How to Recycle Those Perfume Sample Cards in Ad Inserts

Most of you have seen those perfume sample cards that are glued into your newspaper ad inserts. You know the ones I mean. You are supposed to take them and rub the fragrance from the card/paper onto your wrist or wherever. You might use one or two that appeal to you. You might give one to a friend if it's their favorite fragrance or seller. And you might just throw them away.

A friend of mine turned me onto a way to recycle them sensibly.

Know what she does with them?

She pulls them out and places them in her drawers as paper-sachets! How cool is that?

Even people who are allergic to perfumes can usually tolerate the minor level of fragrance this gives to clothing and linens.

Some people are geniuses - wish I could take credit for this one.

  

How to Fold Plastic Grocery Bags Into Neat Little Triangles

Here's another household tip I found in cyber-space. It's a tutorial showing how to fold those pesky plastic grocery bags into a manageable size. It's another tip I had to pin so I wouldn't forget it.

In fact, I tried it today and it is so easy and saves so much space. Once you get the hang of it, it is really fast. I did my first one without any trouble, and I know I can do this from now on.

The post with the instructions and great photos is here atthis link.

What I love about this is that now they are so small, it is very easy to tuck one or more into pockets, purses, car door shelves, and any place that I need a few of these handy.

Brilliant!  

How to Remove Label Glue from Glass Jars plus Photos of Our Cat

Must share a tip link for how to get that gum off after removing labels from glass jars. I made sure to pin this so I wouldn't lose it. Click here for the link to the original post. I love how it uses just two common kitchen ingredients. Plus, the post is very explicit and has good photos.

I also added photos of our cat, Silkie, to a FB album tonight. I've been promising a few folks that I'd do it and I finally did. They are not too bad but I'm still trying to get a good front face shot - she has a really pretty face...

  

Lots of Household Tips Here

Okay, today I was trolling for something or other and ended up finding a dozen or more new household tips. At least, they were new to me. Rather than list them all with individual links here, go to my Tips board on Pinterest, here.

That way, you can easily see the pix and click on any you want to check into further.

I am amazed at how much info folks share on the web. Of course, unlike the gal in the one TV commercial, I do not believe that everything you read on the internet is true. But at least these tips seem reasonably reliable.... 

Have fun!  

Houseplant Watering Tips

Most of you know that I usually kill houseplants. Heck, I even kill plastic and silk plants. But for now, I've been keeping alive a foster-plant. It's a window box planter my neighbors asked me to care for until they return in October - half of it is catnip, the other half some anonymous purple flowering vine. I'm also trying to raise two cucumber plants on my driveway to maturity. So far, they are all still alive.

Each morning and night, I water them from plastic watering buckets. The one planter, however, is up on my front porch, a bit away from the back driveway where the cukes are. I've been trying to water that one from Big Gulp plastic cups. I don't want to bring a big watering bucket around each day. But I couldn't think of another solution.

Eureka! Today, I happened to realize that I have nice handy watering jugs sitting in my pantry. I thoroughly rinsed out a plastic Clorox jug that was almost in the air, being ready to toss to the recycle bin. I rinsed it over and over to make sure all the bleach was out of it. It is just perfect and even holds enough for two soakings, one day's worth.

Here is what I've noticed after taking a quick visual tour of my pantry and kitchen, regarding re-purposing jugs for watering use.

GOOD
bleach, large syrup, large vinegar, liquid detergent

BAD
milk - these tend to be too flimsy - I'd want a jug to last a few months or even a year or two

Gee - I am SO proud of me!!!!!

Cabbage Rolls, the Easy Way

Let's see. Our Friday morning Charity Crafters group began in April of 2009. So, I learned something in 2009, from one of our members, which really makes it very easy for me to make cabbage rolls these days.

For years, the one part I dreaded when making this, whether it was on the stove or in the crock pot, was steaming the cabbage to soften the leaves for stuffing and rolling.

One Friday morning, one of our members mentioned she was making cabbage rolls the next day and had her cabbage defrosting. Defrosting?

It turns out that she freezes the head of cabbage. The night before stuffing and cooking, she thaws it out. The frozen, and now defrosted cabbage leaves, literally peel off almost by themselves. Gentle. Easy.

Nowadays, I do all the prep like this. The day before, late in the day, I take out the frozen head of cabbage. I place it in a plastic colander which I place in a pot that is big enough to hold it. This catches the moisture as it thaws. I put a lid over it. If I put it out before bed, or at least after supper, it is defrosted by the time I get up in the morning.

Also, on the day before, if my ground meat is frozen, I defrost that and keep it in the fridge until the next morning. I mostly use boil-in-bag rice to mix with the hamburg. So, I cook up a bag of that, too, and put it into a container.

The next morning, I mix the rice and meat. I pull off leaves and roll and secure. It is SO easy.

I just wish my Mom had known about this when she went through all that steaming-trouble for so many years.

I can't wait to smell these cooking in the crock pot tomorrow. I can almost taste them already!

Coughs and Cold Remedies, and De-Cluttering Stamina Strategy

Tonight I added a pin to my Pinterest board, DIY Projects to Try. Being 73, I grew up using a home remedy for coughs, colds and sore throats: honey and lemon. I just found some great new ways to vary that and also new ways to use it. The pin is here...

I want to make some of these variations. Even though Vegas isn't as cold as it is in other parts of the country, and winter doesn't last long, coughs and colds are still something to deal with. This way, I can find that tip, easily, when I want to make these remedies.

On another subject, two weeks ago, I began a serious de-cluttering effort because we decided to get a new kitty.

In the midst of de-cluttering, of course, I've been "finding" stuff. I've been Freecycling a lot of it, trashing other stuff, and giving away even more.

In the past, my de-cluttering efforts never lasted more than a day or so because my long-term stamina level isn't great, so THIS time, in order to avoid burning out after just a week, I've kept it to 1 to 4 hours a day. Friday's, because of the charity crafters, I won't do anything on this project, and the same goes for the last week of the month because of the my volunteer work as writer, editor and publisher of our monthly senior mobile home park's newsletter.

This de-cluttering will be a long-term effort but I am happily seeing results in the house. I felt I needed to get some space freed up so that I could at least FIND the cat if she decided to hide on us in the beginning.

Thank heaven I did as much as I did over the 6 days I've already worked on this. When we brought her home, she immediately bolted to the furthest, most inaccessible corner in our 52x24-foot home. At least I was able, with a flashlight, to make sure she was where I thought she was, and that she could also get out of there when she chose to.

Overall, I feel very satisfied with my beginning efforts. That feeling of satisfaction has me excited enough to keep going.

Freezer Ice Build-up Tip

I have been procrastinating when it comes to defrosting my upright freezer. There is so much ice on those shelves that I could either build a snowman or carve out an igloo. Meanwhile, I still must put some food in there when I am able to make a great buy or two along the way.

I know from experience that when I put food on top of that much ice, it is prone to freezer burn.

Eureka! I realized I always have a stash of flattened cereal (and other food product) boxes awaiting recycle day. I grabbed one of those and put it on top of the seven-inch thick (well, almost) ice and plopped the food on top of the cardboard. It is a great, even though temporary, solution.

The cardboard allows a flatter surface than the lumpy ice build-up while offering a small barrier between the ice and the food.

I am not stupid, though. I realize that I must still defrost, and very soon. Even when I use those defrost-sprays, I still hate the job.

However, this is a great, again, if temporary, solution.

I just thought I'd pass it along to others who, like me, absolutely hate defrosting their freezers.

DIY Recycled Bag Handle

These past two weeks, between helping a friend clear his dad's home and also gathering stuff from my own home for a community-wide yard sale, I had a lot of "stuff" to pack into a lot of plastic bags. The middle of last week, I began to get rid of what I could not sell. Much of it was awkward in size or shape. Often it managed to fit into plastic grocery bags but my hands would not close on the handles which were too far apart.

Aha! I suddenly remembered my own tip from June of 2011. I'm not going to re-write the whole thing, but here is the link. This idea is a hand/palm saver, a labor-saver, and a green/recycle tip as well. Life is much easier carrying awkward bags with this DIY bag handle.

I hope it helps you as much as it always helps me!

Fitted Sheets & Sheet Suspenders

I've learned in my 72 years on this earth not to assume anything. Just because I have learned something the hard way does not mean that there is not at least one or two out there who have yet to learn the same thing. So, I thought I'd share this one.

I changed my bed linens tonight and tossed the previous set into the washer and dryer. Of course, when I laid out my clean set, the cat jumped right on top because he knows how great clean linens smell. Little does he know how great they smell when dried outside on a line, but that is a subject for another time and another place.

Some of the corners on my fitted sheets are a bit stretched out and I use sheet "suspenders" on them. Or, some might call them sheet "garters."

Years ago, I had no trouble buying these by catalog or online. All of them, back then, had metal clips and stretchy ribbed fabric elastic between the clips. They were great.

Then I ran into trouble. The last few times I tried to buy some, either online or in some place like Walmart, they were plastic clips and something that was plastic, but not fabric elastic, between the clips. These did not work at all for me. The clips kept slipping off. I'd turn over in bed, and suddenly the corner of the sheet slithered over the corner of the mattress and began making its own way along the bed.

Well, I just found something that works as well as "sheet" suspenders - it is simply ironing board cover holders!

So far, every pack I have looked at has the metal clips and the good elastic between the clips. They aren't as sturdy and they tend to stretch out after a while, but they still hold and that, to me, is what counts.

Of course, you probably all already knew that. But if you did, why didn't you tell me?

Recycle Those Plastic 5 Quart Ice Cream Containers

Our household doesn't often get the generic 5 quart plastic buckets of ice cream these days, but I still have one or two left. This doesn't count the ones I have already in use throughout the house.

These are the larger buckets, not the smaller sherbet-size containers.

We currently use ours for:

Ice Cube Bucket in freezer in top of fridge - This size will hold 8 trays of ice cubes. If you, like us, are not affluent enough to have a fridge with an ice cube maker built-in, or you just never seem to find a container that will hold enough cubes to make it worth dumping them, this might work for you, like it does for us.

Potato or Onion Bucket - we have a closet in our pantry where we keep our potatoes and onions. A bucket this size holds 5 pounds of potatoes easily. Of course, two will hold a 10 pound bag. Clean, neat, washable containers.

Kitty Litter Measuring Bucket - between litter refills, I keep one near the litter box and it holds a dustpan, dust brush and litter scoop. When it's time for refills, I am usually juggling a huge bag of litter. I pour it into the bucket and have found that 1 and 1/2 buckets full is just right for our cat's box. Oh, for those without kitties, the dustpan and dust brush are to sweep up all those little clay granules that eventually get tracked into the beds if you don't sweep them up - they are also very evil when stepped on with bare feet.

We use these for many other things, as well. If you don't buy these, you can always find a friend, neighbor or relative who does, and who will save a few for you.

DIY - Emergency Candle Out of Crisco

I had to share this little home tip with all of you. I couldn't really put it under my Craft heading because it's more of a household tip. I found this in one of my daily CraftGossip emails.

I know that no matter where you live in the country, you can have a power outage and lose your lights. This can happen because of lightning, or a windstorm that downs wires, or a snowstorm, or even excessive electrical usage because of summer heat and air conditioners. No matter what the reason, when this happens, we all race around for flashlights, battery operated lanterns, and all the candles we can find. This is one solution and a cheap and easy one. Bless whoever decided to share this.

The post I found is at LifeHacker at this link, posted by Whitson Gordon, and the photo is by Amy Stephenson.

Be sure to read the comments below the post for more hints on the topic. Also, click on the links in the post for even more tips. Some cynical folks apparently commented that all anyone has to do is run out and buy candles. To me, this tip is a real find. Sometimes you just can't run out and sometimes an emergency just catches you off guard and unprepared. As Gordon says in his post, it can't get "any simpler" (and I might add, cheaper) than this. Save this one!

Oh, and at one of the links in the post, way down on the page, I found a really cute "heater" made from a candle, using clay flower pots and the little trays beneath them.

Some comments pointed out that Crisco is made from vegetable products and not animal fat (as in lard), so there is no adverse odor to worry about.   

Improvised and Recycled Bag Handle

Now, technically this is not a Craft item, but then again, it is. There are so many times I need to squash something into a bag and parts of it poke up and make it very difficult to grab the loops of the handles. The item in this photo is not an afghan but it could very well be - it is a queen size blanket.

What I did was take another bag. I twist it to make it long and narrow. Then I loop it through the carrying bag's handles and tie a knot. This makes a very easy to use carrying handle.

It is soft and does not cut into the hands. It is very strong, amazingly so. And it's a way to use up another plastic bag, at least until it gets to its destination.

Enjoy.