Does a shirt still have life after it’s been stained? Here are a few options you have if you have an item of clothing with a stain that won’t come off.

1. Make a rag out of it. Cut it up so you’ll know it’s a rag. Keep it in a drawer with other rags and you’ll save on paper towels.

2. Donate it to Goodwill. If you have enough rags in your house, you can donate stained clothing to Goodwill. They won’t sell it in store, but there are auto shops, etc. that buy stained clothing, etc. from Goodwill to use as oil rags, etc.

3. Keep it to wear when you’re painting. If you put it in a designated spot, you’ll be able to find it when you need it.

4. Make sewing or craft projects out of the usable parts of the item of clothing.

For me, socks with holes are a different story. You don’t want them to get back into sock circulation, so I use them to clean up spilled milk, etc. and throw them away after that.

Since each t-shirt takes about 650 gallons of water to produce (according to the book Your Water Footprint), we can all feel good when we don’t throw old clothes in the trash.

Do you try to give old clothing a second life?

~ Carrie

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Food scraps transforming into soil? Compost is pretty amazing!

Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals is helpful because sometimes it’s hard to remember what can and can’t be composted. It’s also a great book to help celebrate Earth Day.

This book goes through A through Z and shares different ideas for what can be composted. Some items can’t be composted because they take decades or centuries to break down and some don’t work well because they attract unwanted critters in backyard bins.

A few more tidbits about composting:

• Compost rots and turns into a dirt-like fertilizer after 3-12 months
• Organisms like bacteria, fungi, and insects help compost break down
• The more food we all compost reduces harmful gases at landfills that contribute to global warming

If you have the ability to have an area for compost, it’s a great way to help the planet.  Even if you can’t compost at home, keep an eye out for restaurants and stores that may have compost bins. There are also services in some communities where you can pay to have them pick up your compost. Hopefully composting becomes more common all the time!

What’s your experience with composting?

~ Carrie

To see more great environmental books, follow me on Instagram by searching mybookboost.

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Do you go retro and make Kool-Aid every so often? It can replace soda, big jugs of juice, etc. for a nice drink to quench the thirst of both kids and adults.

It’s not the healthiest thing around, but I’ve read some articles saying it has less sugar than soda.

At least Kool-Aid is a pretty eco-friendly choice. Using your own reusable pitcher makes it much more earth-friendly than many drinks available out there. Even if we recycle our plastic beverage containers, it takes energy to recycle. In addition, it takes oil to produce plastic in the first place, so the environmental savings of a reusable pitcher is great!

Another benefit of Kool-Aid is the cost savings. Let’s say you spend 30 cents on your packet of Kool-Aid, plus one cup of sugar that averages about 20 cents. That’s 50 cents for a pitcher of drinks. Not too shabby.

I’m not a fan of the artificial flavors and colors, but if you’re going to buy those kinds of drinks for your family once in awhile (like I do), Kool-Aid might be a good choice as a treat in the summer or any time of year. What do you think?

~ Carrie

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Here are a few tech-free indoor recess ideas. Most of these activities require just a sheet of paper and pencil.

1. Draw or write with your opposite hand. Right handers try to draw with your left hand and vice versa.

2. Try drawing something you’ve never drawn before.

3. Draw or write with your eyes closed.

4. Play golf on paper. Have a hole and a tee off on a piece of paper. Close your eyes and try to get close to the hole, etc. For two or more players, students can use different colors of markers on the same paper and keep track of the scores as well. If you’d like to reuse the paper over and over, a button or coin could also be used for the “ball”.

5. Take turns acting out different sports to get the kids moving. Act out kicking a soccer ball, shooting a basketball, etc.

All of these prompts work great laminated to use over and over. These are also great activities for times when you’re waiting yourself or with kids, such as the doctors office or a restaurant.

Click below if you’d like to check out the printable versions of these activities, available for sale in my TPT store:

~ Carrie

For more simple fun ideas, follow me on Instagram by searching mybookboost.

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Can you eat out and still help the earth? Here are seven things you can do when you’re dining out to lessen your impact on the planet. Every little bit helps!

1. Choose places that locally source some food.

Try to choose restaurants that source their food from local sources as much as possible. You can search “Farm to Table” for your area to see if there are any of those kinds of restaurants around you.

 

2. Refuse the straw.

Requesting no straw is becoming more and more common as more people try to reduce their single-use plastic.  Sometimes I’ll say to the server, “if you think of it, I don’t need a straw with my drink” and many times they remember to leave out the straw.

 

3. Choose less meat.

Animal agriculture contributes greatly to global warming. Anytime you can choose less meat or no meat, it’ll make a difference. The nice thing is, others can order what they want and you can order vegetarian if you’d like.

 

4. Bring your own container for leftovers.

This one is challenging to remember. I’ve been trying to do this for awhile and only remember about 10% of the time. But, hopefully I’ll get in the habit of doing this more often.

 

5. Choose draft beer over bottles.

If you drink, draft beer is a little better for your eco footprint since it comes in a glass that can be washed. Cheers!

 

6. Take home unused napkins to wipe up spills. 

The napkins on the table are most likely going to get thrown away when they clear the table, so take them home and keep them in a designated spot. Then, use the napkins like paper towels when you have a spill.

 

7. Take surveys when you get home.

Many times restaurants will give you a survey after you’ve eaten there. Use that opportunity to request eco-friendly options as well as compliment good things you already noticed they’re doing.

Do you do any of these? Do you have any other tips to add to the list? Anything we can do to buy time for the earth is worthwhile!

~Carrie

 

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