We ran out of dry erase markers and made a discovery. You don’t need to buy more of those plastic markers! Large crayons work just fine on dry erase boards. Simply use a soft cloth to wipe it off, with a little extra elbow grease.
Crayon going onto a whiteboard…..And crayon coming off the same whiteboard with an old sock eraser. This really does work, and it does wipe clean! Just sayin’.
There may be items in your trash that could help you with your gardening. Check out this list and see if any of these great ideas resonate with you, helping you pull a couple things out of your trash and, well, into your garden to green up your world. If you don’t have these items in your trash, ask for them on your local Buy Nothing group. I’ve categorized the ideas by item, and each one links to a unique reuse. Enjoy!
Plastic Bottles:
1) Plastic Bottle Mosquito Trap: This one is a trick using yeast and a cut bottle glued together. Read on and try it.
2) Plastic Bottle Cloche: It’s as easy as cutting a plastic bottle in half and sticking it upside down over your seedling or plant.
3) Plastic Bottle Self-Watering Seed Starters: These plastic bottles, cut in half and one inverted inside the other have a wicking system worth checking out.
4) Plastic Bottle Drip Irrigation System: 4 small holes in your 2-liter bottle that’s buried in the ground provide excellent watering for your plants.
5) Plastic Bottle Greenhouse: A greenhouse like this is a true inspiration.
Milk Jugs:
6) Milk Jug Scoop: Milk or OJ jugs make easy scoops.
7) Milk Jug Cloches: Use Milk Jugs to protect your larger plants. Just cut the bottom out of the milk jug, turn it upside down and it’ll protect your plants.
8) Milk Jug Mini Greenhouses: These mini greenhouses in gallon jugs can prove useful.
Clear Plastic Containers:
9) Plastic Container Mini Greenhouse: Just turn it upside down and you have a mini cloche/greenhouse.
Cereal Boxes & Cracker Boxes:
10) Cardboard Weed Block: Take your cereal boxes and cracker boxes to the garden and use them as weed blocking.
Bike Wheels:
11) Bike Wheel Trellis: Bike wheel trellises are beautiful.
DVDs/CDs:
12) DVD/CD Bird Scaring Trick: Birds don’t like reflective stuff. It scares them off. Put a few around your berries and you’ll keep those peckers away.
Mailboxes:
13) Mailbox Garden Tool Cache: Post an old mailbox up in your garden, and you have a water-proof place to store hand tools, planter markers, and your notes.
Drawers:
14) Drawer Seedling Starter: This one’s easy. Just use an old drawer as a seedling planter box.
OJ Cans:
15) OJ Can Plant Labels: The can tops make pretty labels for marking your rows.
Rain Boots:
16) Rain Boot Planters: Save a few pairs of the kids cute rain boots for whimsical planters.
Plastic Plant Pots:
17) Plastic Plant Pot Flowers: Add a little flair to your outdoor space with these plant pot flowers.
Trash Cans:
18) Trash Can Root Cellar: I’m interested in trying this for storing our potatoes, carrots, daikon radish, turnips and cabbages next year. It simply requires digging a deep hole.
Tupperware Tubs:
19) Tupperware Worm Farm: Make a few holes in your old Tupperware bins, order a few hundred red worms, follow the instructions here and you’ll have a worm farm.
Plastic Bottle Caps:
20) Plastic Bottle Cap Lawn Flowers: Michele Stitzlein creates beautiful blooms from plastic caps. She’s published a couple of books on plastic cap art, too.
Glassware:
21) Glassware Flowers: These bowls and dishes are all the rage.
Garden Hoses:
22) Garden Hose Flowers: If you have space on a wall, you could create flowery art from your old hoses.
Twist Ties:
23) Twist Tie Plant Trainers: Save your twist ties to use for training plants to fences and stakes.
Soda Cans:
24) Soda Can Planters: In a pinch, soda cans can be used as planters and seed starters.
25) Pop Can Plant Markers: With a little effort, you can make some pretty markers for your garden.
Styrofoam:
26) Styrofoam Planter Filler: Fill the bottom of your large plant pots with styrofoam so they don’t get too heavy.
PVC
27) PVC Garden Tower: Drill holes in a PVC tube and you have a strawberry planter
Coaxial Cables:
28) Coaxial Cable Fence: Who knew that a coaxial cable could look so pretty with bamboo?
Wine Bottles:
29) Wine Bottle Waterer: Turn your empties upside down (with H2O in them) in your plant pots and go on vacation!
30) Wine Bottle Garden Edging: Wine bottles can make colorful garden edging.
31) Wine Bottle Hose Guard: A wine bottle and a stick are all that’s needed to keep your hose out of your garden beds.
Clementine Boxes:
32) Clementine Box Planters: Clementine boxes make excellent seedling starter boxes or planters for forced bulbs.
Blue Jeans:
33) Blue Jeans Garden Apron: Sew yourself a simple garden apron from an old pair of jeans that can hold your garden tools.
Plastic Mesh Produce Basket:
34) Plastic Mesh Seedling Saver: We use these baskets to prevent slugs and birds from destroying our seedlings.
Windows:
35) Windows Greenhouse: This is a simple design for a small greenhouse made from windows.
36) Window Frame Trellis: An old window frame with mullions makes a pretty trellis.
Broken Ceramics:
37) Broken Ceramics Pot Drainage: Put your broken ceramic pieces in the bottom of plant pots for added drainage.
38) Plant Your Broken Dishes: Plant your favorite broken dishes in the garden and enjoy them throughout the growing season.
Broken Pot Planter: When our ceramic pots break, I plant them in our garden along with something planted to look as if it’s spilling out of the pot, having grown there over time.
Paint Cans:
39) Paint Can Planters: I love these paint cans turned planters at my friend Maya’s house in Tsarang, Upper Mustang, Nepal.
Laundry Hampers:
40) Laundry Hamper Potato Planter: I planted potatoes inside an old laundry hamper and the harvest was easy.
Skis:
41) Ski Fence: If anyone lives in the Seattle area and wants to make one of these, please contact us as we have several hundred skis at the end of our Rotary Auction.
Window Blinds:
42) Mini Blind Plant Markers: These look really easy to make.
Panty Hose:
43) Panty Hose Deer Repellant: If you place a bar of soap inside the foot of old panty hose and hang it from your apple tree, it should deter the deer from nibbling on your tree. You can also use a single child’s mitten for this, as it looks cute and either put the perfumed soap inside or human hair (they don’t like the smell of humans.)
Headboards:
44) Headboard Trellis: A headboard makes a beautiful pea trellis.
Newspaper:
45) Newspaper Garden Uses: There are many reuses for newspaper in the garden.
Cassette Tapes:
46) Cassette Tape Bird Deterrent: Pull the tape out of your cassette and string it over your garden. Birds hate the reflective quality of the tape.
Pet Food Bags:
47) Feed Bag Tarp: Sew your plastic woven pet food bags together into a tarp for garden needs.
Toilet Paper Tubes:
48) TP Tube Seedling Starters: Start your seeds in a tube filled with soil.
Sponges:
49) Sponges in Plant Pots: Cut up your old sponges and place them in the bottom of plant pots. They’ll hold moisture for a long time.
Kiddie Pools:
50) Kiddie Pool Raised Bed Garden: Hard plastic kiddie pools make excellent raised bed gardens.
What do you reuse in your garden? Help me add to the list.
When my children reached elementary school age and we enrolled them in programs that had art classes, we were amazed at how few natural materials were used for art supplies and just how much of it was plastic: glitter glue, colorful plastics for mosaics, acrylic-coated feathers, various items to be “recycled” through art like yogurt cups and plastic straws. The myriad cut-and-paste-style art projects they did were primarily made of art supply store plastics. All too often schools and art classes are cutting corners and can only afford cheaper plastic materials for art supplies.
I would’ve preferred sticks, stones, leaves, sea glass, natural feathers and wood over the pre-fabricated plastic materials my son and daughter were exposed to. These plastics were simply mimicking what’s found readily in nature. I also believe the color palette children are exposed to in those early years, through day-glo style plastics, can affect their color choices later in life. Gone might be an appreciation for natural greens, browns, blues and purples found regularly in the environment. We started to opt out of the popular kinder art projects in preference to doing our own art, making an effort to learn from traditional artists who work with stone, wood, glass, wool, and ceramics. These experiences, for our children, were enriching as they learned quickly that they could create things of beauty from resources found in the natural world, as people have done for millennia.
A coupling of leaves, feathers, and flowers could become a miniature nest or fairy’s bed from a 7-year-old’s imagination.
Or a piece of wood might be whittled into a boat, a stone carved into a work of art. Exposing children to traditional folk art from around the world is a great way to teach them how natural materials that are readily available can be turned into works of beauty.
On a recent trip through South Korea while we were in transit, we took part in a program at the airport in Seoul that teaches traditional art forms. Every time we pass through this airport our children learn a new form of art made from a surprising material. They’ve worked with rice paper to make stone carving prints onto them, they’ve made paper lanterns, they’ve hand painted fans, and they made a tapestry necklace. This time, they learned the Na-Jeon art form, working with mother of pearl-colored shells and shellac from the lac tree.
This highly sophisticated ancient Korean craft utilizes iridescent abalone and conch shells in contrast to a lacquered black wood background, creating a sense of balance and harmony in this mariage of opposites.
The children were given hand mirrors to decorate in the Na (which means “pearl”) Jeon (which means “decorate”) style. The focus and concentration the craft required was mesmerizing for us to watch. And the mirrors will be treasured for years to come in our family.
If you’re looking for some ideas for arts and crafts less plastic, we came up with a list of 20 traditional crafts from natural materials found in and around your home that are easy to try. Copy this list or share the link with your art teacher at school. No need for spending money on cheap plastic art supplies when there are supplies we can contribute from our own homes and backyards: scrap fabric, acorns, sticks, scrap paper, wool sweaters, leaves and sea shells are just a few. Incorporate information about the cultures that started the folk art form you’ll practice so your children appreciate the history behind their craft and how interconnected we all are through our art forms:
1) Doll-Making: Fabric Scrap Dolls have been made for the children of many cultures for centuries.
2) Vegetable Stamps: My favorite veggie to use for stamps is okra. But you can also carve stamps from a potato with excellent results. And the celery rose stamp is absolutely beautiful.
3) Fabric Scrap Mosaic: Reusing fabrics is an art unto itself and certainly has been passed down for generations. Try making a pretty mosaic from your leftover scraps.
4) Embroidery: Try your hand at embroidery. You can even embellish a tired old lampshade to create color in a room.
5) Twig Basket: Collect some long green twigs and make a freeform basket out of them.
6) Origami Tea Bag Folding: Learn the traditional art of origami paper folding using the paper the covers tea bags! If families saved up their tea bag covers, a school art program would have plenty of paper to work with and couldn’t complain about budget constraints.
7) Scrap Paper Flowers: Art classes should save all scrap paper to make these beautiful flowers. Or toilet paper rolls are all you need to make these flowers.
8) Fallen Leaf Art: There are many beautiful artistic creations you can craft from leaves.
9) Scrap Paper Tree: This pretty craft utilizes tiny pieces of your favorite scrap paper as well as sticks collected from outdoors.
10) Seashell Arts: We’ve made mobiles from sea shells and endless mosaics. These seashell koalas would make any child happy.
11) Tin Topiary: Use pie tins to make these beautiful tin flowers.
12) Knitting: With some saved-up chopsticks, you can teach anyone how to knit.
13) Felting: Learn how to felt your wool sweaters.
14) Rubbings: Make rubbings for things natural or extraordinary.
15) Weaving: DIY weaving is easy and a great craft to do with scrap yarn and fabric strips. You can even make your own loom.
16) Phone Book Paper Painting Meditation: Teach the kids meditation by doing phone book paper art.
17) Sock Crafting: If you’re in need of a stuffed animal, try making one from a sock.
18) Hand-Made Valentines: Valentines are an original folk art scrap hack.
19) Stencils: You can make stencils from food boxes and use beets as your ink dye.
20) Driftwood Sculptures: If you collect enough of a variety, driftwood lends itself to creative art from their smooth appealing shapes.
What crafts from materials readily-available can you add? We love to make things from what’s abundant around us!
Years ago, my husband, Pete, and I made a promise to ourselves: We’d try to give our children the best real-world alternatives to video games and virtual reality we could find because reality itself is so much more fulfilling. To that end, our children have grown up on the trail. Daily lessons are often as blunt as the hard-won objective of simply reaching the next village without incident.
Pete with 3-year-old Finn, on the trail up the Kali Ghandaki River to Jomsom. © Liesl Clark
Ancient castles, fortresses, and real-world kings are normal for kids who’ve played amongst crumbling fortress walls that intermingle with cold clouds, echoes of the past tickling us in the driving wind.
The winter palace in Tsarang, Upper Mustang, crowned by the Annapurnas. © Liesl Clark
If our children stayed at home, those castles and forts would be grand designs crafted from code in video games they play on their devices. Yet today they can work and play amidst the real thing: Tombs of the ancient dead, haul bags filled with faunal and human bones to sort and clean, artifacts hewn from leather, silk, iron, copper, silver, and bronze, some dating as far back as 2800 years.
10-year-old Cleo bagging two femurs, with Marion Poux overseeing her work. © Liesl Clark
Nothing in those video games can compare. As parents, we make our choices, whether we allow our children glimpses into our professional lives and our special passions. They, in turn, feel empowered to follow their own dreams, ask their own questions, and seek the truth.
Finn, now 13, connects easily with his friends in Samdzong. He also flies all of our drone aerials. © Liesl Clark
This drive is what makes us human, what pushed the early pioneers to find shelter amongst the world’s most hostile and glorious mountains. These early settlers brought their children with them, because the alternative was unbearable.
Leaving the kids at home, so we can do our work in the Himalayas, is unthinkable to us. © Pete Athans
On January 4th, 2017, our film, “Secrets of the Sky Tombs,” about our quest to find the first peoples of the Himalaya will air 9pm ET/8 Central on PBS’s NOVA. The film will also be broadcast in the upcoming months on France 5 in France and National Geographic Channel worldwide. It’s been a decade-long endeavor, and we’ll likely continue for another, as unknown caves, more ancient human DNA, and new questions need to be explored.
Finn & Pete below Tsaile, headed back to Jomson, dreaming up the next filming expedition. © Liesl Clark
But if there are “secrets,” (as the film’s title suggests) to be uncovered, they’re the clues to success of a people who foraged for what they could off the land, who found meaning in the struggle, and who relied on their clan and their fellow villagers for the bare essentials to survive. Community and one’s lineage is the secret to strength in times of hardship, in the face of the extremes.
Looking down on the village of Samar, Upper Mustang. © Liesl Clark
This lesson is not lost on us today.
Our alarm clock went on the fritz. It just didn’t keep good time anymore and when we put new batteries in, the whole thing decided to stop ticking. Rather than throwing the clock out, our 9-year-old took the opportunity to try to fix it. He looked deep inside and saw the inner workings of the mysterious time-keeper, its simple gears and all the parts that added up to the whole: A simple machine. The adventure in taking-it-apart-land proved fruitful and now any broken gadgets in our household are fertile ground for young inventors searching for new parts to connect together, creating new-fangled machines.
Motherboards are a universe of fascinating connections for the curiosity-seeker. Keep your youngsters’ minds exploring, even if it’s inside the things you thought would never tick again.
The secondary benefit is not throwing perfectly reusable items away. Rather than putting it all into the metal recycling bin or e-waste, these items will have a prolonged life. Our children’s relationship with “things” is changing rapidly, as they see how items may have a new use in a different iteration.
The fun part of finding an old case to use for the kit. We cleaned out some boxes in our storage room and found these to create new kits to give to neighbors.
Spark creativity in the kiddos around you. You’ll be surprised by what they build, and do send us your suggestions for what you’d add to your child’s inventor’s kit!
By Cleo Clark-Athans
This one is a simple trash hack by a 7 year old.
1) Take clementines out of wooden clementine box.
2) Place small towels, rags, hand-knit blankets, anything soft inside the clementine box to make a “mattress.”
3) Find a cute fabric scrap, a doll’s blanket, or a pretty place mat to use as your bedspread.
4) Add a small pillow (mine was hand sewn at sewing class).
5) Put your favorite little animals or dolls to bed!
Each December, we have a family tradition of creating an advent-style “advent-ure” calendar filled with special activities we can do each day in the run-up to the holidays. No matter what your faith, this idea is centered on togetherness and creating traditions of giving, gratitude, receiving, hope, and help. We intersperse giving with days of gratitude and creative outlets for each of us, whether we like to take pictures, draw, cook, or be outdoors.
I found a little pagan-like Santa humanoid figure being thrown away by a neighbor one year and rescued him, his pockets perfect for our family holiday adventure calendar. Before I found him, I had made a calendar with pockets that we hung each year on the back of a closet door. Every morning in December, the kids still run downstairs to see what’s in the pocket with the day’s date on it.
I’ve included a sample list of activities below, as a guide, if you’re interested in creating an advent-ure calendar for your family. Each year, we tailor our activities to special interests the kids might have. Enjoy your time together, and remember, you can do this any time of year!
What would you add to this list for your family and community to enjoy? I’d love to compile more ideas for a bigger list for all families to enjoy!
In the heart of the summer, our chickens lay a dozen eggs for us a day. For a family of 4 with 14 hens, we go through a lot of eggs. Here are a few reuses for those hardy shells.
1) Garden Fertilizer/Compost: Throw your shells in your compost or yard waste bin if your municipal recyclers allow kitchen scraps in there. Try to crumble them as they’ll decompose more easily if you do. They add calcium and other minerals to your garden soil. I use a stone mortar and pestle by the composter to crush them. Some people even put them in the blender.
2) Worm Food: Our worm bin worms love egg shells. Truly. I find their eggs inside eggshell clusters.
3) Garden Pest Deterrent: Crush and spread them around your favorite plants. Some slugs, snails and cutworms just don’t like them so they won’t “cross the line.”
4) Pot Drainage: Crumble them up and add them to the bottom of potted plants that need drainage. Tomatoes and eggplants will love the added calcium to deter end rot.
5) Chicken Egg Hardener: If your chickens are laying eggs with soft shells feed them some…..eggshells. I know that sounds gross, but it helps give them a dose of calcium and the girls love it. Be sure to crush the shells. Chickens go on the shape of things for foraging so if they get used to eating egg-shaped goodies they’ll start eating their (gasp) own eggs.
6) Eggshell Candles: Yes! They’re beautiful and easy to make.
7) Homemade Space Geodes: These are really cool to make with the kids and they even glow in the dark.
8) Spring Flower Vase: These look quite beautiful with hyacinths held in an egg cup. I only have one chicken that lays white eggs, but seeing these makes me want to save all those white shells.
9) Organic Seedling Starter Pots: Just plant your seeds inside the shell (with potting soil too, of course you dummy), put the shell inside your cardboard egg carton, fill all the other egg carton cups up and you can plant the whole thing in your garden.
10) Egg Shell Succulent Planters: Make a lovely mini succulent garden using your egg shells and the carton, too.
11) Sidewalk Chalk: Big sticks of sidewalk chalk are easy to make and you can use a toilet paper tube roll as your mold and just peel it off.
12) Science Eggsperiments: Here are 10 cool science-y experiments for your child to try with eggs. Fun!
13) Calcium Supplement: Skip the pills and simply bake your shells at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Let them cool and grind them to a fine powder. Add your supplement (a teaspoon or less) to your favorite smoothie or juice once a day.
14) Pet Calcium Supplement: Do the same as above but just add the powder to their food.
15) Egg Shell Mosaics: You can make beautiful mosaics with Easter egg shells or from ones you dye just for this project.
16) Drain Cleaner: Occasionally send a few crushed-up egg shells down the drain. They can help keep it unclogged by their abrasive action.
17) Egg Shell Decor: Getting in the Easter spirit? Try this idea of hanging your egg shells from a tree as a pretty accent.
18) Instant Bandaid: This one’s my favorite. Technically, you’re using the inner membrane of the shell. Tear a bandaid-size piece of it from your egg shell and place it over your ow-ie. By overlapping the 2 ends together, they stick and will stop the bleeding, too. Love it.
19) Vanilla Custard Pots: Serve up your vanilla custard in natural egg shells.
20) Egg Shell Frame: Make a cool modpodge picture frame with egg shells.
21) Christmas Ornaments: If you blow your eggs out you can turn the shells into pretty ornaments.
22) Abrasive Cleaner: Crush them to a coarse texture and use them to scrub down your pots.
23) De-Bitter Your Coffee: If your coffee is too bitter, add finely crushed egg shell powder to your coffee filter and your joe will taste smoother and sweeter.
24) Bird Food: Add some crushed shells to your bird seed mix. The birds need calcium, too.
25) Garbage Disposal Drain Cleaner: Feed some to your garbage disposal. They are an eggsellent cleaner and sharpener for it.
26) Soup Stock Booster: Add egg shells to your soup stock when boiling it. The nutrients can’t hurt.
27) Garden Walkway Addition: I add crushed shells to a garden path made of white gravel and sea shells. The egg shells just blend right in and hopefully deter the slugs, feed the birds, amend the soil, etc, etc. I guess I like walking on egg shells.
28) Stain Remover: According to Apartment Therapy crushed egg shells can help remove stains in your sink, on your tea pot and from other kitchen or household items.
29) Laundry Whitener: Some say that if you toss some shells in a mesh bag in your laundry, the gray tint to your whites will disappear.
30) Sensory Play: Egg shells make great sensory play items for your toddler.
31) Eggshell Toothpaste: That just about says it all — follow the directions in the link. My daughter and I are going to make some this weekend.
32) Cute Halloween Ghost Decoration: They hang like wind chimes but look like little ghosts on the breeze.
33) Try the Walking on Eggs Experiment: Want to make eggs into eggshells fast? Try this! No, seriously, this experiment conducted by a 6-year-old is a pictorial essay worth checking out.
Now that you’ve reused your egg shells so nicely, what to do with those egg cartons?!
By Finn Clark
My Aunt Kelly gave me the idea to make snack box containers because she made us one as a gift for Christmas. Since we get local organic milk delivered in cartons, I started saving some so I could try to make my own, using Kelly’s as a template.
Here’s how it’s done:
1) You’ll want your box to be square. Each carton is about 3.5 inches wide. Measure 3.5 inches up from the bottom of each corner and put a dot there with a Sharpie. This will be the point where you will cut down to from the top.
2) Then measure another 3.5 inches above that and put another dot there. This is the high point of your arch.
3) We used Kelly’s as a template so just traced the arches, but I’ve given you the measurements above, so you can now draw your arch like we did.
4) Now that you have an arch drawn for each side of your carton, start cutting them out with scissors. Be sure to cut on the corners all the way down to your 3.5 inch mark (up from the bottom.)
5) Now cut out your arches.
6) Fold your sides down at the 3.5 inch marks.
7) Sew on a nice large button. Just sew it on like you would normally sew a button. We chose our favorite side to sew the button onto, centered it, and measured about 1.5 inches down from the top.
8) Wrap a rubber band around the button once tightly and use it to cinch down your little snack box.
You’re done! Enjoy your snack box. I use mine to hold apple slices, or home made crackers, nuts, whatever I can find in our pantry for a school snack. And it’s really easy to wash out!
A few months ago, I posted 10 items we no longer buy and have had a resounding response. Well, they were actually 20 items, since the original list of 10 came from Suburban Pioneers. I’ve decided to up the ante and compile a list of 50 items you could cross off your shopping list. I’ll start at 50 and work my way down to the first 10 listed by Suburban Pioneers.
Here goes:
50) Bottled Water: Let’s just not ever buy bottled water unless we absolutely have to. Ok? With a little forethought, there’s no need to buy water packaged in plastic.
49) Air: Who buys air? Apparently the air is so bad in Beijing, the Chinese do.
48) Note paper: Notes can be written down on any scrap paper. We write notes on the backside of letters with only one side printed, that come in the mail: envelopes, anything with room for a few paragraphs, a list, or some doodles.
47) Wrapping Paper: There are so many wonderful alternatives to wrapping paper, including cloth, paper bags, your children’s artwork, and chip bags. We have a stash of reusable cloth bags that I make each year to use as gift bags. We save wrapping paper, too, and reuse it and reuse it and…
Chip bag turned gift bag.
46) Fly Paper: We’ve started making our own sweet fly paper and it works most of the time..
45) Pot Scrubbers: Crumpled up aluminum foil works. Really. Don’t laugh. It totally works.
44) Planters: Almost anything can be converted into a planter — you just have to use your imagination. If it can hold anything, it can be a planter. I’ve seen bras and toilets as planters, bike helmets, and baby shoes. Here are 5 planters that I photographed while in Nepal.
43) Trellises: As above, trellises are a garden feature that can include whimsical reuse. Here are 25 beautiful trellises you can make from your trash.
42) Chicken Bedding: We use cut grass, dried leaves, roadside grass and — our favorite — shredded paper.
41) Yogurt Maker: Skip the yogurt maker and make your own in glass jars. It’s easy.
Off-The-Grid Yogurt Over The Pilot Light ©Liesl Clark
40) Window Washing Liquid: Vinegar and water works perfectly, along with newspaper instead of microfiber rags or paper towels.
39) Laundry Detergent: Try this DIY recipe and save some money.
38) Dish soap: Here’s a DIY Dish Soap recipe that’ll surprise you.
37) Salad Dressings: Remember simple balsamic and olive oil dressings? Just make your own delicious dressings in a jar. They get better with age and will give you no excuse for not eating your greens. Try our favorite recipe and you won’t be disappointed.
36) Fire Starters: These are so easy to make and they make excellent gifts.
35) Balloons: If you visit Balloons Blow on the Web, you’ll understand why you never want to buy them again. And as an alternative, try a pretty no-sew bunting.
34) Saran Wrap: We never use plastic food wrap any more, now that there’s the ultimate reusable alternative.
33) Gift Tags: We’ve been known, come Christmas, to repurpose last year’s cards as gift tags. You can do the same with all the pretty cards you receive throughout the year — turn them into tags to add to your gifts.
32) Padded Envelopes: We receive so many of these throughout the year, and reuse them of course, that we even give away in our local Buy Nothing group a box or 2 to other local businesses that can reuse them.
31) Christmas Ornaments: Ornaments are one of the sweetest items to make, as they’re treasured year after year. It’s a family tradition.
30) All-Purpose Cleaner: Orange peels and vinegar will style you with an all-purpose cleaner you’ll love.
29) Fruit Vinegar: Fruit scrap vinegar is one of the DIY recipes that’s really changed my buying habits. I make a better apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, and blackberry vinegar than I can buy in the store.
28) Potatoes, Arugula: If you’re a gardener, you’ll understand this. When you inadvertently leave a potato or two in your garden, you end up with more next year. Same goes for arugula which always goes to seed in our garden. We never have to replant it. So we simply don’t buy it.
27) Garlic Crusher: In a pinch, use a wide knife to whack at your garlic cloves. Or, go caveman-style as I do and find a great stone for crushing.
26) Furniture/Floor protectors: So many items can be used to protect your floors from the scratching legs of your furniture. Flip flops are one among many.
25) Silica Gel: We get a lot of silica gel through products that are sent to my husband for his work and then give it away. Silica gel has so many uses! If you need it, just ask on your Buy Nothing group and you’ll likely find plenty.
24) Beach Toys: So many beach toys are washed up on our beaches, obviously left behind by others, I’d love to see people simply stop buying them. There are great alternatives to buying these redundant plastic items.
23) String: We rarely buy string anymore, because we aren’t ashamed to say we salvage it from all sorts of items, like our chicken feed sacks.
22) Doorstops: Get creative with your doorstops and you’ll find joy in refraining to buy one.
21) Easter Egg Dye: We discovered a great reuse for an Easter egg dye that we’ll definitely use again — magic markers! Whether they’re used up or not, soaking them in water for a while doesn’t hurt them one bit.
20) Paper towels: Um, use cloth ones.
19) Hair ties: Look in every parking lot and on any sidewalk and you’re bound to find a hair tie or 2. I mean it, they’re everywhere. I find them on trails in the woods, too.
18) Pens: As above, look in every parking lot and on the side walks. Pens are everywhere.
17) Ribbons: Simply look on every shoreline and ribbon can be found there.
Ribbon Found on Our Beaches (including the spool), Photo © Liesl Clark
16) Styrofoam Packing Peanuts or bubble wrap: (Just ask for it on your Buy Nothing group.)
15) Ziploc bags: Wash them.
Gaiam Bag Dryer, Photo © Liesl Clark
14) Plastic children’s toys: Just ask any parent for them, they’ll gladly give you a box or 3.
13) Books: Of course, I do support buying books from your favorite author, but for many of the books you’ll need throughout the year, use your library!
12) Plastic straws: Plastic straws are a scourge upon the land and water. Use your lips, or find a glass, bamboo, or metal alternative.
11) Cigarette Lighters: Plastic cigarette lighters replace matches way too often. We still collect cool looking matchbooks from bars and restaurants.
Lighters Recovered from Puget Sound Beaches
(For these last 10, be sure to visit Suburban Pioneers for their full post)
10) Post-Its
9) Plastic Funnels
8) Microwavable Neck Pillow
7) Pet Fur Remover (Brush or Stone)
6) Travel Toiletry Containers
5) Rubber Bands
4) Reusable Grocery Bags
3) Pet Poo Bags
2) Cleaning Rags
1) Plastic Leftovers Containers
What can you add to our list? Enjoy your frugal living!
Pioneering The Simple Life 
