via Uses for Old Phone Books | ThriftyFun.

via Make Your Own Rain Barrel | ThriftyFun.

Materials Needed:

• One 55-gallong or larger barrel
• Window screen
• Bungee cords
• Parts for an outdoor faucet
• Two o-rings
• Electrical nut
• Silicon caulking (optional)
• Plastic downspout (optional)
• Electric drill and an Exacto knife
• Small piece of garden hose
• Two concrete blocks

The total cost for this project is about $50 for materials (assuming you have the drill). This cost can be reduced considerably if you scour re-use centers or junkyards for used parts.

Support the bee population. Toss one of these seed bombs into your garden. Soon, you’ll have a garden full of beneficial flowers that attract bees! Bee Love Seed Bomb ($10 at Amenity Home

via Best Green Products – iVillage.

The Zoetrope is a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) made from materials commonly found at your local hardware store and a few easily purchased online, and Applied Sciences has made the decision to “open source” the turbine for everyone who wants to try their hand at making one. With videos and a downloadable PDF construction guide, it looks like anyone with a menial amount of handyperson abilities could make one for themselves.

via Build Your Own Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine | The Good Human.

Image via Wikipedia

Recipe #1

Baking Soda

Water

Dish Detergent

Directions:

Fill a spray bottle with water and spray oven generously.

Generously sprinkle baking soda over the water. Leave overnight.

The next day wipe out much of the baking soda and grime.

Soak a sponge in hot water, squeeze out excess water and scrub the inside of the oven with liquid dish detergent first drizzled over the sponge.

Recipe #2

Ammonia

Water

Baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200° then turn off oven.

In an ovenproof dish, fill with ammonia and set on middle rack of oven (about 1 to 2 cups of ammonia).

In another ovenproof dish, fill with boiling water and set on bottom rack of oven (2 cups).

Leave overnight.

The next morning, remove dishes and wipe down the oven with a hot wet sponge first drizzled with baking soda.

Recipe #3

3 tsp Borax

1/4 cup vinegar

1/8 cup liquid dish soap

2 cups hot water

Baking soda (do not add to mix)

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a spray bottle and shake to mix.

Spray mixture in oven generously.

Sprinkle generous amounts of baking soda on top.

Spray liquid mixture over the baking soda.

Leave overnight.

The next morning wipe out the cleaning mixture and wash the oven with hot soapy water.

Recipe #4

1 cup baking soda

1/3 cup table salt

Water

Directions:

Spray oven well with water.

Mix together the dry ingredients then sprinkle over the water.

Spray again with water.

Leave overnight. Wipe out the next morning and scrub oven with hot soapy water.

You can also use this homemade softscrub cleaner for the next day’s scrubbing after using one of the methods above.

via Homemade Oven Cleaner Recipes : TipNut.com.

Related Articles

• Homemade Laundry Detergent (housefuloflove.wordpress.com)
• Green Your Spring Cleaning (momanddaughtersspiritualjourney.wordpress.com)
• “Going Green” Uses For Baking Soda (cheeriosinmybra.wordpress.com)

You may be thinking about spring cleaning, and tossing towels and sheets that have seen better days. Take them to your local shelter. The staff and animals will be so grateful to have towels for after baths.

via Green Living > Recycling | ThriftyFun.

Food for Tomato Plants

Keep chopped banana skins your refrigerator or freezer until there is enough to fill a blender 2/3 of the way. Add a cup of water and blend to a slurry. Place slurry into a normal sized bucket (9 litre) and fill half-way with water.

Use Old Catalogs As Mulch

Everyone complains about catalogs and how they clutter up their mail boxes. I say bring them on! I use them as mulch under my trees and bushes. In a dry country such as Australia, water conservation is priority.

Vinegar as a Fabric Softener

Don’t waste money on fabric softener! Use white vinegar instead. White vinegar is the best fabric softener you can buy and it’s so cheap. Just add half a cup to your final rinse and your washing will come out lovely, soft, and free of any soap residue.

Many electronics continue to draw power after you turn them off. You’ll know because you’ll still see a glowing LED (light emitting diode) after you flip the switch. Your TV, cell phone charger, and printer are likely culprits. Make it easier to turn off those energy vampires by plugging them into power strips instead of wall sockets. That way, you need flip the switch only once to cut the flow of electricity to everything plugged into the strip.

via Sneaky Ways to Cut Your Fuel Bill.

Now I have five top halves left over. Two of them I have started two compost piles (with lids) at the back of my yard. I turn the compost by simply picking up the plastic trash can upper, setting it down next to the pile, and forking the compost into it. I can turn the pile regularly with ease.

If you want to dress them up, you or your artistic kids (or grand-kids) can use some of that new Krylon spray paint that sticks to plastic. Perhaps camouflage them to blend in with the background. Use your imagination.

By Cebtoo from San Antonio, TX

via Making Planters from Plastic Trash Cans.

Take Preventative Measures

“The first line of defense: you have to keep your leather items well waxed, basically waterproofing them,” says Jeff C. May, coauthor of Jeff May’s Healthy Home Tips. For shoes and outer garments, use beeswax, mink oil or the appropriate shielding agent before you hit the streets. For your home, try Scotchguard Upholstery Protector. To test your waterproofing job, put a drop of water on the material (it should bead up like it would on wax paper). Be sure to cover the entire surface of the material, particularly the point where your shoe or jacket will first contact the snow.

via How to Remove Winter Salt Stains – iVillage.

Many of us with largish gardens are already using them for a supply of kindling and firewood for open fires and wood burners. But most gardeners could do a lot more to practise self-sufficiency in home-grown wood.

With the right kit – a chopper, a saw, a mechanical splitter – and a tree or two that has been suitably and safely felled, you can deal with large branches on site. The timber rounds can be swiftly split into firewood and a store of useful kindling.

Take the next logical step this winter and plant some trees for firewood. Choose fast-growing trees that produce quality wood for burning, such as ash, hawthorn, sycamore and alder. You’ll be surprised how quickly they fatten up into firewood.

And even if you don’t have a wood burner or garden firepit, why not offer your surplus wood to friends and neighbours – it might earn you some useful brownie points and it’s another way to reduce your own carbon footprint.

via Become self-sufficient in firewood – Telegraph.