DIY Life

My husband was walking an underground tunnel in Jerusalem a couple years ago when his flashlight died. Thanks to the LCD screen on his digital camera, he was able to get enough light to see where he was going and find the exit.

Yep, just like cell phones, digital cameras are handy little gadgets to have on you. They're definitely not just for taking family snapshots anymore! Let's explore some of the ways they can help out in a pinch:

1. Flashlight. As I've just noted, digital cameras make a pretty decent light source when you get stuck.

The humble cardboard carton: the perfect vessel for holding milk or juice. Alas, even with the rise of recycling, squillions still end up in the nation's landfill each year where they wait for Mother Nature to do her thing.

So how about putting them to good use around the house and garden? Here are a bunch of clever, thrifty, crafty and downright surprising uses for the humble cardboard milk carton.

INDOORS

Mega-sized ice cubes. Clean cartons thoroughly, fill with water and freeze. Remove cardboard and use them in the cooler for your next party, or let kids and pets play with them outside.

Straining pasta. Martian helmets. These images spring to mind when I hear the word "colander." But the humble colander has lots of other potential uses ... and why not? The steel version does, after all, sport a super-cool classic design that just begs to be creatively repurposed. Check out these ideas!

Handy Household Uses
1. Grease splatter reducer. Carefully place a colander upside down over frying foods. The heat can get out, but the grease is largely contained.

2. Warm a serving bowl. I love this one: Set your colander inside a pasta serving bowl, then drain boiling pasta as usual. Instead of running down the drain, the hot water will get the bowl warm and ready for your spaghetti and meatballs.

My Tupperware cupboard is a scattered collection of mis-matched containers and lids. Cleaning it out, I found far more lids than containers. Typically, I would just get rid of the extra lids, making a collection of matching containers. Lifehacker points us to these top 12 uses for plastic container lids.

Little round lids make great coasters for kids. You could use the slightly larger ones as plant coasters, keeping water from dripping outside the pot. Toss aside the abrasive scrubbers, and use a plastic lid to scrape your pots and pans. they are strong, non-stick and won't damage things. The crafting options are endless, like using lids as paint pallets, glitter, or bead holders or as a protective piece to catch glue gun drips.

Have you re-used stray container lids? Tell us how!

Do you have some leftover wallpaper that you just don't know what to do with? Maybe you purchased something you thought would work, but have since changed your mind. In any case, don't throw away those partial rolls of wallpaper.

Using scissors and glue, there are many things that you can create with those leftover wallpaper scraps. Use your imagination and your creativity, and get busy making some homemade Christmas gifts.

1. Cover up your boring kitchen and bathroom cabinets with complimentary wallpaper scraps. Paint the outside frame, and just wallpaper the insets of the cabinets.
   
2. Use wallpaper to cover an old lampshade.
3. Cover a waste basket to match the decor in any room.
4. Use scraps of wallpaper to cover the white mats of a picture frame to give it some vibrant color.
5. Make a framed wall art collage.
6. Create a room divider or folding screen.
7. Cover a desk or a coffee table top.
8. Bored with your headboard? Why not wallpaper it!
9. Line your kitchen cabinets or drawers with wallpaper scraps rather than buying expensive contact paper.
10. Cover an old shoe box with wallpaper scraps and use as a gift box.
11. Use as gift wrap for any occasion.
12. Cover light switchplates in your house with tiny scraps.
13. Make fancy greeting cards by covering construction paper with wallpaper scraps.
14. Laminate two large pieces of wallpaper and make fancy table placemats.
15. Use small strips to create bookmarks. Laminate, punch a hole near the top, tie some ribbon through, and make a tassel. Viola , a new bookmark.
16. Wallpaper the inside of a bookshelf.
17. Use wallpaper to cover a closet door or other interior door.
18. Wallpaper the risers of your stairs.
19. Cover a popcorn tin with wallpaper to give yourself a nice new wastebasket.
20. Wallpaper an old oatmeal container or similar cardboard container and use as pretty, decorative storage bins.

When I was at the thrift store the other day, they had rolls of new and used wallpaper. They were very cheap, and some of the rolls were very pretty and I must say, I was very impressed with the selection the thrift store had. In any case, what do you use wallpaper scraps for? Feel free to tell us in the comments.

Got milk? Ha, sorry, I couldn't resist. At over $4 a gallon, milk is a very expensive commodity these days. It is very important to have on hand, especially as it helps us grow up big and strong. Of course, if you are lactose intolerant, then you can use milk for other things, and as I have, learn to love soy!

Are you curious to know what else you can do with milk beside make excellent mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner? Gomestic has a list of 20 extraordinary uses for milk that is, well, extraordinary.

The author mentions everything from using powdered milk and water as a facial mask, using milk as a shaving cream, and using milk to make yourself a foam bath. Check out the list to see if there is anything that you can use milk for:

We all know that coffee grounds have many uses, but did you know that coffee filters can be used for more than just holding your coffee grounds? The coffee filter is the first thing that I reach for when I need to make a new pot of java, but they come in handy for all sorts of little chores.

Valli on gomestic.com writes up a fine article on 10 amazing uses for coffee filters. They really are amazing, and I have tried many of them with success. Here is her list:

1. Cover a bowl of food with a coffee filter to prevent splattering when cooking in the microwave.
2. Coffee filters can shine your mirrors, TV screen and your computer monitor.
3. Prevent rust in your stored iron cookware by placing a coffee filter in it to absorb moisture.
4. Clean your glasses with a coffee filter and they will be lint free.
5. Place a coffee filter over the drain hole in the bottom of a planter so the soil won't leak out.
6. Cork bits get into your wine? Use a coffee filter to separate the wine from the cork bits.
7. Coffee filters can keep your fingers clean if you serve a messy hot dog or popcorn in them.
8. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
9. After deep fat frying, use coffee filters to help catch the small food remnants from the oil.
10. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.

I use a coffee filter to cover my food so my microwave doesn't get dirty, and it works great. I wear glasses to read and I also need them when I am on the computer, and I used a coffee filter to clean my glasses, and was totally amazed and happy with the results. Try the uses and you'll be amazed too.

Summer is officially over and it's time to pack up summer things and make room for fall and winter. I have lots of old beach towels that just aren't going to make it through another summer. Our local thrift store isn't interested in them because they can't sell them, and they cost the store time and money when they end up having to throw the towels out.

I'd really rather not throw these out, so I went looking for ways to re-purpose them. After the break I'll let you in on 10 uses for old beach towels. I'd love to hear your ideas too.

Did you know that petroleum jelly has been around since the late 1800's? It can be used as a lubricant for all sorts of little jobs around the house. I use my little jar of petroleum jelly to lubricate the annoying hinges on the doors of my bathroom sink, for coating my chapped lips in the winter, and even dab a little on my toddler's bottom when she gets a little too red.

Gomestic user Darlene McFarlane has compiled an awesome list of uses for petroleum jelly. She writes about everything from removing water rings on wood to using jelly to shine your shoes. How about using Vaseline to protect cuts and scrapes? It works just as well as Neosporin, in my opinion. It works wonders as a moisturizer, especially if you have sensitive skin like I do. I get really dry skin on my hands and feet, so I slather them with a layer of petroleum jelly and put on socks, allowing the jelly to be absorbed into my feet overnight. Voila, in the morning I have nice soft footsies. I do the same thing with my hands. Yeah, I know, it isn't the most romantic thing in the world to do, but I can get away with it on weeknights since my husband works second shift and I am sleeping by the time he gets home. Check out the rest of what Darlene has to say, I am sure you will find her list just as useful as I do.

Now that external CD-ROM drives for personal computers are so insanely cheap, why not find a use for them outside the PC? In the latest edition of maximizing the value from that CD-ROM player, some researchers in Spain have demonstrated the ability to make a standard CD-ROM player into a highly accurate medical imaging scanner.

By adding two light sensors to an existing CD-ROM drive, the research team was able to create a new device that could detect very small amounts of pesticides located within samples that were placed on top of an ordinary compact disc (after having been inserted into the modified CD-ROM player, that is).

Since the interaction of several components are often measured in the medical field using proteins and antibodies, the equipment to accurately track these movements has so far been limited to specialized and expensive equipment that uses light to take measurements. Since a CD-ROM is basically a light emitter (laser) anyway, it seems natural to modify one to look at measuring different items using light wavelengths, yes?

So, if you're an aspiring home biologist with $50 to kill and some patience, how about turning your spare bedroom into a miniature medical lab with a CD-ROM player? Don't forget the BL-4 suit, okay?

If you have older denim or blue jeans lying around, why not put them to good use instead of donating them or selling to a thrift store? Instead of hopping over to a local Kohl's or Pottery Barn for Kids outlet, you can make your own denim come alive again in several ways.

Some of the denim transformations will take a little skill, but think of how cool some of these items would be after turning that old pair of Levis into: