a Snappi- A Snappi comes in a variety of colors and is made from a stretchable non-toxic material, which is T-shaped with grips on each end. These grips hook into the diaper fabric to ensure a snug fitting diaper with enough natural movement for the baby.

The key is to stretch the T so you get a snug fit. The Snappi can also be used on a contour diaper to give it more hold than with just a cover alone. Or if you have a fitted diaper without snaps/velcro you can use a Snappi to secure it in place.

The unique thing that I have found to use the Snappi for is to "downsize" some of my fitted diapers. I have two in diapers! One is 16 months old and 22 pounds and the other is 5 months old and 12 pounds, so typically they wear different fitted diaper sizes. My larger guy is in a large and my little girl is in a size small.

One day I was washing laundry and only had two large fitted diapers clean. Of course, my littlest decided to pee two times in a row and so I was forced to try to rig a large onto her bottom while the others washed. To my surprise, the snappi actually turned the "large" fitted into a snug fitting diaper on my little one. From that day forward I only purchased large sized fitted diapers. The key is fold the tabs over one another as far as needed to have a nice snug fit, then just snappi it in place. (This could be done with pins too).

So this is just another way to save a little money. Of course, smaller sized fitted will be less bulky than a larger fitted resized. However, it is a way to get more life out of those sized fitted options!