I want this handbag!!
Now this is what I call upcycling for a thrift store handbag. Jeff Crystal has provided instructions for installing a solar battery in a handbag that will keep your cell phone powered up as you are out and about. The bag was crafted by Mark Farina and could be all the next rage–he is taking requests to ‘solar up’ bags.
Have a green holiday!
Here we are just four weeks from Thanksgiving and I really haven’t thought about what I’ll do this year for Christmas. The holiday season is, without a doubt, one of the most consumer oriented, waste producing times of year. Not to sound like a grinch–I love the holidays, but several years ago, my family decided to scale back on Christmas and make it more about family get together than gift exchange. We limit gifts to less than $20 or something hand made and focus instead on trying to get together for the holidays. We cook a big, family, gut-busting meal, pull out card games and family albums, and laugh til we cry.
Check out the new i-House from Clayton Homes
These little homes were featured in a recent issue of Mother Earth News. I like what I see so far in their attempts to provide affordable green modular homes. The Clayton i-House would definitely be worth checking out if you are looking for a more sustainable lifestyle.
No more CLR on my dishes!
I was lamenting in a recent post about having to use CLR on my dishes to get rid of hard water stains. Now I have found something that works just as good and is more friendly–vinegar!! Using vinegar to clean my dishes just doesn’t bother me like using CLR–it just seems more natural, it’s less expensive, and I always have it on hand because I use it for so many other things. I put one cup of vinegar to one quart water and soaked the dishes for five minutes, then rinsed with cold water. All the white, chalky residue was gone. I did a little searching and found a website with 1,000 more tips on using vinegar–I guess I better start buying it by the gallon!
Disposing of old prescription drugs-don’t flush!
This is one of those things that I really hadn’t thought about until it popped up in my reader. Don’t assume that the best way to dispose of old medications is to flush them. Municipal water systems are not equipped to handle drugs in the water–a scary thought, particularly if someone was up to no good. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has issued guidelines for disposing of medications instead of flushing them. The United States Geologic Survey has additional publications on drug, hormone and other contaminants that are in our waterways.
Recycling electronics
This is something we struggle with all the time. Being a family of geeks, we have way too much obsolete electronic clutter around. We don’t want to send it to a land fill, but sometimes you can’t even give the stuff away, so it just piles up in the garage. This article from GreenLivingTips has several good resources for getting rid of old electronics.
