Organizing, Up-cyling, and the Sock Box

Organizing and Up-Cycling

Since I’ve committed to blogging every day, and I/we are in the midst of projects, I’m putting together a quick list of the topics relevant to me today.

We are sorting, organizing, tossing, and agonizing over what to keep, what to throw, and what to do with it all! We are not good at this. At all.

You can’t organize clutter! You have to get rid of it!

The FlyLady

Ugh!

That’s hard! We are trying!!

Where to begin?

We stand here in the midst of a ton of clutter, good stuff, usable doodads and legitimately practical items, and get stalled, then motivated, sidetracked, and back at it all over again!

We are cleaning out the bunk room of the camper and transforming it into a shelf/storage room. Sorting through three boys’ clothes, schoolbooks, hobbies and collections, along with dishes, tools, cereal, and tax papers. We live in a camper, but we’ve never claimed to do it well!

So as I saw my 16-year old sitting down in the midst of all of that, I stepped in to help sort. At least we can try for categorizing, so that we can eventually organize. Andrew is making shelves, but first we have to clear the area.

Lunchtime organizing ideas

These topics are what I’m searching for on our lunch break. Because, although I am endeavoring to toss useless junk, I want to upcycle the stuff that really would be useable. Why buy twice?

So, consider these a collection of Household Organizational Hacks and Upcycling Ideas.

Sure, it’s random. As ideas pop up, I am trying to see if they have merit.

Sock Box Project

First, we found the sock box. It overfloweth with orphan socks. I keep them for years awhile, because often the match does appear—under the bed, in the van, folded in the bed sheets, and in any imaginable location. My mom loves matching socks, I hate it. Too many leftovers.

With that in mind, and because I found a cute little flannel bag I’d saved (I know, I know) from our flannel sheets, I thought about using the socks for stuffing to make that into a pillow.

I hit Google, and then Pinterest. Apparently I do not think like everyone else, because there I didn’t find much on either idea.

I found a few articles like this:

Ways to use old socks—some of these are way out there, but, like I said, I was thinking about using ours to stuff pillows. Apparently, I’ve done this before…Andrew told me all about when I did this and gifted him with a little pillow! And here I thought this was a new idea. Back then, I’d cut the socks into rings and stuffed them for a pillow. I have no idea which pillow that was—seriously questioning my brain these days! Kids remember the most specific things about such random times!!

A few of the genius ideas I liked from this post included:

• Sock washcloth for baby—why buy expensive washcloths? This was genius!
• Shower sock—hang your soap.
• Cleaning tools
• Plenty more—both odd and useful ideas. 😊

Zippered Sheet Bags

When I googled about the sheet bags, all I could come up with was a ton of ideas for those zippered plastic bags, which are nice, and everyone already knows what to use those for—everything!!

I just found one idea for the cloth bags and that was a clothespin bag, selling on Etsy like they’d actually done something! All they literally did was hook the Velcro over a hanger! So I did that with the one Velcro bag I have, but so far have no clothespins! I’ll store sponges in it for now, but when I do get clothespins again, this will work very well.

Back to the flannel sheet bag:

I just did my own thing, which is what I probably was going to do anyway.

Pillow Talk

I stole an old pillow from my husband. It looked like it was throwing up all of its stuffing, and was so badly misshapen that it needed replaced. He is very hard on pillows, insists on two, and both end up looking like they’ve been twisted in a tornado after not too long.

So that I could feel better about this, I did make a quick dash out to the store and pick him up two more pillows to try. 😇

I got him the cheapest Extra-Firm pillow from Walmart, and debated between the “Won’t Go Flat” pillow and some others recommended for side sleepers. I had already read some reviews on both pillows, and pretty much decided on those two. Then I saw the Super Firm pillow, also by Serta, and picked that one up to try.

I slipped them into pillowcases and put them on the bed to see if he’d notice.

He didn’t until I said something, then he was like, “Oh, yeah, they are pretty big!”

Jury is still out over the long haul. But I noticed that that the Walmart pillow and the Serta pillow feel similar. The super firm one feels a bit more hard, but we shall see.

I like a soft pillow. I hold onto mine for a long time, and sleep on my stomach or side. A few years back I ordered these pillows from Costco, and I still like mine.

Did you know that at the store, all pillows feel squishy?

Back to the flannel sheet bag…again!

I upcycled the stuffing and sandwiched a handful of oddball socks in the middle to give it some extra firmness. It turned out to be a cute pillow, and if you ever visit, you’ll know my secret.

The other secret is a few drops of Ylang ylang essential oil in some, and Love 💕 essential oil in others. Love is my favorite! Just for fun!

I case you’re tempted to laugh at my up-cycled sheet bag/sock filled pillow…let me tell you! I’m trying it out, and it’s perfect for my lumbar area! It’s firm and doesn’t squish down (because of the socks!). It’s just the right size to support my lower back. I really love it! ❤️

Word to the wise—just get the Fiskars!

Cutting through a flat pillow shouldn’t be a big deal. I grabbed Greg’s Kobalt utility scissors and struggled to get that stuffing cut! We are a Kobalt tool family, but the scissors…

Side note: growing up, my mom sewed. And she took her sewing scissors seriously. Nobody touched Mom’s Sewing Scissors! Ever! They were always sharp, and paper never came near those blades.

Fast forward to me: before we got married, I picked up a two-pack of Fiskars scissors with a sharpener at Sam’s. Those become my sewing scissors (the point that I don’t sew much is irrelevant). All I knew is what I’d been taught—you never cut paper with your sewing scissors! I have guarded my scissors since that time.

So last night when I became frustrated with the progress, I fished around in my crocheting bag and went at it with my Fiskars! What a difference! Seriously! They cut through without a hitch, and I now see the difference between good and very good scissors! The Fiskars aren’t expensive, so if you need fabric scissors, I’d definitely grab a pair for your stash!

Evening time project

We cleaned and sorted for the rest of the day. When evening came, I wanted to do something besides look at stuff to sort, so as Greg worked on taxes, I worked on some more throw pillows.

My brother got me some super cute pillow covers for Christmas. I stole some pillows from the boys that had gone completely flat! I cut the pillows to size, fluffed up the stuffing, and well…stuffed! I love the pillows, and Jimmy found them on Amazon.com. Cute wildlife pillows with hats. Working on stuffing some more today. I think my favorite is the squirrel.

That was yesterday. We made a lot of progress. Today is another day. I will take a picture of the back room when it’s more sorted out, today.

Moldy hatch

One downside—opening up the at hatch, where clothing had been stored for a very long time (door to outside) released a lot of mold. I’ve had a bunch more headaches (again). We ran the ozone machine over the weekend, which helped, but I can definitely sense mold when it’s around. This is a step in the right direction—addressing it. But the meantime is painful.

The bottom line is, we can get things done if we just tackle them and keep chipping away at it.

I procrastinate on sorting because it’s so tedious. And once you get into it, you sort of have to finish, and so often we are short on time.

We all feel better about getting these tasks done.

I hope you can fine something out of my ramblings from the day!

Stay well, take little projects and tackle them, and keep on moving forward!

Here are some of the pillows that I up-cycled from other pillows! And the Footprints pillows are a set my mom gave us for Christmas! Enjoy!

Because even a camper should be cozy!! 🔥