Salvaging with Lori and More

Well it’s been a long time since I started “Salvaging with Lori”. I didn’t realize that my last article was three years ago. A lot has happened in that time that has kept me from doing what I love to do. Due to financial distress, the loss of a vehicle and multiple health problems, we haven’t been dumpster diving as much as we used to.

Depression can often set in when things are not going right and we have had our share of problems and depression, but I promised myself the other day that I was going to get back to being me and pull myself out of this three year slump. I am still recovering from my most recent surgery but am starting to feel more like my old self.

While we do have a vehicle no (although it has few problems) we haven’t had a lot of time to go out salvaging. We don’t just look for things that people have thrown out on the side of the road, but also hit the thrift stores in our little town. The one at the old High School as cheaper prices than the one run by the Food Pantry, but if you can catch the half off sales at the Food Pantry Thrift store you can make a killing.

For example, we wandered in there the other day and it happened to be 70% off all clothing. We walked out with several, almost brand new items for about 60 cents each, which was wonderful since we only had a couple bucks on us.

Last summer I broke out with a rash, a contact rash was what the doc called it. What was funny was the fact that I was pulling weeds with my bare hands, nothing broke out on my hands at all, but my fore arms were riddles with it. I had to take steroids for five days and put on steroidal cream along with taking antihistamines. The rash didn’t want to let up so I wasn’t able to do anything in the yard at all last summer. A couple months later, Rich broke out and is still battling it.

Mine is all cleared up, and sometimes it seems we have his on the run, but then a new patch shows up. Doc says it could be cause by anything including one of the medications he takes. We are trying desperately to get it cleared before summer because we both enjoy doing things in our yard.

Anyway, that is some of what has been going on. As I was looking through the articles I have put up on this site, I started thinking that there was a lot more I wanted to share with people, not just about recycling and reconstructing used items, but things I read about on a daily basis. That is why I have changed the title of the site to “Salvaging with Lori and More”. I want to share health tips, spiritual and uplifting ideas along with things that you can do around the house to make it cleaner, safer, and comfortable.

I will be sharing a lot of ideas including the salvaging and crafty projects that we do from time to time. I hope you will follow me as I start out on this new adventure with “Salvaging with Lori and More”. Check back often because I have a lot I want to share.

Salvaging with Lori: Plastic Bottles

Author: Lori Carter

Sorry to have been gone so long, but like everyone else, we sometimes have very busy days. Today’s subject “plastic bottles” was inspired by a Facebook post. Someone shared a pictorial project of how to make a broom from plastic 2 liter pop bottles. Now, some people save their bottles and take them to the recycling plant, but if you don’t have one near you, don’t have room to store them or don’t have a way to take them anywhere, you basically end up throwing them away, and they end up in a landfill somewhere.

Plastic pop bottles, 2 liters and smaller can be used in many ways. During the winter months, I had them lining my window sills with cuttings from my tomato plants. Many of them actually rooted, lasted the winter, and are now outside in the garden already producing fruit.

If you cut the bottom off, turn them upside down and push them in the dirt in a potted plant or next to plants in the garden, they can serve as conducters for water, straight to the roots. Drop a layer of gravel or rock in the bottom, poke a few holes for drainage, add some dirt and herb seeds and you will have your own little greenhouse for starting your herbs. Simple cut the top of to harvest your plants.

You can use them to cover tomato, pepper, and even lettuce sprouts by just cutting the bottom off and set them over the plants. Do a lot of crafting, store your beads, earring wires, little bells and other small items. Have a large collection of nails and screws laying around, use these bottles to sort them and store them. Need an extra funnel, cut off the top and take off the cap, presto, you have a funnel which can be used for food products or pouring oil and other liquids into your car.

Just about every object you throw away (other than rotted or outdated food) has a use in another form. Plastic does a lot of damage to our environment. I can’t express the anger and disappointment I have with people who throw their plastic pop bottles out of the car windows, besides the road, in the parking lots of stores and even in peoples yards (like ours).

Some of the bottles are thick enough that you could easily fill them water and carry them in a back pack, take them on a camping trip, or store them in your garage or car for emergency use like washing your hands or filling your radiator. In the Philippines, one man figured out how to make lights for their shacks and brick homes using old pop bottles, water and bleach. Click here to see how he did this.

Let your imagination roam. There are many uses for plastic bottles. I did a little search for images of uses for plastic bottles and actually found a blog site where it showed how people made green houses and furniture out of plastic bottles. One man even built a house for his family and a play house for his little girl. There is no reason you can’t find a use for plastic bottles, after all, even though you aren’t charged a deposit, the price of the pop is enough that you shouldn’t waste the container it came in.

 

 

 

Crafty “Cubbys”

Author: Lori Carter

There are always those spots around your house that need just a little something to brighten them up. It might be a blank wall, a corner or a recess that looks bare and lonely. No matter what room they are in, they stick out like a sore thumb. The following picture is just one of these areas that looked barren and forlorn. We had this wall and space next to my curio cabinet that needed something.

The table actually goes with the kitchen chairs but I opted for a larger, square table in there to increase my work space when preparing meals. The table cloth was a find at the thrift store for a quarter. The flowers Rich bought me a long time ago and I have been able to keep them brilliant by just swishing them in cold soapy water once in a while and hanging them upside down to dry. The silver pieces (they definitely need polishing) we just picked up at yard sales, rummage sales and thrift stores. We had no idea what we were going to do with them at the time we bought them (none were over a dollar).

The wooden wall hanging we bought at a yard sale for around a buck fifty and the small framed “thingy” is some Japanese or Chinese piece of art. It has a small object that looks similar to a small abacus with carved characters. The Chinese hat was a garbage find that Richard mended and painted. All in all, throwing these items together created an interesting and great looking “cubby”.

I will be taking some pictures around the house at different projects we put together for just a few bucks here and there. It is amazing the items that people throw out but the saying goes “one person’s garbage is another person’s treasure”.

Have a blessed day, Lori