DIY Life

My Rubbermaid containers have lived through one too many pasta casseroles and are starting to smell like it, too. Naturally, I researched a few options on how to take the scent out of plastic and stumbled upon a great solution that I can't wait to try on my next set of Rubbermaids.

Turns out that if you sprinkle a bit of salt in an empty airtight Rubbermaid container before you store it, you'll keep the smell at bay. Go on --- give it a shot and report back. ;)

And yes, I realize we're talking salt yet again here at DIY Life, but honestly --- can you ever get enough of the kitchen hacks? I certainly cannot, and just to show you how necessary a bit of sodium really is, here's another handy (and salty!) post to whet your whistle:
-Make Your Own Toothpaste (YES! With salt!)

Convinced?

Planning a bathroom renovation? Me, too. Right now, I'm shopping for the perfect bathtub.

Now, I knew right off the bat my budget wouldn't stretch to one of those luxe clawfoot models. But I also can't settle for a cheapo standard-issue (read: shallow, uncomfortable) tub. I'm looking for a bath that's comfortable and deep enough for soaking ... yet won't break the piggy bank.

If you're shopping for a tub, choose carefully. The cost of installation can easily dwarf that of the tub itself, so make sure the finished result is exactly what you wanted! You've probably already narrowed it down by size, shape and color. But wait: You still must choose the type of material your new tub will be made from. Let's take a look at the choices.

We brought home a new patio set last week -- for an imaginary patio that's yet to be built, but that's a story for another day. After unpacking and setting it up, I looked at the huge pile of bubble wrap sitting on my lawn. Surely, there must be a way to reuse this stuff, I thought. So after letting the kids have a few pieces to pop, I got busy looking for new ways to put it to work.

What I discovered is that besides being a fun and addictive noisemaker, bubble wrap is surprisingly versatile. I've squirreled mine away so that I can try out some of these unusual uses:

• Use bubble wrap to line the crisper drawers in your refrigerator. It'll protect delicate fruits -- like pears -- from bruising when you toss them in. And when you forget the pears are there and discover them too late ... easy clean-up!
• Bring bubble wrap with you to the grocery store to wrap frozen items in before bagging, ensuring they'll still be frozen when you get them home.
• Start saving bubble wrap now for when the cooler weather sets in, then use it to winterize your delicate outdoor potted plants.

Your front yard doesn't have to be perfectly manicured or professionally landscaped to look good. It is, however, your public face -- of sorts. Plus, your neighbors are forced to look at whatever you put out there!

Be a good neighbor: banish the following items from your front yard.

1. Plastic foliage. I'm talking anything you got from a craft store. Like this, for example. Plastic ivy. Faux dried sunflowers. Silk chrysanthemums. Plastic wreaths. Fake autumn leaves strung into streamers. Shudder.

Plastic flowers are tacky in the garden. They're unnecessary. After all, you have Mother Nature at your disposal! Why choose fake flowers? Finally, they evoke the cemetery. Enough said.

When I was a kid, many of my friends had slides going right into their pools. Cool. Not quite as cool as a water park, but it did the trick. Can you replicate the water park experience at home?

Homemade water slides are great fun... big fun... huge fun... if they're done right. I should probably write a Don't-it-yourself post on the contraption I have rigged in my backyard right now: a Little Tikes climber with the slide going right into my son's kiddie pool. Yes, it is wobbly and completely unsafe. Don't try this one at home, folks.

Instead, try making this water slide (reminds me of the old Slip 'N Slide from my childhood) from a piece of 4-ply plastic and a sprinkler. Stake it down every 4-5 feet so the plastic is stable, and send the kids whooshing. Rather than just hitting a patch of lawn at the bottom, you could always set up a trap to make a small "watering hole."

Green? I bet you thought red, white, and blue would be the appropriate colors for an Independence Day BBQ, not green.

Think again. Clearly, most people are interested in doing even little things to help keep their families healthy and preserve the environment in this age of toxins and pollution. Here are some things you can do to help while throwing a bang-up July Fourth party:

• Skip the plastic plates and cups. Go for anything recyclable or reusable, even bamboo.
• Natural gas grills pollute the air less than charcoal grills.
• Don't shoot off polluting fireworks at home. If you'd like to enjoy the big boomers, find a town celebration nearby.
• Serve up local, organic food, which causes less transportation pollution to the environment -- and your food will be super-fresh.
• Throw a potluck party to share resources.

You'll find more details on how to have a greener Independence Day in Greenzer's article. So fire up that barbie with a clear conscience!

As I have said many times before; almost everything has more than one use, and I believe it is our duty as inhabitants of this planet to recycle as many items as possible, sometimes reusing the same item over and over again.

Plastic soda and water bottles are items that can be reused. Join me after the break, as I give you a list of things that you can reuse plastic bottles for, which I found over at Green Home.

Lately we've been reusing some of our (BPA-free) water bottles. But drying a bottle is a drag, especially when you hand wash, as we do. So instead of paying $16 elsewhere, my wife put the chopsticks we rarely use into a toothbrush stand we were going to throw away.

Reusing water bottles and plastic sandwich bags not only saves money, but reduces waste, and might be better than recylcing. If you're concerned about BPA, check your water bottles' recycling number. A #2, #4 or #5 won't leach BPA, but a #1 and #7 will. You can use the #1 and #7 stuff as a vase for flowers.

I was in desperate need of shelving to display my goods at upcoming craft fairs. I did quite a bit of searching on the good old internet, looking at what other people were using. I really needed to take price into account: I'm always one to pinch pennies where I can.

I noticed that in a lot of people's display pictures, they were using basic plastic shelving. I had seen that type of shelving for sale at stores like Wal-mart and Target, where it mostly comes in drab plain old white. I did see a few sets in black, but I really want my items to pop off the shelves, and with the black shelving, my items would just sort of meld into the background.

For a moment I considered trying to find something else, but then something clicked inside my head. I'd recently made over my plastic patio furniture using Krylon Fusion spray paint, so why not just paint the shelving whatever color I want?

I was going to go for gray, but when I saw the Krylon Fusion For Plasic Fusion Hammered in silver, I couldn't resist. And the painting was easy: full coverage in only two coats. It took about two cans for a set of four shelves, so the price is nice.

I've since decided to use this shelving in my craft area when not vending at craft fairs. It looks too good to just store away!

I have a great stash of reusable bags, more than enough to manage even my biggest shopping trips. I store them in my car, at the ready. But yet, I still have a closet full of those nasty little plastic grocery bags. Why? Forgetfulness, mainly. At least once or twice a month I catch myself standing at the checkout line without cloth bags in hand.

My point is that until they ban them, those little plastic bags are unavoidable. They're recyclable in some cities, but not everywhere, and it's far too wasteful just to toss them out. Still, they quickly take over if you don't find a use for them.

We've talked about plastic bags before at DIY Life, but for our Earth, I think it's an issue worth revisiting. Here are 10 more great ideas for getting some use out of those plastic bags before they end up in the landfill.

Though plastic bags can be used for making everything from purses to kites, these tips are for the less crafty, like me. Use them to keep your knees dry in the garden, as a temporary cutting board, to wrap a last minute gift, or as a cookbook protector.

Of course, the "greenest" way to go is to not use them in the first place, but once you have them you might as well find a good use for them, right? How do you reuse your plastic bags?

The U.S. Consumer Safety Product Commission, in cooperation with Aloha Housewares Inc., is voluntary recalling about 152,000 portable electric heaters. The unit can overheat and melt plastic parts, posing a fire hazard. Aloha Housewares has received 29 reports of electric heaters catching fire, smoking, or melting. They have received 18 reports of property damage, and have received one report of minor burns to a person's hands and feet.

Manufactured in China, the recall involves "Aloha Breeze" white electric oscillating tower heaters sold at Walmart and small retail chain stores nationwide from August 2006 through November 2007 for between $35 and $45. Check the CPSC press release for model numbers and date codes.

Stop using the recalled portable heater immediately and contact Aloha Housewares for a replacement. For more information on the recall, contact them at (800) 295-4448, or email them at ahitexaslq@aol.com.

Using plastic for repairing, prototyping, etc. has always been a mystery to me until recently. I found a few good sites that show some techniques in plastic welding, bending, and vacuum forming. These may sound like high-tech methods that need special tools, but a soldering iron, oven and vacuum cleaner are as high-tech as the tools get.

Plastic welding is my favorite because of the simplicity and cool DIY possibilities. Using a soldering iron and oven paper, trash bags or other sheet plastic can be melted together to make things like kites, sails, or even solar hot air balloons. Aleksi at Instructables gives a four steps on this trick.

Resin casting is a fun and exciting craft. You get to embed almost any object you want to in crystal clear liquid plastic. You can choose any mold you want, and hope that your cast comes out the way you want it too. You can color the plastic too. Casting resin is a fun craft anyone can learn, with experimentation being the key to cool looking crafts.

Craftlog has lots of pictures and ideas in their post, fun with resin. The poster received casting resin from her sister for Christmas, and the two of them had fun using various items for casts. Some of the molds they used were a pill box, a candy mold, a rigid contact lens case, and a plastic paint palette.

If you don't know how to cast resin, learn how with the help of Family Education. Casting resin can be purchased from your local craft store. The kids will be happy to help you preserve their treasures, and they can make extras to give as Christmas gifts next year.

PVC pipe. It's affordable, easy to work with, durable. Not, it's not very pretty, but let me say again: it's affordable! PVC is sort of a wonder-plastic and can be used creatively in many a DIY project. (That is, if you're willing to overlook the fact that it's highly toxic and, therefore, not exactly a green choice.) Like this one, for example: build a bike rack using PVC pipe. I found this one on Instructables, offered up for public consumption by user "imarunner2."

This is a nice 'n' easy little project. If you have a halfway decent saw, you can make this. You will need a length of three-quarter-inch PVC pipe and a bunch of connecting joints -- six t-joints and six elbow joints. All the pieces are glued together using PVC cement. One Instructables reader tried it out and found himself out-of-pocket by a mere $5. Peanuts!

Interested in bigger, more elaborate models? Take a look at some of the pics people have uploaded to Flickr. You've got your king-size garage versions, and then you've got your mondo versions, too. That last one must've been a fun weekend project. Not.

Liking the DIY-with-PVC concept? Check out Gary's post on a DIY vehicle shelter made from PVC pipes.

I love disco balls. They are delightfully tasteless, but, like the lava lamp they have their place. Whether you're decking out the dorm room or looking for something unique in your living-room, this is a simple project that is sure to get guests talking. Here's what you'll need to build a Christmas disco ball:

1. Coat hanger
2. 50 SOLO 9oz clear plastic cups
3. 150 multicolor mini Christmas lights with a controler
4. Soldering iron

The author of this article uses colored Christmas lights, but I imagine that white lights would work well too. They would probably give a softer sparkle, so you can choose based on what style you're going for. The full instructions teach you how to make this Christmas disco creation. Put one together this weekend and it will look great over Christmas and carry you right through the New Year's party.