This guide was inspired by my imaginative 6-year-old daughter, who came up with a smaller version of my original reusable heat packs. She loved using the heat pack to keep her feet or hands warm on chilly days, but with five kids, there was always a bit of a tussle over them. She was a fan of the hand warmers you can buy for your pockets in winter and decided to make her own rice-pack version.
With a household of five kids, we always have a stash of mismatched socks—those that have lost their partners to the dryer or have holes from being worn outside without shoes. One day, while helping me sort through these socks, she asked what we do with the extras if we never find their matches. I told her they usually just sit in a basket in my closet, which is getting pretty full. Being the creative soul she is, she asked if she could have some of the colorful ones. Those socks turned into bracelets, puppets, and these hand warmers. Note to self: let the kids have more of these mismatched socks and other items!
The best part about this DIY project is that it requires no sewing. You could sew the ends if you wanted, but she figured out that simply tying the ends of a longer baby or toddler sock works just fine. While making these, she asked if we had any lavender flowers, and she added them to the heat packs with the rice, so they smell lovely when heated.
The easiest way to heat these is in a microwave. Although we don’t use a microwave for food, I feel comfortable using it for this purpose. In our old house, we had a microwave in the shed just for this. In our current house, we haven’t removed the microwave yet, so it’s still there, but we only use it for heating pads and other non-food items.
A friend of mine uses these heating pads regularly but doesn’t have a microwave. I asked her how she heats them, and she said that as long as she uses all-cotton fabric or socks, she can heat them in a glass pan in her oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. I haven’t tried it myself, but she does it all the time. Just keep an eye on it!
What creative projects have your children come up with?
