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Is your bean bag looking a little lifeless and less taut? We’ve had our Big Joe Bean Bag coming up on 2 years and my sons absolutely love these. They like to read on them, they use them for gaming and often bring them into the living room for family movie nights. They’re lightweight and easy to carry. Needless to say, over the last 2 years of daily use they have become increasingly deflated and less comfortable. I considered replacing them, but then realized it would be much more economical to try to re-fill them.
Refilling a Big Joe Bean Bag might seem like a daunting task, but with the right tips and a little know-how, you can have your favorite lounging spot plump and comfy in no time! Whether your bean bag has lost its shape or you’re simply looking to give it a fresh boost, refilling it is an easy and affordable way to bring it back to life. In this post, we’ll walk you through some helpful tips and tricks I’ve found to make the refilling process smooth and minimize the mess.
I wish I could tell you I found a mess-free way to do this but with a little trial and error I found a few things that made it slightly easier and less of a disaster. I have one more bean bag to re-fill and I plan on videoing the process but for now, here is what has helped me.
For starters, I would recommend laying down a drop cloth, large towel or blanket. This will help with the static that is going to make the filler go crazy. When you flip your bean bag over, it’s going to look like the zipper is broken and it seems impossible to move by hand. To unzip it, all you need is a paperclip.
I have one that unzipped fairly easily and the other gave me a harder time so don’t give up if yours is one of the more difficult ones. There is an inner zipper and an outer zipper so use the paperclip again with the inner one.
Because the filler comes in such a massive bag, I found that transferring small amounts to a ziplock gallon bag was easier for me than pouring from the huge bag. I got the 100 Liter bag which can be found here.
The best thing I found to use as a funnel was an empty toilet paper roll.
Once inserted, you can start to pour the filler in with the ziplock bag, I would cup my hand around the toilet paper roll to widen the funnel just a bit and catch more. I don’t think there’s a way to completely eliminate the mess but this definitely helped. Having the drop-cloth under it allowed me to scoop piles with my hands into the funnel and it wasn’t being moved around everywhere from the static electricity.
All in all, I would say I spent about an hour refilling one bean bag (I took breaks here and there and was interrupted by my children and dog several times). I would say it took 3/4 of the 100 liter bag to fill one bean bag.
This is the end result and my son is happy once again. To clean up the remaining filler I was really glad I had this vaccuum (we have a shedding Lab and purchased it for that reason but I was relieved to have it for this undertaking).
Like I said, I will be videoing the second bag I fill. Let me know if you decide to revive your bean bag and how it goes!