Decor Archives - Busy Moms Helper

DIY Welcome Fall Sign

August 26, 2019 by Kelly Dedeaux 3 Comments

Okay, so I know it’s ‘technically’ still summer, but once school hits I’m in total FALL mode! Especially when it comes to decorating! My front door has been ‘blah’ for awhile, so I needed something cute and fun to spruce it up….and I loved how this DIY Welcome Fall Sign turned out!

I’ve done quite a few wreaths before, such as last year’s Give Thanks Wreath or my Frozen Inspired Wreath during the winter, but for some reason I was in more of a ‘sign’ mood this time around. One of the best parts of this Welcome Fall Sign? It was super budget-friendly, costing me less than $5 for used supplies! Plus how fun are the wire coils? Totally crazy, spunky and awesome!

It only took me a little bit to do, also, so it was a total winner in my book. There’s so many ways you can switch this up to make it fit what YOU like, so just have fun with it!

Supplies

2 wood boards of desired size (I had some on-hand)
2 wood shapes (I did an Owl and a Ladybug, $0.77 each at Walmart)
Googly eyes
Paint of choice
Fake moss or grass
Colored wire
Buttons
Vinyl or stencil for lettering
Ribbon for hanging
Hot glue

Directions

Paint your boards and wood shapes. Allow to dry completely. (note: I used puffy paint to get the textured dots on my ladybug). Once dried, hot glue your googly eyes to your shapes. Glue the moss/grass to the main board.
Glue the top board over the moss. Place your vinyl lettering on the board (I cut mine out with my trusty Silhouette Cameo…couldn’t live without it!) Add your shapes to the corners (or where you’d like).
Twist the wire into swirly coils as loosely or tightly as you’d like. Mix it up a bit, let them go crazy! CAREFULLY glue them to the board (I did long pieces, and glued the center of them to the board). Then (also carefully) glue the buttons over the center of the wires.
Attach the ribbon to the back and hang for display. Enjoy your totally fun and crazy Welcome Fall Sign!

Superhero Dad Gift Free Printables

June 3, 2019 by Kelly Dedeaux 6 Comments

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared some of our ‘geek-ness’ with you, so I don’t feel the least beat ashamed of sharing with you a new superhero-themed post. As you may have guessed, it’s also in preparations for the big Father’s Day coming up (already? yikes!). I give you…drumroll please……

Superhero Dad Gift Free Printables!

Okay, okay, I know we DID give him a Superhero Dad Gift last year….remember the Superhero Soda Gift? It was AWESOME, and he LOVED it! So yes, it’s yet another superhero thing….but that’s how our family rolls 😉

But wait…I’m not just giving you ONE free printable Superhero sign you can give ol’ daddy-o this year. I’m giving you THREE options to choose from! Or don’t choose, take them all, that’s what we did!

They’re awesome, I know….and I think I’m safe to bet that he’ll put them straight into his office (when the boys are out of it and back in their room, as we’re currently doing heavy construction in their bedroom…but more on that later). These will look rockin’ on his wall!

So first, we have this one, that’s too cute and stylish for words!

Then these two break down just how totally SUPER your dad really is….and you have a Marvel Universe theme, and a DC Universe theme! In case you don’t know the difference (don’t worry, I didn’t until hubby made a total geek out of me)……

Here is the DC Universe theme…which is basically Justice League heroes.

And here is the Marvel Universe themed printable…..so Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, as the big ones.

See, they’re just perfect for the Superhero in your life! Print them out, frame them up if you’d like, and enjoy the grin on his perfectly-geeky wonderful face!

The Ultimate Free Christmas Printable Round Up

December 1, 2018 by Kelly Dedeaux

I couldn’t do a Christmas in July week without doing an AMAZING list of the most adorable, fun and elegant prints I could find, so here y’all go: The Ultimate Free Christmas Printable Round Up!

There’s a TON of beautiful, artistic and down-right funny prints on this list, and they’re all FREE! Yup, I’m a lover of free things, especially ones that will help with my holidays! So without further ado, check out this Free Christmas Printable list!

So many great ideas in this list of 20 Free Christmas Printables from DIY Candy

I had so much fun making these 12 Days of Christmas Printable Tags last year!

You can’t go wrong with this amazing list of 100 Free Printable Gift Ideas for Christmas from Craftionary

I really need this When you stop believing…from That’s What Che Said, for my Wonder Woman who is starting to doubt!

I love chalkboard printables, and these Free Christmas Chalkboard Printables from Mother Thyme are simply lovely!

Look at all the fun prints in this Round-Up of Free Christmas Printables from Pampers, Play Dates and Parties

This Holiday Cheer Printable from Today’s Creative Blog has such cute colors, and love the words she chose to use!

I’m for sure printing off this Jesus is the Reason for the Season Free Printable from How To Nest For Less for my mantel (or on top of my piano) this year! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

So yes, this Free Printable Christmas Planner from I’m An Organizing Junkie is from 2011…but you could still make it work! It’s just too cute to not include here 🙂

Seriously, Desiree from The 36th Avenue is such a talented (and super sweet) lady, and I’m loving her Bright Christmas Printables

Oh my gosh, how fun are these 11 Free Christmas Printables from My Blessed Life?! Super fun, I say!

These Christmas Subway Art & Banner from Mod Podge Rocks Blog are the perfect colors for the holidays!

What a simple-yet-fun print, this Eat Drink & Be Merry Printable from Two Twenty One would be a cute holiday item for my office this year!

My kids loved this Dear Santa: Kids Wish List Printable last year, and I’m hoping to put off this year’s lists at least a few more months!

Sassy Sites has More Than Thirty-Five Adorable & Free Christmas Printables that are just fabulous!

Minecraft Birthday Party

February 16, 2018 by Kelly Dedeaux

My twins turned 5 this month. FIVE! Ya, I’m still in shock a bit. When we started talking about what type of birthday party they want, it was a definite MINECRAFT answer from both of them! No surprise there, of course. Although this was a few weeks ago, I’m finally getting around to sharing our Minecraft Birthday Party!

One thing that I was really excited about is that there’s SO MUCH you can do with a Minecraft party, from the food, to the decor, to the activities…really, it’s crazy how many possibilities you have to work with! I really like not going broke for a 5-year-old birthday party, though, so I kept it really budget friendly and as stress-free as possible.

Minecraft Invitations

I’m really a fan of making our own invitations because 1. usually I can get them cheaper and 2. they’re totally fun! I made sure to include some Creepers, Steve? and his pup, even an Enderman! There’s a spot at the top of the text area you can write who’s celebration it is, then all the spots for details!

Print off the invitation HERE, cut it out and tape/glue the blank sides together. Then just fold on the designated lines, fill in your details, and pass them out. Now get ready to Par-Tay!

Minecraft Decorations

We had a ton of fun creating the setting for our party! Our awesome backdrop was a huge hit with the kiddos, and was really simple to put up! All you do is get some square plates in 2-3 shades of green and some black. Lay them out on a table or the floor, creating your Creeper pattern.

Turn them over, being careful to keep them in the patter you’re wanting, and tape all along the plate backs. Across, down, and diagonal.

See how easy it picks up? Then just use little nails or something at the top corners and one in the middle to hold it onto your wall. Easy and fabulous!

On our tablescape we used these fun Minecraft paper/box sets to really make the place look like the game. They come in sheet patterns that you just pop out and fold together. Great activity idea! I also nabbed this Grass tablecloth, which worked perfect!

I hung balloons and put Creeper faces or Enderman faces on them in our kitchen area and at the front door. For the favor bags I just got simple green baggies and taped black construction paper Creeper faces on the front!

I found these awesome swords and pick-axe and the kids LOVED them! Perfect for the decor, then you can use them for a game of ‘fight the Creeper’, then the birthday kid can keep them afterwards. We HAD to get a diamond sword version along with the iron, since my family is kind of obsessed with this game and it just ‘topped it off’.

There’s also PLENTY of Minecraft items HERE you can check out, from glowing wall torches, to pins, to spinning Wither and more!

Like the fabulous torches? Get the Tutorial HERE

Minecraft Food

Seriously, you could go even more crazy here, too! Here’s some of the delicious snacks and drinks we served up…

Creeper Juice & Creeper cups (green cups with marker faces)
Gold Brick boxes (also good for favors) with Coal (chocolate)
Sticks (pretzels)

Water (blue jello)
Lava (red jello)
TNT (licorice bits)
Dirt & Grass (pudding with green frosting)

Bread (biscuits with pizza toppings)
Redstone (rice krispies with black/grey food coloring and red candy chunks)
Diamonds (rice krispies with black/grey food coloring an blue candy chunks)
Creeper Cake (with green/white/black fondant squares to make a face)

I got the fun Free printable food name place cards from Catch My Party.

Minecraft Games & Activities

Like I said, you could play ‘fight the Creeper’ with the foam swords, or go ‘digging’ through some boxes with the pick-axes. You could also create your own sword with this fun Free Printable Sword Stencil HERE.

There’s also a Creeper Pinata – Get the Tutorial HERE

My boys seriously LOVED their party, and everyone had a wonderful time. We were also able to keep most of the decor for the kids to enjoy for a long while yet!

Don’t miss out on more Minecraft Fun…

Ruffled Tree Skirt

December 7, 2017 by Kelly Dedeaux

Oh. My. Gosh – this skirt was a LOT of firsts for me, and can I just tell you I’m SO IN LOVE with it!!! I’ve always wanted a Ruffled Tree Skirt, and now I can make one anytime I want! Originally shared December 2013.

DIY Ruffled Tree Skirt / Busy Mom's Helper

It turned out better than I had hoped, and actually ended up being a lot simpler than I originally planned (once I stopped TRYING to do it the hard way)! If you couldn’t tell by now, I love Blue and Silver Christmas. Don’t know why, it’s just B-E-A-U-tiful to me. Love. It.

Now, this tutorial is based on how I did MY skirt – you may want different sizes, pattern, materials, etc. Change it based on what YOU want, but I can only write from my experience with the one I made. I wanted a big skirt, so my measurements are all based on 52″-ish skirt.

Supplies Needed

Sewing Machine/thread OR Hot Glue (lots of it)

Fabric – amounts will vary based on your pattern and TYPE of fabric (see Step 6)

Good Scissors

Fabric Pen (I used a normal pen)

Fabric Measuring Tape

Ruler or Yard Stick

Directions

#1: Take a base fabric (flannel, cotton, scrap – it won’t show). Mark your center and pin the measuring tape there, then tie a pen to the 26″ mark on your measuring tape. Carefully draw a circle evenly (as much as possible) 26″ from the center all around.

#2: Using your Ruler or Yard Stick, draw a line from the center all the way to the edge, doing 90 Degree angles all around. Mark a noticeable X in the middle of the circle.

#3: Now mark 3″ out from the X in the center, doing a large 3″ circle all around the center.

#4: From the X in the center again, do a circle 7″ out. Then 11″. Continue, adding 4″ every circle until you’re to the edge – your last row may not be 4″.

#5: On one of your lines from the center to the edge, cut straight in. This will be where your skirt opens. Now cut out that 3″ circle in the very middle – this is where it will be around your tree bottom.

#6: This is where it gets a bit tricky and ‘guessy’. How much fabric you use will depend ENTIRELY on your pattern and what TYPE of fabric. For example, the dark blue I used ruffled more than the silver, so I had to use more to go further. Here is what I used on my skirt, using the fabrics and pattern I did. Measurements are what I CUT them, so PRE-RUFFLING

Center Row: 1 – 6″ x 52″ strip of dark blue

2nd Row: 2 – 6″ x 52″ strips of silver

3rd Row: 4 – 6″ x 52″ strips of dark blue

4th Row: 5 – 6″ x 52″ strips of silver

5th Row: 6 – 6″ x 52″ strips of dark blue

6th Row: 5 – 6″ x 52″ strips of clear/sparkly silver

Cut your strips – keeping in mind you may need more/less, depending on how they ruffle.

I did allow a margin of error when I cut mine – and also keep in mind if you’re going to hem them. I just did a cross stitch.

Note: You do NOT have to use expensive fabrics. I just chose these fabrics for my own. You could do it just great with cotton, flannel, sheets….make the skirt how YOU want!

#7: I did a cross stitch around all of my strips. You could also hem them (keep enough room when cutting). Your choice.

#8: Now for the gathering. I used a Gathering Foot on my sewing machine – first time ever! LOVED it! You could also do a basting stitch. Another option is to just HOT GLUE the pieces to the large circle piece, gathering yourself as you glue it on. I didn’t do this, but it’s an option.

#9: Now you sew (or hot glue, if you choose) the pieces to your large circle base. START AT THE OUTSIDE!!! Pin a few pieces at a time (VERY difficult if you try to do a large row all at once), then sew (or glue) them on…..

……Continue until the row is complete, going clear to the other end. If it hangs over the last edge a bit, that’s perfectly fine.

#10: Continue with all of the other rows, working your way from the outside towards the inside.

If it hangs off too much, like more than 1/2-1″, trim it off.

#11: When you’ve done all of the rows, take the edges (the long line you cut earlier towards the center, where it will open and wrap around the tree) and hem them under.

And you’re done!

Note: I left the little gathering edge in the center, because I liked the look. You can always hem that, or wrap a ribbon/fabric piece around it, if you’d like.

Seriously, I absolutely LOVE my skirt – the colors, the ruffles, the size – it’s perfect (for me)! I also love how much EASIER it was than I originally thought – I should’ve made this years ago!

Make Your Own Stocking Advent Calendar

December 2, 2017 by Kelly Dedeaux

Wow, this project is a bit late getting up today, but there’s a really good reason (I’ll explain at the end). Just goes to show that even us bloggers, who may appear to have it all together online, are as much a mess as anyone else…possibly more so! I’ve been really excited to share this tutorial on how to Make Your Own Stocking Advent Calendar, and hope you enjoy it!

Now, I ended up doing more than one, so please don’t be confused if the pictures show different fabrics. ALL the tutorial steps are done from the same stocking advent calendar, so it shouldn’t be hard to follow these simple steps. Our kids love it when we pull ours out at Christmas, especially because we do put treats in ours for each day. You can do small toys, notes with a special surprise or activity for them, or whatever you want that works for your family! The point is, it’s a really beautiful and fun holiday decoration, plus gives the kids a way to count down the days!

Supplies Needed

1/2 yard Main color fabric (I’ve used felt, fleece and a silky one, you choose) – in the pics it’s the blue or the red
1/2 yard Secondary color fabric for the pockets – in the pics it’s the silver or green
1/4 yard lining (I use just a plain white, cheap fabric)
1/4 yard Quilt batting or thin foam lining
Sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins, etc.
Ribbon for a hanging loop
Bell that fits into the little pockets
Ribbon/rope/cord to hang the bell
Ribbon for the trim along the top flap, if desired
If you don’t want to/can’t sew the numbers on, you can get iron-on numbers or use puffy paint (I don’t recommend the last option, but it’s up to you)

Cut out your fabric

Cut out your stocking shape…a total height of about 20″ and a width (toe to edge) of about 13″. This allows for the seams. What you will need of this shape: 2 Main Fabric, 1 batting/foam, 2 liners.
Cut out the top over-flap….it’s one piece, folded on the fat edge (toe side of the stocking). Total height about 4″ on the low side, about 6.5″ on the tall side. Total length of 26.5″. What you will need of this shape: 1 Main Fbric, 1 batting/foam, 1 liner.
Cut out your rows, about 11″ long and 2.5″ tall, this allows for seams.

The Pockets

Sew a little hem along the top and bottom of each row, as well as the ends.
Either sew on your numbers now (you’ll need 4 pockets on the top 4 rows, 5 on the bottom two rows….leave more room on the two sides to allow for seams and such. If you’re ironing or using puffy paint, you can wait until the end.
Sew each row onto the front Main fabric piece. JUST the bottom, since the top needs to stay open.
Then sew the edges up the side of the stocking, so they don’t fold over funny.
Going from the center, pin where you will sew DOWN the stocking, creating each little pocket. Keep in mind the edges will still be used in a seam, so allow room for that.

Put the Stocking together

To sew the front and back of the stocking together, put the layers ‘inside out’….so the two white liner pieces will be on the outside. The foam/batting goes between the FRONT main piece and one of the lining pieces, and the other main fabric goes on the back.
Pin and sew all the edges for a pretty seem (once it’s right-side out it’s pretty).
Making sure you keep the top OPEN (the stocking will actually be open at the top, so you can put things inside if you want) also hem the top edges around.
Sew together the top ‘flap’ pieces….main fabric, then batting/foam, then lining. Hem the top edges really nicely, then sew the two side ends together. So the pieces would stay together nicely, I quickly stitched along the bottom. If you’re going to add the trim to the flap edge, you’ll CAREFULLY fold the ribbon (so the middle edge) is sticking out between the main fabric and lining, then the edges sticking inside. It’s a bit tricky, but looks better. I don’t have photos of the trim, but will try to add some soon.
You’ll then sew the bottom of the flap piece to the top of the stocking, as shown in these photos… The stocking is inside out, then put together at the top like this. When you fold the flap over, it will look like this. And the inside will look like this.

Finishing touches

Take a loop of ribbon and just sew it inside the stocking, so it hangs near the top edge, as shown.
Also sew in one end of the rope/ribbon/cord for the bell. Attach the other end to the bell, making sure the entire thing can reach the bottom pockets on the stocking.
If you didn’t sew on the numbers, now you can iron them on, or use puffy paint.

THIS IS WHY I HAD ISSUES TODAY: I tried the puffy paint on this beautiful silver and blue Stocking Advent Calendar. It looked terrible….and we accidentally spilled some on one of the pockets so it smeared and looks AWFUL! I went to quickly remake that stocking, since I had enough fabric and such anyway….and my sewing machine decided to break. Until I can get that repaired, no ‘finished’ pics of the pretty silver/blue stocking 🙁

Having used various fabrics, I decided I prefer the felt/fleece best. It doesn’t slide around and wrinkle like the other shiny stuff. Go with what YOU prefer, though! We love our stocking, and can’t wait to get started on it in just over a week….so fun!

DIY Mistletoe Decor

November 7, 2016 by Kelly Dedeaux

November’s going by so fast already, so we’re all looking ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the holidays, but decorating can sure be a headache sometimes! One thing I want to do is festive-up our banister to our stairs. Mistletoe Decor sounded like a lot of fun – so I made these cute cut outs. You can hurry and craft some up really quick, too, with this super-duper-easy tutorial! It’s this month’s Craft Lightning – lots of creative holiday-themed crafts you can do in 15 minutes or less!

DIY Mistletoe Decor with Free Printable Pattern / Busy Mom's Helper

Our banister looks much more festive now!

DIY Mistletoe Decor / Easy Christmas decorations & free printable

See, aren’t they so dang cute?! Okay, so first you need to get the stencil. Here’s the printable page:

Really, you can just use one large leaf and one small for the stencils. I added multiple in case you want to print it straight on to green paper. I preferred 2 small leaves paired with each large leaf, but you can do it differently if you’d like.

For the berries, you could just trace something round in 3 different sizes. I kind of put circles on this page, but they’re all the same size. Vary it up – looks more real, I suppose.

Cut out the pieces……

Then piece them together. I used mini glue dots, and they worked AMAZINGLY.

Add some ribbon and put a cute little bow. Hang it on a banister, the wall as a banner, or wherever – over door frames or your bed!!!

After tying the bow and attaching it to the railing, I wrapped the excess ribbon down in a spiral – really made it even cuter!

Viola – a fun yet oh-so-simple holiday decoration!!!

Now go check out the other amazing Holiday Crafts for Craft Lightning!

Wall Texturing

February 21, 2016 by Kathleen Clegg

I’ve talked about my house before and how we moved back into it after three years away and how we are making some updates to the house. One of the things about moving back into this house is that we are moving in with fewer family members, so we have extra rooms. I decided that I wanted to make one of the extra upstairs bedrooms my craft room, which is so awesome, but was going to take some work. It had been occupied by both my youngest child and my grandsons. One of the walls had a lot of issues, so my husband and I decided to try our hand at Wall Texturing. Actually, he already knew what he was doing, I had no clue.

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Easy DIY Draft Catcher

February 6, 2016 by Kathleen Clegg

Is it still cold where you live? It’s still stinkin’ cold here and will probably be cold for another 3 months or so. Also, where I live the wind blows so bad, so many days, and it comes right in my doors. You see, I live in an older house and while this house is a work in progress, the doors are kind of drafty. Not so awesome when it’s 10 degrees outside. I put a towel at the front door and a blanket at the back door to help, but it was kind of tacky, so I made an Easy DIY Draft Catcher for each door. These babies are easy to make and really do help.

This is Louie. I’m pretty sure he liked the blanket at the back door more than he likes the draft catcher. He seems to lay a little bit away from the door now instead of right next to it. He just stares at the draft catcher. Kind of funny really. Poor mistreated cat.

This is what was at my front door before I decided to make it a little less tacky.

As I said, these are super easy to make. First, measure the doorway of where you want it to go and add 4 inches. Cut the fabric to that length and 10 inches wide. I used a metal tape measurer because I didn’t have a fabric one long enough for the back door fabric.

Fold the fabric in half, lengthwise, and sew along two sides. Trim the edges.

Cut the corner to take the point off of the fabric, as shown in the picture below. The turn the fabric right side out.

To stuff the draft catcher, you will need some fiberfill and bigger dried beans, like pinto beans.

To fill, first put about 2 cups of beans in the draft catcher. Then put some fiberfill in, to measure about a foot of fiberfill. Repeat until it is filled.

A couple of tips. First, when you’re adding your fiberfill, use a yard stick to push it down and pack it is well, a little at a time. Second, use a canning funnel to add the beans. I have beans all over the place now because I dropped some and Louie ran off with them.

You want to finish with beans and a small amount of fiberfill, as shown below. The beans on the ends help hold it in place.

Turn the edges under and sew the end closed. This will be a little tricky. Squish the filling down so you have room to sew the end closed. When you’ve got it closed, move it around a little to fill in where you squished it down.

Finally, you have a lovely draft catcher to keep the draft out of your house. This will help keep you warmer and help with your heating costs. The perfect win-win in my book. Do you have drafty doors or windows? You could use these at window openings too. Stay warm out there!

Other DIY Home Projects you may like…

A Chore Chart that looks Great in your House

February 2, 2016 by Kelly Dedeaux

Since moving into our new house, we’ve been pretty random with chore assignments – especially since we still have quite a few boxes to unpack. Sad, I know! Luckily it was super easy to make this DIY Chore Chart – or should I say ‘chore buckets’ – to help decorate our walls!

Our Family Chore Chart worked great before – but it doesn’t really match with the decor I’m enjoying in our new home. I wanted something that wasn’t only functional, but looked good – an attractive chore chart. Hmmm….that could be interesting, right?

I was really happy with how this turned out, though, and it really does look great on our wall! It doesn’t even really LOOK like it’s a job chart, but just some shelves and decor on our wall. Love it!

Supplies

Wooden crate or shelf
Small buckets
Stickers/labels
Popsicle sticks or this size
Thin marker/good pen for writing
Command strips (or something to attach it to the wall, if desired)

Directions

If you want to paint your crate/shelf, go right ahead. I really liked the semi-rustic look of mine so left it how it was.
Place a sticker or label on each bucket – one per family member (unless you assign chores to groups/pairs) so they know who’s is who’s.
Write each chore/job onto a Popsicle stick.
Hang your crate/shelf, if desired, then place your buckets inside. Just move the job sticks around as you switch who has which chore!

It’s so easy to rotate chores, which is nice in a family with 4 kids (hopefully adding more soon via adoption!) and 2 parents sharing the household cleaning responsibilities. And if the kids are down for trading jobs with each other, they can pull out their stick ‘I’ll trade you sweeping the kitchen for cleaning the downstairs toilets’ or something.

Other Chore & Organization ideas you may like…

Stenciled Tables

January 21, 2016 by Kathleen Clegg

Have you ever started on a project, got part of the way through it and decided that you wanted to go a completely different direction? This is that project for me. I bought these two tables for really great prices and thought I might fix them up and sell them for lots more than the price I paid. Today I am going to tell you about my Stenciled Tables, how I stencil and the outcome of said tables. They look nothing like they did when I bought them, that’s for sure.

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The Sock Basket

January 12, 2016 by Lynn Driver

Moms encounter all kinds of little dilemmas every day, and sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions- like this laundry room Sock Basket.

It’s that time again, when everyone is making resolutions for the new year, and getting organized is usually pretty high on everybody’s list- including mine! I’m Lynn, here from Riggstown Road to share one of my all-time-favorite (and simplest) tips with you: the sock basket, and two ways to use it.

In my house, there are 6 people, who each have two feet, and that means that in winter we use a dozen socks a day. Now, they don’t take up all that much space in the laundry, but what does happen in the laundry is…they get lost. More specifically, it’s usually one sock out of a pair that gets lost. It is one of the great mysteries of life how two matching socks go into the laundry hamper, but only one comes out of the dryer. :/ That leaves us with a collection of single socks, which we either cram into a drawer where they get lost and take up space, or we toss them in the trash- only to find their match a day or week later.

So, I decided to start saving all those random socks in one place, and it’s so handy.

Here is alternative #1: Keep a basket or bucket in your laundry room, labeled “socks.” It doesn’t have to be cute, but it helps. 😉 When laundry is being folded & put away, and there are several random socks in the stack, (because there always are…) just toss them into the sock basket and once a week or so, look through the basket and match up any pairs. When the mates reappear, you’ll be glad you didn’t trash those random singles. If you’re family is like mine, there always seems to be a sock shortage!

And here is option #2: When you empty the dryer, keep all the socks in a basket saved especially for socks. Let your little ones match them up. It’s a great skill for preschoolers to practice and/or a perfect chore to assign to your school-aged kiddos, because busy moms need good helpers! Then they can deliver all the socks they’ve matched up to their owners, and leave all the rest right in the sock basket ’til next time.

When a sock shortage occurs, you can direct the kids to the sock basket. Maybe they will find the one they need! If not, they will at least find socks!

Bonus: The sock basket comes in handy when the kids want to make sock puppets or doll clothes, and when mom needs a really good dust cloth.

If you recognized the chalkboard pennant label on my basket, I borrowed it from the EASY CHALKBOARD BANNER you can find in this post:

Be sure to check out all the great organization tips here at Busy Mom’s Helper!