We have been testing out these Chaos Fairy Creations forager pockets, and they have been an instant hit! While they will really shine in snow-free seasons (UPDATE below for how great they are in the summer!) we’ve been finding a multitude of uses for them over snow gear in the winter, and inside!
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We have taken them skiing, sledding, ice fishing, hiking, and foraging in the yard.
Indoor Use of the Chaos Fairy Creations Forager Pockets
Our house is full of special rocks and treasures, and the kids had always been trying to put them in their oh-so-tiny-mostly-decorative pants pockets. Now they can easily carry around anything they want!
The waistband also makes a great llama-carrier if you’re into carrying your stuffies everywhere!
Foraging with the Chaos Fairy Creations Forager Pockets
Snow-family decorating usually takes a good bit of scavenging, needing to find the right pine cones and leaves and grasses. Zane was thrilled to be able to put all these things inside his forager pockets!
And it made decorating go really quick! He has pinecones, small sticks, grasses, pieces of bark, and rocks in there.
Since it’s winter it is harder to use these on really cold days that require big mittens because the openings are small (so treasures don’t fall out!). I often have to help get things in or out (well, kids are always quick to say they’ll take off their mittens but we don’t want to deal with mitten removal any more than we have to!).
Fishing Storage
These little pockets have proved very useful when we’ve gone ice fishing. We don’t do much actual fishing, but do a lot of lying on the ground in and near water and it’s great to have things you need handy!
The first time we took the pockets fishing we used them to store our snacks and occasionally a spoon.
We realized that we should have kept some bait in them as the bait was accidently kicked into a fishing hole, so on the next trip we kept it secure in the pockets!
As a mom, we’re pretty used to having our pockets filled with snack remnants. I have crumbs in the pockets of most of my outerwear.
But now, they have their own pockets to put their wrappers in. One pocket can be used for the snacks and the other for their snack wrappers.
Washing
Like everything kids wear, these are going to get dirty. But they’ve held up really great even to getting snowy and slushy.
I hand wash most of our clothes so I gave them a quick sink bath after a slushy day ice fishing, and they cleaned up awesome and dried really fast. They can also be machine washed and hung to dry.
SUMMER UPDATE!
We have been loving our forager pockets so much in the summer. We bring them on nearly every hike we do.
They are fantastic for storing snacks and wrappers; but even fit out plant guide books, mini journals, and a few markers!
My kids wear their backpacks often, but when they’re running and tumbling on the trail they often want them off. But the foragers can go with them at any speed, and fit great under a backpack!
The forager pockets also keep their guides even more handy than in their backpacks, so we look at them more often.
I have been loving the forager pocket so much I got myself a second one. I take it out hiking, backpacking, and kayaking! It’s so handy to keep my phone in since my phone is larger than most of my pockets. I’ll often have my phone in one pocket and then snacks or my GoPro in the other pocket.
I also wear mine all the time at home. The other night I accidentally slept with it on and didn’t even notice, that’s how great they are! Especially for women because our clothes NEVER have enough or large enough pockets, but now… problem solved!
The Bottom Line
What I love
I love how these pockets encourage creativity and exploration. I love the prints and the versatility of the design. They are FUN! Aurora often wears hers underneath her snowsuit “to keep [things] safe”.
The kids love choosing what they’re going to bring in their forager pockets for the day. I think this kind of small choice often makes leaving the house easier too, “ok kids grab a small treasure for your forager pockets!” generates a little exciting mission for them.
We have used rigid baskets for gathering but even the ones that have a backpack strap don’t end up being comfortable for longer hikes and I usually end up carrying ALL of them.
These can hold a good amount and take up no space when not in use (I can fit all three kids’ forager pockets inside one mama forager pocket!).
The pockets also come with a little surprise inside, I won’t ruin it for you but the kids thought this was so exciting and it’s a really special touch! (Hint, it’s not a pinecone)
What I would change
What would I change? It would be really spiffy if there was a version of these that had elastic at the tops for easy opening. But I think that’s mainly a winter complaint because of glove-issues; sometimes I had to help the kids get even small things in and out. In the summer I think they’ll be perfect exactly as they are.
[SUMMER UPDATE: They are perfect as they are in the summer, so easy for un-gloved hands to open and yet narrow enough openings that things don’t fall out!]
Find Chaos Fairy Creations forager pockets here!
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