8 Things You Can Repurpose Around the House

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Do you occasionally need padded envelopes for mailing photographs or smallish, fragile items? Save the styrofoam trays that come with package of cheese, some fruits, and so forth from the grocery store. Clean them well, and trim to fit two pieces in your envelope. Slip your pictures or other item between them to protect them in the mail.

If you discover while making household repairs that a small screwhole is stripped, use a wooden golf tee. Dip the narrow point in carpenter's glue and insert it into the hole. When it dries, cut the golf tee flush with the rest of the surface. Drill a new hole for your screw into the golf tee.

If you make a lot of bread, you might like a dough scraper. But you can also use a regular ice scraper such as the ones you use for your car windshield as well, and they cot a lot less. You can also use ice scrapers to clean out your freezer.

If celery tends to go bad before you are able to use it all, chop the whole bunch at once. Spoon it into ice cube trays. Add a bit of water to each compartment as well, and freeze. When frozen, remove the cubes and bag them and return to freezer. When making soups or stews calling for celery, just add a couple of these celery cubes (or more, depending on the size of your recipe). You can do this with herbs like parsley, too.

Roll up old magazines or thicker catalogs and hold them in place with a rubber band or two. Use them as boot trees- stick them upright inside your boots to help the boot top stay straight.

Repair a broken umbrella by making a splint for the broken rib with a bit of wire cut from an old wire coat hanger. Lay it alongside the broken rib and duct tape them together.

Zipper broken on a jacket or hoodie? Slide a paper clip through the hole and it's good as new.

Use an old umbrella long beyond its prime for a drying rack. Strip away all the fabric and hang the umbrella from a hook in the ceiling, or from a wire shelf in the laundry room. Use for drying delicates, stockings, and other lighter items.

Here's a video on removing the fabric: http://youtu.be/Zlhzs59FOak

Addendum- free Kindle books! You don't need a Kindle to take advantage of these. Most of them are only going to be free today- doublecheck the cost to make sure it's still free.

The American Frugal Housewife- Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, Indian rights activist, novelist, and journalist. Her 1833 book An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans was the first anti-slavery work printed in America in book form, while her American Frugal Housewife, first published in 1828, was a wildly popular nineteenth-century manual for homemakers. Other works from Child, who is best remembered for her Thanksgiving poem "Over the River and Through the Woods," include The Mother's Book, The Girl's Own Book, and The Family Nurse.

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3 Responses to “8 Things You Can Repurpose Around the House”

celina boulanger Says:
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:04 am

oooh the first title looks cool

DL Says:
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:25 am

I think the idea of using an ice scraper as dough scraper is wonderful! I never would have thought of this idea. Also I have an old umbrella that just may receive new life as a laundry hanger. Thanks for the tips!

I have not tried the golf tee for a stripped screwhole, but have been successful in stuffing a broken toothpick in the hole and then using a screwdriver to put the stripped screw back in place.

Lady M Says:
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:06 pm

Celery – I don’t even bother with putting it in water. I chop it up, spread it out on a cookie sheet & put it in the freezer. Then next day (because that is when I will remember it…maybe 2-3 days? Haha!), I get it out remove it from the cookie sheet and put it in portions into smaller ziploc bags, then into a freezer bag. Then, when I am making soup or whatever, it is there and ready to dump into the pot.

 

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