Appliances: Most thrift stores, including Goodwill and the Salvation Army accept small appliances for donation. Contact them first if you have something large to drop off or consider listing the item on Freecycle to see if someone in your local area might be interested. Also check with your local women’s shelter or group home.

Books: Contact your local library to find out their policy on donations. Most will accept virtually any book or magazine (within reason, of course.) Other options include children’s museums, women’s shelters, hospitals, or your local thrift store.

Cars: Got an old jalopy clogging up your driveway? Contact area high-schools, colleges, or vo-tech programs to find out if they could use your old car. Advertise the heap in Freecycle to see if anyone in your local area is interested in it for parts. Or look into donating it to a charity programs such as The National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Cars or Habitat for Humanity’s Cars for Homes.

Cell Phones: Donate old cell phones directly to your local women’s shelter, or check out The Wireless Foundation’s Call to Protect Campaign or Verizon Wireless’s HopeLine, where money raised through phone sales are donated to domestic-violence shelters.

Clothes: Click here for a recent post on donating (and fixing, selling, or swapping) old clothes.

Computers: Check with your local schools, libraries, or charity organizations to see if they could use your old computer. If not, contact The National Cristina Foundation, Computer Recycling Center, or The World Computer Exchange to make sure your computer gets in the hands of someone who can use it.

Eyeglasses: Don’t toss your old frames, donate them instead. Check out The Lions Club’s eyeglass recycling program or New Eyes For The Needy, an organization that distributes glasses, sunglasses, and hearing to those who need them.

Furniture: Freecycle your old furniture or contact your local thrift store to see if they will accept it and/or pick it up.

Toys: Clean out those overflowing toy bins and pass along those old toys to your local thrift store, hospital, children’s museum, women’s shelter, or library.

1. Seek Out The Spooky…Reuse and recycle stuff around your house to use as Halloween decorations. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Halloween as all about the eerie, the gross, and the creepy, so it will look even better if it’s dirty or falling apart.
2. Get Thrifty: Hit your local thrift store for awesome decorations that won’t cost a fortune.
3. Reuse decorations from year to year…don’t just throw them away…that’s SCARY!!
4. Go Au Naturale: Skip the inflatable and light-up decor that wastes both money and resources. Instead, opt for natural decorations like pumpkins, corn stalks, mums, and straw bales.

Add a little spookiness to your front yard with stuff that’s already laying around your house. Check out these ideas for transforming everyday items into frightfully fun decorations:

Cardboard Box

• Coffin: Paint it black, stuff a shirt with newspaper and hang it from the side
• Tombstone: Paint it gray and add a funny epithet
• Skeleton: Paint it white and cut out a skeleton design

Recycled Newspaper/Paper

• Witch’s Hat: Paint it black and fold into a pointy witch’s hat.
• “Chain”: Cut out strips of paper into chains that you can use to decorate inside or out

Rocks

More Ideas

• Stuff old clothes with newspaper to form a scarecrow for your front porch. Add a hat and some funky shoes.
• Use old stockings or the netting from a bag of oranges to make spiderwebs.
• Turn an old sheet or pillowcase into a ghastly ghost. Use a small amount of crumpled newspaper to stuff the “head.” Tie off the head with a string and add a spooky face with markers. Hang your ghost in a nearby tree and let him blow in the wind.

• Raid The Thrift Store: Hit your local thrift store first when looking for Halloween supplies. Most stores have an abundance of pre-made costumes set aside that you can pick up for pennies a piece. If you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, wander the aisles to find cool clothes that will transform you child into a clown, princess, wizard, nurse, “mad scientist, or treehugger!

• DIY The Props: If your child needs a special prop to go with his outfit, help him make it out of the materials you have at home. Swords or “magic” wands are easily made by cutting the shape out of a piece of cardboard and covering it with aluminum foil. Make a cape for a wizard or princess using an old fancy pillowcase. Cut it lengthwise and attach a thin piece of felt at either end.
  

• Add Effect: Add “glow in the dark” stars to your little one’s princess or ninja costume for an extra special effect. Or jazz up your child’s costume with green (or red or blue) facepaint. Just blend ½ teaspoon diaper cream with 1 heaping teaspoon of cornstarch. Add a little water to get the paint to the desired consistency. Scoop the mixture into a few separate containers (such as egg cups or bottle caps) and add 1 or 2 drops of the food coloring of your choice to each. (These face paints will wash off with warm water, but be sure to take the usual precautions for allergies and clothes stains.)

Costume Ideas

Here are some great ideas for simple, eco-friendly Halloween costumes for you and/or your kids. Got a few great ideas of your own? Post them here for a chance to win great Halloween prizes (can you say fair-trade chocolate and reusable treat bags?)

Black Cat: Black sweat suit, black headband (attach 2 black felt ears), old black scarf or boa to use as tail (attach with a safety pin). Use black eyeliner to draw on cat eyes and whiskers.

Cowboy/Cowgirl: Jeans, flannel shirt, bandanna, boots, cowboy (cowgirl) hat

Ghost: It doesn’t get any easier than this one. Cut two eye holes in an old sheet (if you don’t have an old one, you can pick one up at your local thrift store.) Jazz it up by using a permanent marker to add spider webs, chains, and a face.

Mummy: Dress child in an all white or all black outfit. Cut an old sheet into long strips. Attach strips with masking tape to child’s clothes and wrap loosely around legs, torso, and arms. Use white face paint all over face.

Ninja: Black turtleneck, billowy black pants, black belt, and a sword

Pirate: Red pants, white billowy shirt (open at the collar) balck belt, black boots, black hat, 1 dangly clip-on earring, 1 black eye patch

Princess: If you can’t find an old princess dress at your local thrift store, seek out any material that is frilly and/or sparkly that can be pinned around your child’s waist as a skirt. (Try a fancy pillowcase or tablecloth). Make a crown out of aluminum foil. For special effect, add glow in the dark stars all over the costume.

Scarecrow: Old jeans, flannel shirt, straw hat, boots. Cut an old newspaper into thin strips. Using duct tape, attach the newspaper strips to the inside cuff of each pant leg and the inside cuff of each shirt at the wrist. Use red face paint and black eyeliner to make red cheeks, and black “stitching” around mouth and eyes.

Spider: Black sweat suit, 2 pairs of black tights. (Cut the legs off of the tights and stuff them with old newspaper (4 legs total). Attach 2 legs to either side of sweatshirt with safety pins. Using black sewing thread or safety pins, attach the lower leg on the left with the lower leg on the right in front of child. Next, attach the middle leg on left to the left sweatshirt arm and the middle right leg to the right sweatshirt arm.)

Zorro: Black pants, black shirt, cut mask into strip of black felt, black belt, black shoes or boots, sword

Photo courtesy of scol22, stock.xchng.

]]> http://www.thegreenparent.com/2007/10/22/green-your-halloween-costumes/feed/ 37 http://www.thegreenparent.com/2007/05/18/turn-trash-into-cash/ http://www.thegreenparent.com/2007/05/18/turn-trash-into-cash/#comments Fri, 18 May 2007 14:08:00 +0000 Jenn Savedge http://www.thegreenparent.com/?p=14 If it’s worth something, you can make a tidy profit by selling toys, clothes, and books at a yard sale, consignment shop or on sites like Ebay or Craigslist. If that doesn’t work, donate it to your local thrift store or use Freecyle or Recycler’s Exchange to find someone in your area who might need it. One person’s junk is another’s treasure.