Saturday's Tips

My Reading, Garden Angel

Hi, ya'll. Not sure what happened to yesterday, but I do know I didn't accomplish a lot. Used to bother me, but I think I have earned a day of nothing now and then. Now my house could use some cleaning, some clothes could use some washing and the flower beds could use some weeding, but they will wait patiently for me to get 'round to it. Sometimes I wish I had a genie!

I thought today while ya'll are visiting, I would share some tips with you. Mama and Daddy taught us to waste not want not and everything is used until it is worn out. They also taught us that before you throw it away, try to use it for something else. I still live like that and thought I would share with you.

This is how I store my place mats. I am using hangers on which skirts or pants come on to hold a set of place mats. They are much less wrinkled hanging like this than lying in a linen closet

<

These are tablecloths and table runners hanging on a multiple pants rack that holds several. You can use a rack for each season's cloths or this is my vintage clothes. You can also use one to hang scarves or shawls. Takes less room.

I very seldom toss a plastic bag for there are many uses for those. I line trash cans with the small ones and wrap books in them to mail under the wrapping paper. This is an example of a basket I crochet ed from plastic bag strips. You can look at my post about plarn (plastic yarn) to see how I do this. This however is crocheted from strips I made from the plastic backdrops we used in Vacation Bible School last year. You can also use the thin plastic tablecloths.

I like to use glass jars for storage rather than toss them in the trash. The middle jar is pepper sauce in an olive oil bottle and the other 2 jars are from spaghetti sauce. I also use pretty glass jars to store buttons for they are too pretty to hide. If you put unwashed and unstemmed strawberries in a glass jar and store in the fridge, they will last almost a week. Use glass not plastic.

These are 2 of the plastic containers I like to use. The one on the right is the container for lemonade mixes. Just right to store dried beans, chocolate chips, etc. Also good to store craft projects. The other one is a mayonnaise jar and it is great for it is narrow and takes up less space.

My latest plarn bag and the prettiest I have made. I combined yarn with the plarn in some places and made a cell phone case that buttons to the purse.
It is large enough to carry a lot of "stuff."

The cell phone or key case

Some other tips I use all the time:

• Save printer paper if only used on 1 side to print things you don't mind having something else on the other side.
• Use pretty greeting cards for book marks. This lets you keep enjoying them.
• Use the front of greeting cards for gift cards and package decoration. Cut them off the card, use double stick tape to stick them to a package and write to and from on them.
• The large animal cracker plastic containers shaped like bears are good cookie jars and if dropped don't break. I also store other snacks in them.
• Old ice trays make good jewelry organizers. I also use a plastic box used for fishing tackle to organize jewelry.

These are a few of my tips and as I think of others I will have a day when I post them for you. Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned and I need all my pennies, don't you?

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach