Make Your Own Thanksgiving Decoration From Yes, Toilet Paper Tubes

I promised to give you the details about the green craft project I did during my Staycation, so here you go. I first saw the idea of using toilet paper tubes to make art on the Growing Up Creative Blog. You’re not going to believe what a pretty decoration you can make from such humble materials!

This heart is made from about 8 empty rolls, each flattened and cut in 6 pieces: 

To make your creation, just lay out the little leaf-shaped pieces until you come up with a design you like and glue them together. Paper clips can help hold the pieces together if they don’t want to stick.

To finish the heart, I picked a few sprigs of dead grass and dried flowers from the garden, taped them together and glued the little bundles to the top of the piece. I hung it on clear push pins that are lightly tacked into the wall.

If you get inspired to make a creation from something recycled or discarded, you know we’d all LOVE to hear from you and see what you come up with.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Be Green, Recycle Less ? Here’s How …

There’s a little convenience store not far from our house called “Farm Crest Milk Store” that I’ve driven by many times. A few weeks ago I happened to remember that we needed milk right as I was approaching the store, so I pulled in the parking lot.  I was curious about a whole store devoted to milk but discovered that it’s a lot like a 7-11, with a few gas pumps outside and the usual impulse buy items inside. What was different, however, was

Spend 20 Minutes Adapting Your Toilet, Save 3000 Gallons of Water a Year

   You might have once read that you could save water by putting a brick in your toilet tank. That is no longer recommended, as bricks break down over time and the residue can lead to plumbing damage. Instead, you can recycle a used soda pop bottle and use it to displace water, saving you 2 liters of water with every flush. The average person flushes 4 times a day at home (you really do learn something new every day), so a family of four can easily save 3000 gallons of water a year just by following these easy steps.

First, remove the label and wash an empty plastic 2-liter soda pop bottle.

Fill the bottle almost to the top with water and add a handful of marbles or pebbles. Don’t skip this step or the bottle will  float in the toilet tank and could interfere with the flushing mechanism.

Easy Ways to Reduce Junk Mail

Were you bombarded with mail order catalogs this holiday season? One of my biggest ongoing challenges is managing the stack of paper that accumulates in the mail basket — which, truth be told, is overflowing to two additional stacks on the kitchen counter. The average consumer receives 41 pounds of junk mail annually, according to the group 41pounds.org, which will remove your name from dozens of organizations for a fee. Here are a couple of free measures you can take:

Go to www.optoutprescreen.com to have your name removed from the mailing lists used by the three major credit bureaus. It takes just a couple of minutes, and should reduce the number of credit card and insurance offers you receive. 

Visit www.catalogchoice.org to cancel catalogs you no longer wish to receive.

Don’t forget to recycle the unwanted catalogs!

We Are Sans Cans

Curbside came this morning and took away our old paint cans, just like they promised. We got rid of 10 paint cans, 3 containers of insecticide and 2 old rechargable batteries, which fit perfectly in the bag they provided. It feels great to be rid of the toxic chemicals, and we also gained some shelf space in the garage!

Crackpot

We are in the process of ridding our garage and shed of old paint and solvent cans. We inherited quite a collection when we bought the house. Because the paint is old and the cans weren’t tightly sealed, we’ll need to dispose of it. It if were in better shape, we’d recycle it. (This site explains more and has a link you can click on to find out about paint recycling programs in your community.)

Arapahoe County uses a hazardous waste collection company called Curbside. It’s quite simple; they send you a big plastic bag to fill with stuff, and then they pick the bag up for you right at your door. Here in Centennial, Colorado, we are charged of co-payment of $20 for the service. Cans of old latex paint have to be thoroughly dried out, and I’ve discovered it’s not easy to find an undisturbed ”paint can drying” area with little kids running around! I’m also disappointed to learn that Curbside will not accept liquid mercury; I have four old thermostats that I’ve been hoarding since last winter when we replaced them with programmable models. The pick up is scheduled for Tuesday and I’ll report back on what we end up discarding; in the mean time, here’s one of the old cans that happens to be the previous color of the house’s exterior before we painted it: