Idea #3: Unwrap a Gift Economy

Use Wall Street’s language and build an alternative based on generosity, not greed.

By Sarah Berman, Today, TheTyee.ca

After a year dominated by protests highlighting income inequality, corruption and corporate greed, I feel it’s time to start thinking about the “upward spiral” set in motion each time you pass along a dog-eared, margin-filled book to a stranger, or casually offer your couch as a place to crash. While the payoff might not be as readily apparent as in financial transactions, that contagious feeling of goodness has tangible, community-building effects.

Nipun Mehta couldn’t agree more. “It starts with conscious acts of small kindness, like making coffee for your spouse in the morning, paying the toll for the car behind you or smiling at the homeless man who is all-too-often just ignored,” he says. “As many of us start doing these acts, it creates a new patterns of social interaction that ultimately create a gift economy.”

25 CLEVER IDEAS TO MAKE LIFE EASIER Why didn’t I think of that? You’ll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems… some you never knew you had! . Hull strawberries easily using a straw. . . Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes. . . Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40 (also works on walls). . . Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band. . . Overhaul your linen cupboard – store bed linen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match. . . Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone / iPod in a bowl – the concave shape amplifies the music. . . Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags. . . Add this item to your beach bag. Baby powder gets sand off your skin easily – who knew?. . Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys. . . Look up! Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor. . . Gotcha! Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose. . . Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid. . . For those who can’t stand the scrunching and bunching:  how to perfectly fold a fitted sheet. . Forever losing your bathroom essentials? Use magnetic strips to store bobby pins (and tweezers and clippers) behind a vanity door. . . A tip for holiday packing. Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty soles rubbing on your clothes. And you can find them in just about every hotel! . . A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy. Magnets hold the plastic cups down to make them tip-resistant. . . Bread tags make the perfect-sized cord labels. . . Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones – so much more fun and easier for kids to eat. Definitely doing this! . . Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper bag. Much healthier and cheaper than the packet stuff. . . Brilliant space-saver: install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles. Genius! . . Win friends at breakfast with this heart-shaped egg tutorial. Aww shucks! . . Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough over the top and voila – you have cookie bowls for fruit or ice-cream. Click here for recipe. . . Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing sunburn relief. . . Gutter garden:  Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering. . . Use egg cartons to separate and store your Christmas decorations.

Image by newrambler via Flickr

Here’s a great waste reducing tip from Mary, “Everyday Cheapskate”, published on Aug 31, 2011.

I am embarrassed to admit how often I throw out perfectly good food, simply because it doesn’t appear to be enough for any good purpose. Take tomato paste, for example. Often a recipe will call for less than a full can. So what do I do with the last few tablespoons of paste, or the half-can of sweet corn, or the rest of so many other ingredients that appear to be useless? I throw it out. Today’s first tipster has challenged me to change my ways. I’m getting a stack of ice cube trays, and I’m going to put them to good use…

Great tip!  Now the challenge is how to store these cubes in a way such that they can actually be found once filed away in the freezer.

Eric “Gub” Snyder
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From the Ecotips group…

EcoTips : Message: 20 Things You Can Use Twice Before Tossing

• Dry Cleaning Bags: Use to pack suits, dresses and fine clothing when traveling, this will help protect it from wrinkles when packing. When storing the bags make sure to keep them safely out of reach of children, they really are that dangerous.
• Butter Wrappers: Once you’ve removed a block of butter from its wrapping, place the wrapping in a plastic container or bag and refrigerate. Use it to grease baking pans.
• Business Cards: Use the other side to label storage boxes and tubs and tape to the outside of the lid or side so you can see at a glance what the container is holding.
• Used Envelopes: These make excellent lists for groceries, To Do lists, bookmarks and labels.
• Cardboard Egg Cartons: You can use these to make homemade firestarters.
• Tissue Boxes: Once they’re empty you can use these as a plastic bag dispenser, just fill with grocery bags and you’ll be able to neatly pull out one at a time.
• Plastic Grocery Bags: Use as garbage pail liners, paint tray covers, packing material.
• Plastic Bread Clips: Save a few of the square plastic clips that keep bread bags closed to use as tiny scrapers. They come in handy to remove labels, price tags, and even do a good job scratching lottery tickets.
• Newspaper: Line kitty litter boxes for easy cleanup (top with kitty litter), protect work surfaces from crafts & interior paint jobs, giftwrap, use as packing material when moving or shipping.
• Plastic Strawberry Baskets: Use as a homemade bubble machine, hold small packets in the pantry.
• Cleaner Spray Bottles: Clean thoroughly and use to hold your homemade cleaners, use to spray plants…very important to clean thoroughly first.
• Mesh From Veggie Bags: If you buy veggies that are bagged in nylon mesh, you can use that mesh for various cleaning jobs around the house and yard. Just wad up the bag and use it as a scrubber.
• Styrofoam Food Trays: Clean thoroughly, wrap in foil then use as trays for giving gifts of baking.
• Pantyhose: Use in the garden to tie plants to stakes, make shower spa bags plus there are 20 ideas found here.
• Paper Towel Cardboard Rolls: Use to wrap extension cords, Christmas lights (keep untangled).
• Citrus Peels: Use to make your own homemade citrus cleaners, candy peels to use in baking or freeze the peels to use for zest in recipes as needed, Save your peels from citrus fruits like lemons and oranges. You can toss them in the fire place when you have a fire going to give the room a nice, fresh smell.
• Packing Foam Peanuts: Save them and reuse when packing breakables, storing Christmas decorations or sending gifts in the mail
• Brown Paper Bags: Once used, twist into small rolls and use as fire starters.
• Laundry Bottle Caps & Scoops: Wash thoroughly and use as sandbox, pool, bathtub toys or pet food scoopers (for dried food).
• Cereal Liner Bags: Clean and use for stacking meat patties before freezing, store bread crusts, cover food in the microwave.

Debt-Proof Living Mary’s Blog Mary’s Bookstore Today’s Thought

06/28/2011

20 Surprising Uses for White Vinegar
By Mary Hunt

White vinegar is economical, all natural, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, amazing, astounding and cheap. Enjoy these interesting tidbits.

1 Spray white distilled vinegar on furniture to stop the cat from scratching the fabric or legs.

2 Soak your feet in white distilled vinegar to stop athlete’s foot.

3 Pantyhose last longer when rinsed in water containing 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar.

4 To remove soap residue that makes black clothes look dull, use white distilled vinegar in your final rinse.

5 Get rid of the tiny holes left along the hemline when you take out the hem of any garment by moistening a cloth with white distilled vinegar, placing it under the fabric and ironing.

6 Get rid of stubborn bathtub film by wiping it with white distilled vinegar and then scouring with baking soda.

7 Clean shower door tracks by filling them with white distilled vinegar and letting it sit for a few hours. Pour hot water into the tracks and wash and scrub away the scum with a toothbrush.

8 To make the toilet bowl sparkle, pour in a cup or more of diluted white distilled vinegar and let it sit several hours or overnight. Scrub well with a toilet brush and flush.

9 Vinegar is great on tile, but never use white distilled vinegar on marble. The acid can damage the surface.

10 Keep a cat out of a garden area by placing paper or cloth that’s been soaked in white vinegar in the area.

11 Soothe a sunburn with a spray of white distilled vinegar, repeating as often as you like. Ice-cold white distilled vinegar will feel even better, and may prevent blistering and peeling, too.

12 Make nail polish last longer. Wipe fingernails with cotton balls dipped in white distilled vinegar before applying the nail polish.

13 Make creamy vinaigrette by adding plain or whipped cream to a mixture of one part white distilled vinegar and three parts oil.

14 Make pasta less sticky and reduce some of its starch. Add just a dash of white distilled vinegar to the water as it cooks.

15 Add moistness and taste to any chocolate cake, homemade or from a box, with a spoonful of white distilled vinegar.

16 Keep molded gelatin desserts and salads from sagging or melting in the summer heat by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for each box of gelatin used.

17 Rid the windshield wipers of road grime by wiping them with a white distilled vinegar-soaked cloth.

18 Give leather upholstery an extra shine by cleaning it with hot white distilled vinegar and rinsing with soapy water.

19 Make your car extra shiny by adding a few drops of white distilled vinegar to your bucket of water.

20 To clean tarnished brass, copper and pewter, use a paste with equal amounts of white distilled vinegar and table salt.

via 20 Surprising Uses for White Vinegar.

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s a useful tip from the WasteNothing Yahoo! Group.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I will this morning without telling my wife.  We’ll see if she notices any difference.

… coffee…when making the first pot, make it as usual; in our house that means three scoops in a reusable filter that came with the pot…second pot…use the same grounds in the filter, just add half as much coffee (in this case one and a half scoops) and it tastes the same to husband and I and makes the coffee go 50% further. We do not often have leftover coffee but when we do it goes in a mason jar in the fridge and is warmed by the cup in the microwave.

via WasteNothing : Message: Cleaning Velcro and frugal coffee habit.