What Not To Toss Weekend Archives

What Not To Toss Weekend: Make mittens and hats from old sweaters!

2 Mins Read

Remember this little sweater that became a cardigan?

Well it’s too small for kid #6 and has a few stains here and there which makes passing it down to younger kids a no-go.

Time to trash that striped number, right?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

With a little Edward Scissorhands love, that sweater or cardigan can yield mittens and hats —even with those pesky stains.

(Good thing, too, since winter in Utah this year has been a little like living on the ice planet Hoth. Add to that six kids who keep jumping head-first into snow drifts and I’m having a hard time keeping enough dry hats and mittens around.)

*Cue the back ups.*

Chop off the sleeves and nix any trim or zippers. Open plain sweaters up along a side seam.

Use a hat for your guide and make sure you have enough material to cut twice the length of your hat + side seam allowance.

Cut the extra fabric away and fold in half with right sides together.

Cut around hat leaving room for a seam allowance.

Stitch around the top and serge or zig zag the raw edges.

And those stains? Yeah, totally covered them with some scrap t-shirt fabric. Just stitched in place.

I got one kids size hat out of this 5T sweater. Adult sizes would easily yield a hat from both the front and back pieces.

So don’t stop there!

What about those sleeves? Or any extra sweater material?

When I opened up the sleeves, I realized I had enough material for another hat.

Trim up the arm and scrap pieces to even rectangles. Measure from the border and trim pieces 1/2” longer than the height of your finished hat.

Fold each piece in half and round the raw edge at the top to match the curve of your hat piece …

… so that it looks like this.

Then just pin and stitch together. Serge or zig zag edges.

Done and done, right?

Nope.

There’s still left over material from the tops of the sleeves. What about that?

Mittens!

That same t-shirt scrap kicked out two more little hearts while the folded sleeve edge made some quick and easy seam binding for the cuffs.

So …

Trash-bound sweater?

It’s What-Not-To-Toss This Weekend!

Oh … and one more thing.

On behalf of all Utah residents:

In Home and DIY Projects

What Not To Toss Weekend: Busted Calculators and Remotes

2 Mins Read

How many of you have wound up with one of those freakishly large calculators or remotes from the dollar store? Kid #2 proudly came home with the calculator version and it lasted all of a day before it cracked in half on the first drop.

Time to toss that bad boy, huh?

Wait! Don’t toss that!

The outer shell may be toast, but the buttons can live on.

A few left-over peel-n-stick magnet strips and scissors later …

… we wound up with some fun, practically free frig magnets.

And man have the kids had fun doing math problems on the frig this week.

And while petty and childish, I’ll admit that it was fun last night to skunk my snarky nine-year-old who declared that he “pretty much knows everything about math, mom” with a simple problem using negative numbers.

Um, Kid … –25 + 54 does not equal 1, nor is the square root of anything involved.

And so that no one’s left out, anyone without a freakishly large calculator could just buy a new one for $1 and cannibalize it to make their own, cheap magnets. A small screw driver is all you need to open it up to get the numbers out, unless of course you’d like to just drop kick it a few times instead.

Anywho …

Overly Large Gimmicky Calculator or Remote?

It’s What Not To Toss This Weekend!

And hey, what else could you do with calculator, remote or even keyboard keys?

Make push pins? Embellish cards? Art? Let me know.

In Halloween

What Not To Toss: Halloween Treat Bags

1 Min Read

How many of you are stocking up on Halloween candy?

It’s the usual drill of buying bags, emptying treats into a bowl by the front door and then recycling the empty bags, right?

Wait! Don’t Toss That!

Those bags got the candy to your house just fine – why not put them to use to round up candy from the neighbors, too?

Just cut handles from whatever you’ve got on hand — fabric scraps, ribbon, VHS tape, curling ribbon, whatever – and tape them in place with duct or packing tape.

And that’s it. No buying treat bags. No bulky plastic pumpkins to store.

And when this little princess is done with her treats, everything gets recycled or reused—no waste, no extra cost.

Love that.

Candy bags?

It’s What Not To Toss this weekend!

Linking up to:

Skip To My Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, C.R.A.F.T. * Stories of AtoZ, Tip Junkie, Sugar Bee, Today’s Creative Blog, Sassy Sites, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia * Someday Crafts, Lil Luna, We Are That Family, Blue Cricket Designs, The Thrifty Home, * House of Hepworths, *Tidy Mom, Whipperberry, Kojo Designs, Chic On A Shoestring, Momma’s Kinda Crafty, *Tatertots & Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors * I Heart Naptime, Under The Table and Dreaming,

In Home and DIY Projects

What Not To Toss Weekend #5: The Busted Lunch Box

2 Mins Read

My seven year old daughter is crushed: her Tangled lunch-box-purse-thing is toast.

Frankly I’m surprised it lasted this long.

My daughter loves–LOVES–this little box, but is terrible at putting it away. So in the last few months it has been stepped on, knocked down the stairs, left outside and dumped in the toys box dozens of times. This week she finally admitted through tears that there was no way to uncrinkle the metal or replace the busted off latch. The bottom of the box had a steel logo so I marched it straight to our recycling bins.

Time to toss the box, right?

Wait! Don’t Toss That!

Since I was going to have to cut the handle off her most favoritest toy ever before I could recycle the box, I let her come up with something new to make with the left-over materials.

And the result?

Clear, stretchy plastic cording + the left-over handle beads

=

a quick princess bracelet.

My daughter was thrilled to both save her princess jewels and have something princess-y to wear just for her.

And because we were so focused on the bracelet save, I didn’t even think to save the metal from the box sides.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

What I should have done was *carefully* cut the side panels from each side of the box, crimp the edges together and make a little cup for pencils or stickers for my daughter’s desk.

Oh well.

At least it’s been recycled and the beads live on as a bracelet on the arm of one very happy seven year old.

Now please remember to put your new bracelet away kiddo.

Busted lunch box / purse?

It’s What Not To Toss this weekend.

In Home and DIY Projects

What Not To Toss Weekend #2: Shoes With Holes

3 Mins Read

Today’s post is brought to you by my ten-year-old son who managed to put not one, but two holes in his cheapie just-for-the-summer shoes that I bought two weeks ago.

Really kid? Not even a month of wear?

Just as I started into Mom Lectures 15 & 18: Money Does Not Grown On Trees and You Need To Take Better Care Of Your Stuff, Kid 1 interrupted to suggest we just fix the shoes with duct tape.

Duct tape?

My initial reaction was HECK NO, kid.

Taping shoes together has to bring thrifty to a new low (and not in a good way). But just as I was coming up with the reasons why duct tape would never work, I stopped short and did a 180.

Because thanks to Myth Busters and time to kill to during my hospital stay with kid 6, I know that duct tape can actually do anything.

You can make sailboats that actually sail. And cannons that fire actual cannon balls. And patch sinking boats while you’re in them on the water.

And that’s before you even get into the whole wallet-purse-prom-dress-out-of-duct-tape craze.

Image from NYDailyNews.com

So I said yes … and cut a few patches out of cardboard to level out the bottom of the shoe where the holes were … and added a bajillion (or four) layers of the brightest duct tape we had in the house …

… and just like that—Kid 1 was back to having dry feet. Well, dry ugly feet.

After seeing how the purple looked, my son decided he wanted to change the brown canvas to black “just like the cool kids.” Whatever that means.

So he gave Sharpies a whirl and ended up with two busted pens and shoes that were still brown. Awesome.

But since I was experimenting with mixing house paint in the middle of all this, he asked if he could use some, too.

Sure. Why not.

So off came the classy decorative duct tape trim and out came a foam brush.

Worked pretty well. The paint dried nicely and wasn’t stiff at all. Apparently Olympic Premium Indoor Latex paint in satin finish is the way to go here people.

And as for Kid 1, he’s ridiculously proud of his sad little house-painted-duct-taped wonders, proudly showing them off at Walmart today while I kept checking to make sure no one was getting a cell photo of us for thepeopleofwalmart.com – ha!

And despite how conflicted I feel about these things, he’s gotten compliments on them from other kids who think they’re so cool!

And maybe it’s a good thing that his shoes gave out so fast so that he could start a wave of duct tape art that rocks fifth grade like no body’s business. (And it saves me $10-$20 bucks for at least a few more weeks. 🙂

So…

Shoes With Holes?

They’re what not to toss this weekend.