Handmade Harry Potter house

My cousin built this AMAZING Harry Potter house in 8 months from scratch, 80% of it from recycled and repurposed materials–Pringles containers, cardboard boxes, tissue paper, packing materials, small plastic tips off nasal spray. Many of these items he found in his own recycling bin, some out on the curb that folks had put out with the trash.

 

Innovative ways of reusing, reusing, reusing….

My husband’s hobby is composting. Mine is trying to find different ways to reuse. It is so much fun, it should be illegal.

My neighbor reused her shutters to make a raised bed. The woman’s a genius.

Adding paper to the compost

We branched out from composting food scraps and organic matter. We started adding paper to the compost  about a year ago. My hubby thought if we shredded the heck out of it, it might compost faster. He was right!

Cross-cut shredded paper, almost pulp.

Home cooking– Spinach souffle

Cooking at home is as green as it gets. You don’t have to drive anywhere, you don’t have to take left-overs home in a styrofoam box, and it’s unprocessed. It’s a win-win.

Spinach souffle
I got this recipe off ifood.tv. I’ve tried it twice. Both times it was light and delicious!

Ziploc bags

I haven’t bought Ziploc bags since 2008.  Know why?

Changing the oil in your car—a greener way

We change our own oil.

Switching from Kleenex to handkerchiefs

If the word snot offends you, don’t even bother reading…

I saw a Kleenex commercial the other day about disposable hand towels. It claimed to “keep your family clean.” My husband and I looked at each other.

“Are you kidding me?” I squealed.
“That’s the most wasteful thing I’ve ever seen. What is wrong with us?” he chimed in.

And yet, I used toilet paper to blow my nose. Well, no more. After seeing the Today Show’s clip about Bea Johnson’s zero waste family switching to handkerchiefs, I thought, why not? My grandparents used them. When did we switch over from handkerchiefs being the norm to being “gross.” Why is it gross?

Homemade business cards

I thought business cards for the blog would be a great way to advertise and circulate these great, green ideas.  I watched a segment on the Sunday Morning show that business cards should give people an idea of who you are. They said a good one costs at least $7 a card.

I laughed.

Seven dollars? Really? In this economy?

I can do better than that.

Matt did the letters for me with the stamp.

What does your city recycle? Not what you may think…

To my surprise, and after a year and a half of putting yogurt cups and styrofoam into the recycling bin, I discover Norfolk doesn’t recycle styrofoam or yogurt cups. Well, what do you know? I had to visit their website to find out what I COULD and COULD NOT recycle.
So what to do with all these pieces?

So many pieces to recycle for a bit of yogurt!

Packaged food

Packaged food

I’m most surprised by how much packaging we use, especially with food. We compost almost all food waste and paper. We recycle everything else, but the small amount of trash we generate is plastic from packaged foods that cannot be recycled. Not in this area, anyway.

Trash for the week....granola wrapper, cereal liner, dental floss case, bacon packaging