If you’re like me, you’d rather use a reusable cloth bag for grocery shopping instead of them flimsy plastic bags. You can fit a lot more in a cloth bag, it helps the environment, PLUS some stores reward you for using cloth tote bags. But who can afford to buy a reusable bag these days, what with the economy and hard times and all?

Fret not, for THIS LINK will lead you to a free reusable cloth bag. That’s right, just click it, fill in some form, and bah-bam, you’ll be well on your way to living a greener life, all for the low cost of zero. Act now, supplies are limited!

Right, let’s “cut to the chase”, as “they” say. There’s a stray cat that roams our neighborhood (not Gimpy the stray cat, a different one), and me and Tiff have been feeding him/trying to adopt him for a while. So far he’s not ready to stay in our house, and since the weather is ’bout to start getting chilly, I decided it was high time to build him his very own homemade cat house from reused materials. Luckily I still had a bunch o’ materials left over from our kitchen remodeling, even after making a kitchen cart from reused materials.

First, I cut the floor and walls from some old wood I had from our kitchen remodeling. After some screws n’ glue, this is what I had:

I had some carpet left over from mi casa, so I cut out a lil’ chunk and oh-so-carefully fitted it to Charlie’s cat house.

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It’s true; after 6 months of using the same razor blade (by applying the ancient Immortal Razor Technique), it is time to lay the ol’ blade to rest.  Faithfully it has served me, but in the last week or so, I could feel some dullness.

By cleaning mess out of my razor and drying it every time I used it, I stretched its life to half a year, a lot longer than the average razor!

If you haven’t tried it, I heartily suggest you try cleaning out your razor blade and drying it (with a towel or what have you) after each time you use it.  Not only will you save money, but you’ll also be reusing some good ol’ resources by putting forth only the slightest of effort.  ‘Tis a win-win situation, ’tis.

P.S. It turns out my razor came with two blades, so I didn’t have to buy a new razor at all, just put in the new blade and bah-bam, new razor.

Dang, I just found out about a company in England called GreenWorks that sounds great. What happens is people or companies can donate old office or school furniture (desks, chairs, tables) and GreenWorks will fix them up.

Once the used-but-looking-like-new furniture is ready, it will either be sold (cheaply) to offices or charities (for a discount), or donated to an “orphanage in Romania and a range of NGO projects in Benin, Gambia and Ghana”.

So if you live in England and are thinking about getting rid of some used office furniture, por favor donate it to them. You’ll be happy knowing that your old furniture didn’t go to a landfill, and is being reused somewhere by some people who need it.

Also, does anyone know if something like GreenWorks exists in the U.S.? Dígame, because if not, I might have to start a company like this meself (since I am already an “expert” on recycling household junk into useful mess).

This made the front page of Care2, vote for it yo

Since me n’ Tiff bought and moved into our bodacious townhome last summer, we’ve changed a lot about it. A big thing we changed was the kitchen; with the help of Leon, Bil-lay, and 10, we took out a lot of old and put in a lot of used (new for us) things. I saved a lot of what we took out (nails, wood, etc.), and have reused those materials to make some new things.

For Valentines’ Day, I made Tiff a kitchen island with these saved materials. I started with not much, but with a lil’ gumption and elbow grease, the kitchen island was completed. Here is its story…

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. With this handy advice in my noggin, I drew out the plans for the island. I wanted to make it the same height as our counters, and also make sure that there was enough room for our trash can to fit in it. Before I show you my plans, please remember that they are copyrighted, so if you copy them I’ll sue your pants off.

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Perchance, as you check out in a grocery store, you’ve stopped and wished that you had a reusable cloth bag to put your groceries in, instead of flimsy plastic bags. Once you’ve unpacked all your groceries at your abode, you look around and fight back tears as you take in the mountain of empty plastic bags. Is there no way to avoid all that plastic clutter?

Maybe you’ve heard that a lot of people are using reusable tote bags, but you can’t afford one. But wait; if you can afford “free”, then you can afford a reusable cloth bag. Here’s how:

Click HERE to take a short conservation quiz. If you finish it successfully, you’ll be sent a free reusable tote bag in June. So get ready to kiss your plastic bag proliferation problem goodbye.

This is a perfect example of how saving money and helping the environment can go together. When you reuse something, you save money and help conserve resources. Anyhoo, without further ado, I present some good sites for saving money and getting some free reused stuff.

This here site has a good “free” section for most cities. There are all kinds of things being offered for free here. You don’t have to register to browse through the list of reused things, so feel free to head over right now and see what’s available for free in your area.

I just joined this site a couple days ago, and it’s a bit stricter than craigslist. This has its pros and cons. Some cons are that you have to be registered in a group, and that a moderator has to approve of a post to the message board before it is shown. Some pros are that you can post “Wanted” ads, and that you can be sure that any message you see has the seal of approval from a moderator.To get started, search for a group in your area, and sign up. You’ll be reusing and giving away unwanted items in no time.

This last one doesn’t involve reusing things; instead, i’s just a good place to get lots and lots of free samples of all kinds of things, such as food, drinks, shirts, and more. Just go to the site, click “Free Goods”, and you’ll be transported to a magical world of free samples. Not quite as dependable as craigslist or freecycle (sometimes the samples never arrive :(), but the price is right.

Besides these websites, you can always go to a local thrift store and donate any unwanted items that you have.  If anyone knows of any other good websites for getting free, used things, por favor let me know.