Crafting for hoarders

I am a hoarder--something my mate does not understand. Maybe its because my grandparents were products of the Great Depression and I spent summers with my grandmother growing up. She never threw anything away that had any life at all left in it. It kills me to toss anything that might have a use somewhere down the road. I never leave old furniture on the curb--I rebuild or repurpose it and occasionally, donate it. I have fabric hoards that are almost as old as my grown kids. I don't hoard to the extent of having 300 cats and newspapers piled on every surface of my house--I recycle the newspapers and magazines (or make beads) and I'm allergic to cats. But if something might have another life as some kind of craft project, I stash it away. Thankfully, I am also something of an organizer, so the hoards don't get too far out of hand and stay in my craft room, for the most part.

This week I have found several good articles written by fellow hoarders. This is a great article from Crafting a Green World on revamping old furniture. I love these articles on ten uses for old bottle caps and wine corks. I can't stand to throw either away.

T-shirts are something else I have trouble tossing, but the average t-shirt makes me look like a badly stuffed sausage casing and the length is usually totally wrong. This article from Craft Magazine gave me some great ideas for revamping old t-shirts and adding to my yarn stash. The one lesson I learned from this is that cutting a t-shirt into a yarn strip with scissors is tiring and makes your hands hurt. I don't have a rotary cutter, but will probably buy one before I do this again. I have several t-shirts left over from my son's mountain bike racing days which I plan to make into a quilt and I can turn the left overs into yarn. I've also made other projects out of t-shirts and have the book, Generation T, which I love. Many of the designs are kind of punk, but it is chock full of ideas (108 to be exact) for repurposing and redesigning t-shirts. I saw the author, Megan Nicolay, and her sisters make a wedding dress out of 6 white cotton t-shirts on DIY's Uncommon Threads (one of my favorite shows) and it turned out really nice. Definitely worth a try, but probably more appropriate for someone who is young and thin.

No more CLR on my dishes!

I was lamenting in a recent post about having to use CLR on my dishes to get rid of hard water stains. Now I have found something that works just as good and is more friendly--vinegar!! Using vinegar to clean my dishes just doesn't bother me like using CLR--it just seems more natural, it's less expensive, and I always have it on hand because I use it for so many other things. I put one cup of vinegar to one quart water and soaked the dishes for five minutes, then rinsed with cold water. All the white, chalky residue was gone. I did a little searching and found a website with 1,000 more tips on using vinegar--I guess I better start buying it by the gallon!

Disposing of old prescription drugs-don't flush!

This is one of those things that I really hadn't thought about until it popped up in my reader. Don't assume that the best way to dispose of old medications is to flush them. Municipal water systems are not equipped to handle drugs in the water--a scary thought, particularly if someone was up to no good. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has issued guidelines for disposing of medications instead of flushing them. The United States Geologic Survey has additional publications on drug, hormone and other contaminants that are in our waterways.

Recycling electronics

This is something we struggle with all the time. Being a family of geeks, we have way too much obsolete electronic clutter around. We don't want to send it to a land fill, but sometimes you can't even give the stuff away, so it just piles up in the garage. This article from GreenLivingTips has several good resources for getting rid of old electronics.

I've used FreeCycle before and had great success getting rid of old computer components that were still functional, as well as other things. When I lived in College Station, the city had recycling days once or twice a year where you could bring in electronics and other hazardous materials, so always check with your local city services to see if they have a hazardous recycling program of some kind. I am not familiar with the other resources mentioned in the article, but will certainly be checking them out. 

Hummingbird Season

One of my favorite times of year is finally here--hummingbird season. I put out one feeder, just to see who was in the neighborhood, and so far have seen at least three different hummingbirds coming to visit and sup. I make my hummingbird treat with one part sugar and four parts RO water--no dye, no honey, no artificial sweeteners. Those are all no-no's for hummingbirds. The only problem is that the hanger is over the deck and every time it swings a little, it drips sugar water. I have a messy spot on the deck and it attracts ants, so we will have to find a better location. 

My feeders are plastic and were here at the house when we moved in. They look like giant strawberries--not that attractive. However, this article on Crafting a Green World has a tutorial on making your own feeder from a glass bottle and copper tubing--another great way to repurpose a glass bottle. There are also links to other DIY projects that are hummer related. If you are a gardener, you can get top ten lists for native plants and exotic plants that hummers love at RubyThroat.org, as well as lots of other info on hummingbirds.

Water Lessons

We have really hard well water here (104 g/gallon) and have an industrial size water softener under the house. Sodium chloride is used to soften the water, so there are higher than normal levels of sodium in the water used in the house. We still have problems with white residue on dishes that are washed in the dishwasher...I have yet to figure out the solution to that, but am looking into it. Plastic seems to be the worst. The technician who services our water softener said that there will always be some residue...our water is just really hard. I have learned a few things, though.

Softened water will kill your houseplants because of the sodium level. I can vouch for this...sorry, little croton. Plants must be watered with RO (reverse osmosis) water or with the hard water directly from the well that has by-passed the softener or better yet, from a cistern. We have metal roofs on our garage and house with a system of gutters that drain into three large cisterns. This is the best water for plants. You can set up your own rain water collection barrel on a smaller scale if you have gutters and it really does make a difference with your plants, particularly if you are in an area that has to ration water.

There is some evidence that there is less cardiovascular disease in communities where people drink hard water. Softened water is not recommended for people who are on sodium restricted diets. I use the hard water or RO water for my pets. I have a dog with heart problems and he does not need the added sodium.

The purpose of water softeners is to keep scale from building in pipes and appliances and so detergents and cleansers will work properly. I can tell you from experience that hair shampooed with hard water feels like it is coated in chalk dust--a nasty feeling. You definitely want softened water for washing. However, coffee made from softened water tastes awful, particularly to a coffee snob, so you better have an RO system installed in the kitchen for cooking and drinking water. You can also buy bottled water if you are a serious coffee snob (like my son). 

The constant diligence required to keep softeners working and filters changed is a pain, not to mention pricey. It is worth the $29 a month to have a water company do the maintenance. When filters get dirty, there is no water in the house. And they get dirty surprisingly fast.

CLR is your friend. It takes away all the scale that accumulates on dishes, shower walls and other surfaces exposed to water. Half a cup or so in a dishpan of water, soak a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly. I try to avoid using nasty chemicals on things I eat out of, but a coating of scale makes everything look and feel dirty, like it is covered in dried milk.  I wash my dishes by hand and dry them now, just like in the olden days. With just the two of us here, it doesn't take much time and keeps water spots at bay. My wine glasses are sparkly and I don't have to resort to CLR soaks.

Wine bottles make great waterers for plants. They provide a deep, slow soak and are a useful way to re-purpose empty wine bottles. Fill them with water, then turn them upside down and shove them into the soil. It takes about 6-8 hours for the bottle to empty--I didn't believe it either until I tried it several times with different sizes of pots. It works like a charm and I don't have trays full of water under my pots (or running over) like I usually have after watering. And it gives me a great excuse to empty more wine bottles.