Shearling Fleece Shoe and Boot Inserts

I mentioned the other day my hoped-for new shearling shoe inserts. My daughter did get them for me as a Christmas gift. I thought I'd share with you how I'm using them and how else others use them.

I told you I've turned my old athletic shoes into indoor "slippers". I need support for my feet even for casual use and can't wear cheap slippers. I priced high-quality slippers, and those were more expensive than I'd ask for as a gift. 

So, this is one of the fleece inserts. They're sold in pairs and either cut to fit or sized. Some come with arch support or extra foam cushioning. Mine are sized so no trimming required. For a shoe insert, you take the old insole out and just place the fleece insert in its place. If your shoe is extra roomy, the insert may fit inside on top of the original insole. For a boot insert, if the boot is roomy, you simply slide the fleece insert into the boot.

I'm using these to make my shoes comfy-cozy (with or without socks) to wear as slippers. Many folks, though, use shearling inserts to make favorite shoes or boots warmer in winter. Wool fleece does a good job regulating temperature to keep feet from freezing in cold weather. It's recommended to hand-wash and line dry shearling fleece inserts periodically.

In reading reviews online, I discovered that many folks buy these to make their slippers warmer or more cushioned. I think that if one has closed-back slippers with worn fleece insoles, these would refurb the slippers for a lot less than buying a new pair. Price wise, most of what I found online were under $20 for a pair. I'd never heard of these before finding them in a catalog in fall, so I thought I'd share my info.

As for my pair of new "slippers", I'm really enjoying the fleece insoles. Soft and warm -- what's not to love?

To Repair, Replace, Just Live With It, or Make Do

As I was pulling on my sock this morning, I found a small hole over my toe. You know how holes in socks are. The first time you wear the sock with a small hole, it grows into a medium-size hole. The next time you wear that same sock, the hole grows even larger. Eventually, the hole gets so big it no longer contains my toe. I have finicky feet. I couldn't comfortably wear a sock with a large hole in it. So, this morning I grabbed my sewing tray and took 3 minutes to sew the hole closed.

One of my daughters has been wearing a couple of very holey socks for months now. When I recently asked if she wanted thread to fix the holes, she replied that she'd rather spend that repair time working on something else. I followed up with inquiring if she was planning on replacing the socks soon. She then replied that she would rather use the money toward something else. She seemed satisfied to wear her socks with holes in them for the time being.

We all live within limited means, that of our time, our money, our energy, and our abilities. And so we all have to make these choices periodically. Do we take the time to repair something or use that time on another, more important task? Do we spend the money to replace the item of have someone else repair it, or do we put that money toward a different goal? Do we have the needed abilities or training to make the repairs ourselves expeditiously, or would we spend far too much time learning the skill for one repair?

My slippers became so uncomfortable to wear that I simply stopped wearing them. As I said above, I have finicky feet. Flat, loose, unstructured slippers don't work for me. I thought about refurbishing my slippers. I also thought about buying replacement slippers. But I was not inclined to spend the time or energy bringing these originally inexpensive slippers up to the expectations of my feet. I did, however, still have last year's athletic shoes that were no longer good for extensive walking but had the support I needed to wear briefly around the house. So I took the laces out of those shoes and have been wearing them as slippers for a couple of months now. As a Christmas gift, I requested some fleece insoles to slide into those shoes to make my "slippers" more cozy. (Still waiting on opening gifts on Saturday for our family Christmas to see if I will receive those insoles.) Sure, my "slippers" look a little goofy for slippers. But they're comfy, supportive, and my feet appreciate these over my former slippers. I chose not to repair, buy a new replacement, or just live with it, but instead I chose to make-do with what I have.

One of the two hood lights above our stove burned out at the beginning of the pandemic. We tried to just live with the dimmer lighting when cooking. This type of bulb is irregular. The last time I had to replace one, I took the old bulb into Home Depot and asked for help finding its replacement. The lightbulb in my sewing machine burned out several years ago. This made threading the needle near impossible for my aging eyes. This last month, I finally got around to replacing both appliance bulbs. There was no way to repair with the stove hood bulb or the sewing machine bulb. I tried to just live with it but couldn't. I spent the money to replace these bulbs. Now, our garage fridge/freezer combo does still have a burned out lightbulb in the freezer section. This one I'm just living with and making do. When I need extra light to see what's in the freezer, I make-do by opening the fridge side (a side-by-side unit) to spill some light into the freezer.

Our clothes dryer's interior on-off button quit working about 8 years ago. This dryer is 26 years old, and we intend to keep it running as long as possible. The button that quit working is the one just inside the door that shuts the dryer off when you open the door. Now, if I open the door while the dryer is running, I have to "catch" whatever falls out and push it back in while at the same time trying to retrieve that one item that I need right away. However, the timing dial on the panel on top of the dryer does still work. That is, I can turn the time remaining all the way to zero and the dryer will stop. This is how we've been stopping our dryer mid-cycle for 8 years. My husband looked into getting the part to repair the dryer himself. But in the end, we decided that we could just live with this minor inconvenience.

So, sometimes we choose to repair, like with my holey socks. Sometimes we choose to replace, like the stove hood and sewing machine lightbulbs. Sometimes we choose to just live with it, like the clothes dryer switch. And sometimes we make do with what we've got, like the freezer lightbulb and my sneakers-turned-slippers. My thinking is there is no one, all-purpose right choice. We make our choices based on our needs, abilities, and our tolerance for the less than perfect. Just some thoughts today. . .

How about you? Do you find you tend to favor one choice over the others when something breaks down, or do you choose different approaches based on the situation and item in question?