Last year, I ended up picking through the trash cans after Christmas morning to get all the recyclable materials out. I promised myself that this year I'd be prepared. Here are a few last minute tips to think about and prepare for before your holiday opening frenzies.
- Have a bag ready to put wrapping paper in to recycle. Allison from Its The Little Thinks wants to see if she can get her kids to open things neatly so she can reuse the paper. Let us know how that goes, Allison! Me, I'm just going to make sure all paper stays out of the trash.
- Break down clothing boxes immediately and put away to use again. I usually break them down Christmas morning, put them under some heavy books to help flatten them good, then take them down the basement.
- You know those absolutely horrid, annoying, somebody must really hate parents twisty ties that come on so many toys. The ones that make parents spew foul words out of their mouth on Jesus' birthday while their children impatiently wait one hour for a Barbie to be extricated from its packaging. They make fabulous tomato plant ties. Save them and use them to attach tomato plants or other plants to steaks.
- Packing and shipping materials from all that online shopping should be saved to be reused. If you have so much that you can never reuse it all, give it away on freecycle. There's some avid ebay-er who will be happy to take it off your hands.
One last tip. Don't be the recycling Nazi. If you end up having to dig a few things out of the trash because someone else in your family didn't meet your expectations so be it. Better to dig through trash than to be a nag.
3 comments:
My mother and I have a collection of Christmas themed giftbags that get used every year as long as they're not too worn, and we also save the bags others give us our gifts in:)You can do the same thing for birthdays.
This reminds of something. When I was a kid, my dad used newspaper to roll the Christmas tree lights on when the tree came down. Every year, the lights came off those rolls of newspaper.
One of the best parts of decorating, was reading the paper that the lights were wound around. As of the mid 80's, he was still using the newspaper from 1968! I wonder if he still is?
The paper that my Nativity Scene is wrapped in is from the mid 80's and I found out yesterday that you could rent a house in Michigan in 1984 for $400.00 bucks!
I'll try not to be a Recycle Nazi this year Robin, promise!
Adam
Janine - I forgot to write about the gift bags. Of course, save your gift bags!
Adam - A lot of my mom's ornaments are wrapped in old newspapers. She has a large cardboard box that could fit both my boys plus a few others in it full of ornaments. It's been years since anyone has seen the bottom - who knows what's to be found.
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