Repurpose with a Purpose: Old Charcoal Grills

With hamburgers, ribs, and brats teasing our imagination, we purchased a charcoal grill six years ago.  During the first few summers that we had it, we used it a few times each year.  I always stored it in the shed when it wasn't being used and cleaned the grilling surface before and after using it.  Over time, the grilling surface rusted, and there was no way I was going to prepare food on that.

So it sat in the shed, year after year, until a few days ago.  While it isn't the most environmentally friendly activity, we would like to roast marshmallows over a campfire once or twice a year.  Although we kept our eyes open at garage sales for raised fire pits, no one was parting with them.  While I was cleaning out the shed, I figured it was time to do something with the old grill.
 
If you are planning to have a campfire, use locally sourced wood or charcoals, ideally cut from dead trees and not living ones.  If purchasing wood, be wary since the wood may harbor pests, such as the emerald ash bore, and could encourage deforestation.

While a campfire creates carbon emissions, it is a way to dispose of diseased tree branches.  If you compost or shred the diseased wood, the disease can survive and spread to other plants.  By burning the diseased portion of the wood, you can eliminate the disease, have a campfire, and create woodash that you can use with your compost or to melt ice on the driveway. 


For a project like this, you need some tools and about half an hour.

Tools:
Phillips Screwdriver
Tape Measure
Hacksaw
Leather Gloves
Rasp (optional)

1. To begin, unscrew the handles and hinges that hold the lid on.  The lid, handles, and screws were fairly beat up so they were placed in recycling since I didn't have a plan for there use.  

2. Next, you'll be shortening the legs with a hacksaw.  For my grill, I kept six inches of each leg and recycled the rest.  I wanted to keep the ash collecting can that is underneath the grill to help increase airflow with the fire.  The cut edges of the legs may be sharp or have burrs on them.  If you wish, you can file them with a rasp.

3. Now you're ready for a campfire.  Use it only outdoors in open areas.

Making Muffins and Reducing Waste with Silicone Muffin Liners

As a child, my favorite breakfast food was blueberry muffins.  As an adult, I bake muffins anywhere from two to four times a month.  Originnally, I did not use any muffin tin liners since I thought it would be less wasteful to just grease the muffin pan.  Too often though, the muffins stuck to the pan.

It was one Saturday morning that I found silicone muffin liners at a garage sale.  I've never looked back.  The muffins come out of the pan with ease.  Most muffins come out of the liner cleanly, especially if you let them cool.  Waiting though, can be nearly impossible in my home.

Due to the fact that the silicone muffin liners can be reused, they can help reduce the waste generated by our homes.  Through repeated use, they can save you money as well since you are buying disposable liners. As for muffin recipes, I find Better Homes and Gardens has a great standard recipe.

You can also make your own chocolate peanut butter cups.  This is an improvised recipe so there are no exact measurements. I melted chocolate chips and a smaller amount of butter in a sauce pan, stirring frequently over low heat.  A small amount of powdered sugar was added as well.  Once the chocolate and butter was mixed, I filled silicone muffin liners about third full with the mixture.  Be sure to save some of the mixture.  While the mixture was still warm, I dropped a spoonful of peanut butter into each partially filled liner.  To cover the peanut butter, pour the remaining chocolate mixture on top.  Then chill the peanut butter cups in the fridge or freezer.  After the chocolate has solidified, enjoy!

Finding Great Deals and Conserving

One person's trash is another person's treasure.  That is the essence of garage sales.  Whether it is moving away or combating hoarding, people are trying to clear out their homes for various reasons.  You show up, take a look at what is for sale, and maybe purchase something for cash.

Those treasures, or trash, are usually on sale for bargain rates. The sellers want everything to go.  If there is something you might need or want, hold off buying it from the local stores and spend some time going to garage sales.  If you find what you are looking for, you are almost guaranteed to spend less for it than at a store.  Besides being priced for less, you can also save money in other ways.  Although I don't, some people haggle for even lower prices.  Also, I have yet to go to a garage sale that collects sales tax.  Case in point, yesterday, I purchased a small item organizer, seven child's size pants, and a pizza stone for only $7.00.  No tax was charged and things were much cheaper than in the store.

This brings me to another beauty of garage sales, randomness.  Who knows what in the world you'll find.  In my car, I keep a list of items that I am looking for.  When I get caught up browsing, the list helps me remember what I would really like.  However, the randomness of the what might be on sale makes it fun.  Last year I purchased old but unopened Lego sets for my children.  I found a marble mortar and pestle, perfect for guacamole, for $3.00 a few weeks ago.  One place I stopped at had old Playboy magazines for a $1.00 each.  A collector would love to find that. 

How do garage sales help the environment?  Quite simply, you are reusing items when you make a purchase.  In the spring, I bought an office chair for $5.00.  The seller didn't throw the chair in the trash.  And since I purchased a used chair, I didn't need to buy a new one from a store.  That means a new chair didn't need to be manufactured and shipped from thousands of miles away to get to me.  Less trash, less shipping, less cost, and less pollution are all the results of going to garage sales.  What tips do you have for going to garage sales?

Saving the Environment, One Library Book at a Time

We are in the midst of a major cleaning event on the homestead.  Maybe you've experienced it yourself.  Someone, or more than one someone, has an overwhelming urge to clean out all of the clutter.  Our urge has been born out from the desire to simplify our lives with less clutter and consequently, less picking up. Many families throw the discarded items in the trash, give them away to friends or family, donate to charity, or have a garage sale.  For us, it will be the last option.

In the midst of all of our cleaning, we have discarded very few books and slightly more DVDs.  Everyone in the house is an avid reader and we do own plenty of books.

Over the past few years, we have purchased very few books and instead go to our local library.  When I think about it, we have reread few of the books of we own.  Additionally, there are few movies and shows that we have watched a second or third time.  So with that in mind, we only purchase books or DVDs that we feel we will use multiple times.  For everything else, we go to the library.

Why the library?  To begin with, you've already paid for it.  Libraries are often supported through local and state taxes.  If you own a home, part of your taxes supports your library.  If you rent, your landlord paid the taxes with money he collected from you in the form of rent.  Since you have paid, why not use it?

By going to your local library, you will lower your impact on the Earth by reusing items from the "commons".  Today, I checked out The Hobbit after being on a reserved list.  When I signed up for it, I was the 42nd person in the queue.  My library has six copies of the movie.  Instead of 42 copies being purchased, only six were.  There are thirty six copies that do not need to be shipped halfway around the world.  When we use the library, it means less pollution, trash, and packaging,  It also means more money saved in our pockets (assuming you don't have late fees).  Then imagine if a million people, or even better, 100 million people used their local library instead of buying a copy of each movie or book that they want.  What a difference that would make. 

Wrapping Paper: Part 2

Since you probably don’t want your friends and family believing that you are giving them boxes of diapers or cereal, you’ll need to wrap or bag the gifts.  According to the Carnegie Mellon Green Practices initiative, "If every American family wrapped just three presents in reused materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields."   If you wish to wrap the gifts, you can use old advertisements and newspapers.  I personally prefer the advertisements since many have a glossy finish and are more colorful.  

By choosing to reuse other materials for gift wrap, you save yourself a little cash.  Additionally you reduce the amount of paper that is being consumed, the fuel needed to ship the gift wrap to the store, and all of the other resources that are used to make the gift wrap, cardboard roll, and plastic film cover.  And who could forget, it is so thoughtful of nearby stores to send me free wrapping paper.


Or be creative and find alternatives to wrapping gifts such as knitting a DVD cover or reusing that carpet that was recently removed.   

Gift box made from leftover lumber.  The covering is salvaged carpet that was approximately 30 years old.

Wrapping Presents: Part 1

Wrapping Presents: Part 1

Happy holidays everyone!  Do you want to be more green for your holiday season?  One suggestion is to keep old boxes and gift bags and reuse them.  This year, my family will be receiving gifts placed in reused shoe, cereal, and best of all, diaper boxes.  Any box will do as long as it is clean.  The downside with keeping boxes for the purpose of placing gifts inside is that they require a large amount of space.  Even with breaking the boxes down, you will still need some storage space.  My suggestion for this is that you start keeping boxes when you begin buying gifts.  

If you tend to be a bit lazy like myself, reuse holiday gift bags that you have previously received.  The gift bags require less space to store and look festive as well.  Just be sure to take the old name tag off and it will be ready to go.  No wrapping required!