Posted by Snow in 
newspaper
The newspaper recycling revolution starts today. Creep around your neighbor’s back doorstep and appropriate this unwanted landfill fodder as the golden mean of recycling power today!
1. Mulch
That’s right, newspaper is a mulch gulch of flower power. Mulch out of unfolded newspaper shields soil and allows beneficial bacterial development.
2. Tablecloth/Placemat
Instead of using a paper towel to clean up crumbs and spills, or run more water rnsing out a sponge to do the same for placemats, Unfold or half fold a broad newspaper sheet. use as a tablecloth or placemat in dining areas or in the car. You’ll save about 15 fast food napkins.
3. Doggie Bags
Forget those plastic doggie poop bags and use newspaper. A little creative folding and the landfill just got lighter. leave them handy outside with a sign if your neighbors customarily “forget” to scoop and bag it.
4. Donate
My so called waterproof boots have a funny way of becoming permeable at odd moments in Winter. The slosh factor is my most uneasy winter phobia. Extra newspapers get cut down in layers to fit my feet, so basic rainy day forays and bus stop commutes become “throwaway” comfort cushions against moisture.
In boots or sneakers, extra moisture is an enemy. The best result from these is when you take your shoes off after getting to work or school, remove the liners. Wet edges but dry inside soles mean you’ve saved a pair of socks and removed a hygiene issue.
5. Do the Windows
Newsprint with white vinegar cleans windows just as well as chemically laden glass cleaner and paper towels. Cut down on paper towel usage and make windows gleam this way.
6. Wall Liners
My legacy apartment washing amchine has a tendency to bumnp up against the wall in the rinse cycle, and reverberate against a narrow supply shelf over it. This means every rinse cycle I hear this jarring noise at the most intense part of the spin cycle. One taped together pad of newspapers duct taped around the back of the washer solves this dilemma and spares my frontal lobes.
7. Doorjamb Spacers
There is probably a more technically correct term for this item, but I am speaking about the stuff you jam between the floor and the bottom of the door. Recently I stayed in an apartment with less than stellar construction values, and there must have been a full half inch to three quarter inches at the widest between the bottom of the door and the floor. Since the builder had skimped on the doorjamb, this meant in summer air conditoning blew out. I also noticed critters of surprising shape and dimension visiting unannounced. Rolled folds of newspaper jammed under the door fit into the “rectangle” of space tightly and eased my bug tension.
8. Paper over windows.
Half sheets of newspaper in sections have a lot of warmth saving integrity. Living in guest apartments, I learned the use of papering over the windows. The windows and structure had been made for a warm weather climate, a cold snap had me running the heater nonstop. When I put newspaper in the doorjamb and papered sections of newspaper over the windows, heat started to become better contained.
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