reduce clutter

Creative Ways to Reuse “Disposable” Items

2:00AM Gina Trapani | We asked earlier this week what disposable items you had found creative re-uses for, and the answers are in. Not surprisingly, some of you have some pretty crafty uses for household goods that usually end up at the curb. From CD-R spindles to corks, twist-ties to tissue boxes, lots of supposedly one-use items can save you money, free up space, and be seriously handy when the need arises. After the jump, a roundup of our readers’ waste-reducing reuses. Yogurt photo by Dan4th, all others by How can I recycle this. More »

Find New Uses for Orphaned Socks

2:00AM Kevin Purdy | Even the most organised laundry masters can fall victim to Sock Gremlins—the invisible forces that seem to whisk individual socks away, leaving an unbalanced pair. Environment-friendly blog Planet Green has a few suggestions before you think about tossing that orphaned sock, including: Protect fragile holiday ornaments when you put them away for the year Use as a whiteboard eraser Send to Operation Happy Sock, where it’ll be stuffed with polyfill and catnip for cats at the local animal shelter Protect your MP3 player Nifty ideas, and there are ten more at the link. Of course, you could also strive to avoid orphaned socks entirely with a no-sort system. Photo by kevin. Find 14 Uses for Orphan Socks [Planet Green] More »

Tackle Your Excess Turkey (and Other Dishes) at LeftOverChef.com

12:00AM Kevin Purdy | So you woke up this morning to a refrigerator seemingly invaded overnight by the forces of tinfoil, plastic wrap and Tupperware. Now is your chance to reduce waste and get creative with LeftOverChef.com, a recipe-generating website that can make short work of your post-holiday provisions. I entered a few ingredients my in-laws were sure to still have today—turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mashed potatoes—and got back ideas for turkey potato pancakes, turkey burgers with mushroom gravy and “Toasted Christmas Lunch Sandwiches” that sound great for Saturday. The recipes come from a variety of sources and incorporate typical non-holiday leftovers as well. LeftOverChef.com More »

Reduce Terminal Clutter With GNU Screen

4:45AM Annalee Newitz | If you’re sick of opening a new terminal window for every application, GNU Screen is here to save the day. It’s a simple little program that comes pre-installed in Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X, and it allows you to page through multiple console applications from the same terminal window. Imagine reading your mail, editing text, and running a sorting application—all from the same terminal on your desktop! To get started, just type “screen” at the command line prompt. You’ll get a welcome screen, and then you’ll hit return. It looks like you’ve been taken back to the prompt, but now you’re in GNU Screen. Start an application, like a text editor. Then hit ctrl-a, followed by letter c. This creates a new window (you’ll see a new command prompt). Start your next application, then hit ctrl-a, followed by p. Now you’ve paged back to your previous window, with the text editor. Presto, two terminals in one! But wait, there’s more. More »