We all hate junk mail. On average, Americans receive about 41 pounds of junk mail each year! According to 41pounds.org, that’s equal to over 100 million trees, 28 billion gallons of water, and more C02 than 9 million cars! Yikes!
Here are a few free and easy ways to cut down on junk mail:
Get Your Address on the Do Not Mail List
Remove your address from national marketing lists by registering online for free with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).
Reduce Bundled Flyers & Ad Supplements
Look for the mailing label attached to the flyer and contact the company directly to request your address be removed from their mailing list. Here are a few of the major resident mailers to contact:
- Valassis or Red Plum > Fill out their online form.
- Penny Saver or The Flyer > Check their site to opt out via email or phone.
- Val-Pak Savings Coupons > Fill out their online form.
Catalogs, Mail Orders & Magazines
Opt out of the Epsilon Abacus Coop database, and/or contact the catalog or mail order company directly to be removed from their mailing list.
Have any other junk mail tips? Anyone upcycling their junk mail into cool collages or other crafts? Post your projects and share your junk mail ideas with us!
One of the fastest ways to go green is to get an indoor plant. Think you don’t have a green thumb? You’d be surprised at how easy many houseplants are to take care of. Here’s a list of plants that look beautiful and are practically foolproof:
- African Violet (Saintpaulia ionantha)
- Aloe (Aloe Asphodelaceae)
- Baby Rubber Plant, Peperomia (Peperomia obtusifolia)
- Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra)
- Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema)
- Coleus (Solenostemon)
- Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans massangeana)
- Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium)
- Devil’s Ivy (Golden Pothos)
- Dwarf Palm (Collinea)
- Heart-leaf Philodendron (Philodendron cordatum)
- Jade Plant (Crassula)
- Kalanchoe (Mother of Millions)
- Lady Palms (Rhapis Excelsa)
- Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)
- Ponytail Palm (Nolina recurvata)
- Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata)
- ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
Indoor plants are the best way to brighten up a room, lift your spirits, and improve air quality! Think we’re joking? Here’s a study that shows how indoor plants increase your health and productivity. Can’t seem to finish that quilt or craft project? Try sticking a plant in your studio and see what happens!
Have any tips for budding green thumbs, or photos of your indoor gardens? Share ‘em with us!
Are your shelves sagging with the weight of your crafting library, but you can’t bear to toss those fondly-remembered titles? Consider donating them to your local library! Give them a call. Most public libraries accept lightly used books to add to their underfunded collections or to sell in bargain sales to support other programs. Either way they’ll get a second (green) life while benefitting your community!
Library sales are also a great place to find scrapbooking and paper crafts treasures for cheap! Sift through the stacks as if you’re in a paper store, and keep a keen eye out for sumptuous gold-stamped bindings, antique text pages, scribbled notes hidden in poetry books, marbled papers, bookplates, etc. to add to your next collage. Don’t forget to look through the children’s section for rich lithographs and etchings, or for unique bright colors and patterns. Kids books are often the cheapest, sometimes less than a dollar a piece!
Check out the next library sale in your community and let us know what you find!
Want to green your gift wrapping? Try furoshiki! About 1300 years ago in Japan, folks started bundling goods and gifts in square cloths, called furoshiki. Over time, wrapping gifts with furoshiki became quite an an art, and the wrapping itself was almost more appreciated than what was inside! These simple fabric wraps are wonderfully versatile, and can be used to conceal and decorate gifts of all shapes and sizes.
Furoshiki are like a gift in themselves—colorful patterned squares that can be used over and over again as practical packages. For basic folding instructions, take a look at these sample furoshiki wraps from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Looking for a great furoshiki pattern? Check out the napkin patterns in Oh Sew Easy® Table Toppers by Jean Wells & Valori Wells—they’re just perfect for fabric wraps!
Take a photo of your furoshiki-wrapped gifts and share your folding creations with us!
According to the EPA, over half of the water used by American families to irrigate their yards is wasted. This is especially clear in sunny California, where folks water their lawns with garden hoses at noon. There’s certainly nothing green about that!
Not so at C&T! Our little front garden is maintained by our very own Green Thumbs, and is on a timed watering system. Most of our garden plants require little water now that they’re established, so a quick early morning shower is all they need.
Want to green your own garden? Most patio or container garden drip systems cost about $20, and setup takes just a few hours. Your local hardware or garden store will likely sell the necessary materials.
Getting started is super easy! Screw in a multi-outlet drip head to your water line, connect lines of tubing to your drip outlet, and lace them inconspicuously through your pots and beds. Attach sprayers or bubblers, or simply perforate your tubing for the most economical drip system. If you already have a sprinkler system on a timer, you won’t have to worry about a thirsty garden again. It’ll keep the green in your garden and in your wallet, too!
Have any other great water-saving tips? Let us know!
Here at C&T we recycle everything—even our old FedEx Paks! When we can’t turn them inside-out and reuse them for a new package shipment, we send them back to DuPont to be recycled into new Tyvek bags. Check out DuPont’s Tyvek recycling program here.
Tyvek is amazing stuff! The plastic fibers used to create the material are fused, not woven, so it’s not only waterproof, but airtight too! When it came time to retire my old bike tarp, I turned to our recycled FedEx Pak stash at work and voila! My new tarp!
I had a blast arranging the printed FedEx logos into a pleasing pattern and sewing them together. Because the tarp lives outside, I sealed my seams with specially made Tyvek tape on both sides to make it extra weatherproof. So far it’s worked out great!
Anyone have any fun Tyvek projects they’re working on? I can’t wait to see ‘em!
