by Texas Homesteader ~
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I wanted to eliminate plastic bottles of mouthwash. Although I found many ‘recipes’ for making your own homemade mouthwash, often they’re overly complicated or use specialty ingredients I don’t want to have to buy.
What’s my battle cry? Yep, y’all remember it well:
by Texas Homesteader ~
This simple Cheesy Chile Chicken Casserole recipe can be cooked the traditional way in a standard oven. But I often cook it outside in my solar oven.
So whether or not you have your own solar oven – read on, dear friends!
by Texas Homesteader ~
I. Hate. Plastic. In our area of NE Texas, plastic bags are not recyclable. So I’m always looking for a repurpose use for plastic bags for times when they make it into our home.
Let’s take a bag of potatoes for example. When that bag of potatoes is empty it still doesn’t go to the trash. Nope, I’ve got another use for them.
You know my battle cry: Use Whatcha Got!
by Texas Homesteader ~
A few months ago RancherMan & I joined my parents for a quick dinner at a local restaurant. On the sidewalk outside the restaurant was a cute planter. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a small, thick tire that was painted & then planted.
RancherMan said it was probably a riding lawn mower or golf cart tire. I loved it! Heck you always wonder what to do with an old tire anyway. And their disposal is always an issue.
Plus I often worry that planters that you buy just can’t hold up to the rough Texas weather year after year. Spring hail storms can render that cute ceramic planter useless in short order!
These repurposed-tire planters seemed to be the best of both worlds – interesting looks, very durable and using something previously wasted. I decided to give it a try.
But I didn’t have an old lawn mower tire and I really didn’t want to buy a new one. It seems like such a waste of resources to buy a perfectly good usable tire & paint it!
by Texas Homesteader ~
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I’d never heard of plastic-Free July before, but I’m willing to jump on the bandwagon to eliminate as much extra plastic from our lives as possible. Now I hate plastic and I shun it every day anyway. But for me, it’s all about balance. If I stumble I don’t obsess about it, life’s just too short.
But I’m usually pretty successful in eliminating lots of plastic with super-easy changes. Come see ways I’ve been able to stop lots of plastic from coming into our home. Maybe you can pick up a few tips.
We’d love to hear your tips too, be sure to share in the comments. We can all learn from each other!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Coffee canisters are easy to repurpose for any number of things. And repurpose them we do!
Y’all know we love our coffee. We prefer Folgers to other brands of coffee. But at least their coffee canister is food-grade plastic. So in addition to other non-food repurposes, I’m able to do even more with it.
I can store large quantities of dried herbs in them.
by Texas Homesteader ~
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Did y’all know there’s such a thing as ‘Plastic-Free July‘? Me neither! But you know I hate plastic so I’m loving anything that has to do with eliminating more of it. And it’s perfect timing since recent buying decisions had me looking for disposable utensils.
Wait a minute, WHAT Tammy??! I thought you hated disposable things!
Yes, you’re correct… But we were hosting an outdoor family reunion I didn’t want my good flatware going outside & being lost or thrown away accidentally. And you KNOW I’m not gonna use anything plastic!
So I went online searching for options. I was intrigued to find compostable forks, knives and spoons. There are many manufacturers out there but PerfectWare utensils by Perfect Stix were actually WAXED. I knew right then & there that I’d be buying those!
by Texas Homesteader ~
I wanted to repurpose empty coffee cans for decorative food storage. Unfortunately cleaning away the print from the surface of the can was surprisingly difficult. But I was finally successful – come see how!
