Three New Uses for Plastic Baby Clothes Hangers (Smart Solutions, Parenting July 2008)

 

Sorry the image quality is so bad. This was taken with my phone. (My hubby has my camera and the scanner is broken) I couldn't find the online version of these tips. They're from the July 2008 Issue of Parenting magazine, but I guess they don't keep archives that far back . . . Eeenyways . . . I just thought the ribbon hanger idea was really clever and wanted to remember it without hanging onto the magazine page, so here you go . . .   Three New uses for plastic baby clothes hangers. :} Enjoy!

~Julie :}

Hope for that Box O' Socks!

One of the recently featured Daily Grommets was a company called Zkano that creates organic socks.  You can watch the feature video by clicking on the Daily Grommet link.  Anyway, I went to their website after watching the video and had me a look around.  I totally think it's awesome that they are trying to make a better product that will last longer and have less negative impact on the environment.  I also don't really think the prices are as out there as they could be.  So really cool right?  If any of you go out and get these I would be happy to hear of it!

Thing is, while I probably do need to buy some new socks here in the near future myself; these socks are kind of boring to me.  I know it sounds dumb and shallow but even their more 'exciting' options still include a lot of grey and that just isn't my thing.  I really like fun socks with animated designs.  (You know, stars, hearts, strawberries, frogs?)  Anyway, enough with my silliness.  


Before I left the site I noticed a little link at the top menu that said Zkano Recycles.  I clicked it and began to read the same thing about recycling that all of us have heard before.  Ways to reduce and reuse etc . . . Then at the bottom I was surprised and delighted to read this little tidbit of information:  You can send your old socks to Zkano and they will recycle them for you!  
Here is what the site actually says:


Recycle. Old fibers can be reworked and reused. The most warn out cotton fibers can be composted. Here’s where we come in.

We have the resources to take past-their-prime socks off your hands and have them recycled. Send your old socks* to us at this address: 

Emi-G KnittingAttention: Zkano Recycles Program
1715 Airport Road
Ft Payne, AL 35968

That’s it! We’ll handle recycling from there. 

It’s little steps that make a big difference as we move towards a sustainable lifestyle. Our family is proud that you’re taking a few of those steps in Zkano Socks. 

*Please send six or more pairs in a package. We need to outweigh the carbon footprint from shipping! 

I don't know about the rest of you out there, but I have a growing box of worn through and single un-matching socks which I have been feeling loath to tossing because it seems like such a waste!  

I had heard recently that animal shelters will accept donations of old blankets rags and towels and such, which is great, but I wasn't sure old socks would be as acceptable.  I am so happy to think that I can now send my old socks to someone who will actually be happy to see them!  How cool is that?

Green Shopping/Grocery Bag Solutions

I stumbled across this product today and thought it was kind of cool. ACME Workhorse Reusable Shopping Bag
I probably won't be getting these myself, 'cause Smith's is where I normally shop and they have a bin where you can recycle your shopping bags, but I may want to get these in the future. I like that they can fold up so small. Just thought I'd share.

Organizing Drink Mixes

I just thought I'd post up here some things I did recently to reduce clutter and reuse empty containers around my kitchen.

May you be inspired.

First of all, I bought some Hot cocoa mix in bulk almost 2 years ago for a big movie project my husband and I were doing, and hardly any of it got used for that. We have since brought it to multiple parties in the hopes of using it up, but the fact remains that I've been frustrated by these little individual serving packets for a long time now. They don't stack neatly, and they fall all over the cupboard. (And we're finding it hard to want to use them much when we seem to get at least two Stephens canisters every holiday season as gifts . . . I tend to favor the flavored cocoas!) Anyway, a while ago my husband just put all these packets into a grocery bag and put them on a shelf.

Lovely.

Needless to say, this has been an ongoing issue with how neat my kitchen feels for me.

On the other hand, I recently went through a big jar of peanut butter and felt the need to wash out the container rather than throwing it away. My mom used to reuse these jars all the time when I was a kid, and I was pretty determined to find a good use for it. (I bet you can see where this is going, huh?)

This is what I came up with . . . I filled the jar with as many cocoa packets as I possibly could; taking care to measure exactly how much one packet contains. Then I typed up a label and directions on my computer and printed it then I simply cut it out taped it on to the jar.

Tada!
Now all that cocoa fits nicely in my cupboard. Surprisingly, I still had a few packets left after this, but they were manageable. I rubber banded them together and tucked them in the back of the cupboard behind the big jar.

My husband is a big fan of drinks. Especially drink mixes. I guess it's just how he was raised. My mom always rather discouraged too much drinking of "Sugar Water" as she so deftly called it. But Jake's parents have had Kool Aid and the like pretty much at every meal even to this day.

Anyway, to appease him, we have a few of these colorful packets laying around the house, along with some fruit flavored teas. These latter ones did have a box at one point, but my toddler destroyed it. Thus, I also had these drink packets cluttering up my cupboard, but as they are of different flavors, brands and quantities I obviously couldn't do here what I'd just done for the cocoa. So I did this.
This was one of those mayonnaise containers with a flip top. All the packets fit nicely into it and it fits nicely onto a shelf.

Yay for organization!

Me Being Green

So I used to have a lot of Tupperware dishes in various sizes when I first got married. . . . Then slowly, (except for the large ones in which I keep flour, and sugar and such) most of them have slowly disappeared . . . Especially the nice small to medium sized one's that are good for leftovers. The main reason this is happening is that I will send these dishes with Jacob to work, and sometimes they get lost, or sort of melted in the microwave.
You know that thing Tupperware does after a while were it gets all cloudy and rough on the inside but it won't wash off because it's like the plastic is eroding away? Yeah, that happens . . . it's gross because no matter how hard I scrub I'm never sure how clean they really are. Also, Tupperware gets stained sometimes too . . . Sooo, I've been thinking I need to go and buy new Tupperware dishes . . . but then I realized something . . .

I always feel so guilty when I throw away the empty tubs of whipped topping, and sour cream and cottage cheese, and yogurt . . . you know, items like that . . . they usually have rather nice containers, but having been a pack rat in my past life, I've known better than to save them all the time. Until I realized something . . . If I use these containers for my leftovers, I won't feel so bad if they get lost or melted or cracked or stained or whatever, because I used to throw them away after using their original contents anyway! It actually makes a lot of sense to use them instead of buying new Tupperware because if I do that, even nice Tupperware get's yucky eventually and it's just kind of wasteful, especially when I'm buying plastic containers when I buy my sour cream anyway.
I hope all this rambling makes sense. Anyway, I'm way excited about this idea, and then of course, I can always recycle these containers when I want to replace them, but this way I'm not also using expensive Tupperware when I've already purchased these.

Tada!


One thing though, I realized there could be a problem with this green solution. I needed a way to make sure I knew what is in them, because due to their opacity it can be easy to forget what they contain and never remember to use it till it's growing a fuzzy little pet in my fridge.

Then I had another inspiration. I have a little white board on the side of my fridge with it's own dry erase marker, so I realized that I can write on the containers so I know what's in them, and then I can just wipe it off, or it will wash right off once the container is empty. This way I'm not dealing with permanent ink or sticky tape or labels. Plus, I think that would be a waste of tape.

Tada! I am a genius! (Sometimes :} )