green:easy

To recycle is good; to reuse, divine. It’s great to recycle your newspaper, but if you can find a way to use it around your house, even better. Here are a few ideas for putting old newspapers to use:

1. Use them to wash windows. Make a spray of a 1/4 cup of vinegar and a quart or so of water, spray onto your windows or mirrors, and wipe with a sheet of crumpled newspaper. You’ll get a perfect, lint-free shine.

2. Packing material. If you are planning a move, or sending gifts through the mail, shred up some newspaper and use it as packing material in your boxes.

3. Add it to your compost pile. Newspaper counts as a “brown” in your compost pile. It adds carbon, and does a great job of drying out a compost pile that’s gotten a little too wet. Just rip it into strips and bury it in your pile. It will break down in no time.

4. Kill grass to make new garden beds. Simply lay three to four layers of newspaper over the grass, wet it down, and cover it with leaves, grass clippings, straw, compost or any other organic materials you have lying around. It will break down, kill the grass, and give you a perfect spot to plant. If you do this in the fall, you’ll have a bed ready for spring planting.

5. Use them to protect your tables when the kids work on craft projects. They’re free, absorbent, and plentiful—perfect if you have little crafters.

6. When hanging photos or artwork, make a template out of newspaper and tape it to the wall to get your placement right. This way, you won’t end up with a bunch of nail holes in your wall if you have to adjust the placement.

7. Use them as dropcloths when painting a room.

8. Wrap presents with them. If the recipient is into politics, or sports, or books, try using those particular pages of the newspaper to really personalize the wrapping.

9. Ball them up, and use them as filler in the bottom of large container plantings. It will save soil, make the container lighter and easier to move, and break down over time. Since it will settle, this is a better solution for containers that will be done in a season or so rather than a permanent planting.

10. Have a new puppy? ‘Nuff said.

green:easy

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