Leader’s Guide - Recycle, Reuse and Reinvent
District OHCE Leader Training
Spring, 2010
This lesson is divided into three parts. As the lesson leader you can teach all three parts, or just one or two. For example, if the closest recycling center is far away, then the section on recycling may not be of much interest to your members. Everyone can reuse items and some have the skills to reinvent, so teach the sections that are relevant to your group.
Be sure you have enough copies of the handout for each of your members.
To use the flip chart that is provided, remember that there are notes on the back of each poster to help you teach the lesson. Be sure to ask for discussion.
As a part of this guide, you have some additional materials (30 uses for Orphan socks, How to make a t-shirt shopping bag, and instructions for making a homemade duster) that some of your members may want as handouts. If so, ask your county office to copy those sheets for you as well. Finally, you have a copy of the MSN Money article, “10 skills you wish you’d learned” which touts the importance of Family and Consumer Sciences Education.
To enhance your lesson, bring some props. For example:
Recycling:
Bring a large bag full of things people might throw away (paper, aluminum, paper towels, used foil pans, a CFL bulb, a light bulb, a glass jar, empty milk jug, etc.) . Ask each person to reach inside the bag (without seeing) and pick one item. Then ask them to tell whether the item can be recycled, if there is a place nearby to recycle it, and if it could be reused.
Reuse:
If you have orphan socks or old t-shirts, bring some and ask the group what they might do with these items to reuse them.
Bring an assortment of containers that might be reused for food storage. Using the guidelines in the handout, ask what types of foods might be stored in each. There is a copy of the publication on the CD at the Extension Office.
Reinvent:
If you have remade an item of clothing or have a recipe that utilizes leftover food well, bring an example to share. You might ask other members to do the same.
30 uses for “orphan” socks
You know – the socks that lose their mates somewhere between leaving the hamper and coming out of the dryer.
- Turn an athletic sock inside out and use for dusting, polishing furniture, etc.
- Fold the top inside the foot and use to apply car wax
- Fill with other old socks, fabric scraps, etc. and use at the bottom of a door to stop drafts
- Use to store golf balls, tennis balls and other small toys.
- Fill part of the foot with potpourri and use as a sachet for drawers and closets.
- Cut off the foot and use the ribbed part to insulate bottles and cups
- Use over ice packs.
- Use over hot water bottles.
- Use on your Swiffer™ instead of the Swiffer™ sheets.
- Use big socks over your shoes while doing yard work or painting to protect shoes
- Fill with rice or wheat and use as a heating pad after heating for a couple moments in the microwave.
- Cut off the elastic part and use as sweat bands on your wrists when exercising.
- Use to dust difficult items and areas by slipping one on your hand.
- Wear one on each hand to make quick work of washing fruits and vegetables especially potatoes.
- Cut in strips an use to tie garden plants to stakes
- Cut holes for fingers in the toes of two long socks and pull up past your elbows to protect your arms when pruning rose bushes.
- Use over rubber gloves to assist in thoroughly applying flea powder or flea spray on pets.
- Put a tennis ball in the end and make a tugging toy for puppies.
- Place 2-3 tennis balls in a long sock and sew or tie the end shut. Use as a back massager.
- Fill one with stones to make a door stop.
- Use as a marble bag for the kid's marbles.
- Use a colorful old sock to hide valuables in your sock drawer.
- Use as sachet bags for unseen areas like closets.
- Put one on the end of a broom handle for cleaning under the refrigerator.
- Use to protect fragile items when moving, by slipping over items such as drinking glasses.
- Keep a handful in the emergency kit in the car – to keep hands or feet warm or protect hands from steam under the hood
- Fill thin socks with clay (not clumping) cat litter and place inside wet shoes to dry them out more quickly
- Use the foot to make doll clothes
- Use the top of athletic socks as leg warmers
- Use for polishing/shining shoes
Make a t-shirt shopping bag
Turn the t-shirt inside out, line up the bottom hem, and sew or serge the bottom edge together, just above the t-shirt hem.
Line up the sleeves seams and cut off the tee shirt sleeves. It works best to cut off the sleeve seams!
With the shirt still flat, cut out the neck: cut close to the neck ribbing at the sides of the neck
Cut a “scoop neckline” including the back of the tee shirt in the scoop.
Here’s what it looks like when all the pieces
are cut off. Knit jersey (tee shirt fabric) doesn’t
fray, so you don’t have to hem any of the cut
edges!
Turn the bag right side out, and go shopping!
Homemade Duster
This project uses up small scraps from fleece projects. You could probably use strips of old t-shirts as well.
Materials Needed
- Any color Fleece scraps
- Strong thread or string.
- A 1 foot or longer piece of 3/4" dowel.
- A small screw
Directions
Cut your scraps as close to 12" by 1/2" strips as you can.
Lay them all in a pile, lining up the ends as evenly as possible.
Wrap a strong thread or string around the middle, as you would to create a pom-pom.
Pull tightly and knot your thread. Repeat this a few times so that it is bound tightly.
Hold the middle over the end of dowel.
Run the screw down through the middle of your "pom-pom", into the end of the dowel.
The more strips you use, the thicker your duster will be.
10 skills you wish you'd learned
You may not have been paying attention in school when subjects like home economics and keeping a budget came up, but it's never too late to learn.
By Melinda Fulmer
MSN Money
How hard can it be to sew on a button or iron a shirt? Not that hard, actually. But in fairly recent years, many of us have begun outsourcing these and other basic life tasks to others. With cash flowing freely, we didn't feel the need to fend for ourselves.
But these days, many of us are relearning those skills taught in high school home economics- things so basic it sounds a little silly, really- like how to fold clothes, cook dinner and clean.
Given our newfound interest in self-reliance, what basic knowledge should every adult have? A cadre of home economics teachers offered a short list of things we should all know how to do when we grow up.
Here's what they came up with:
1. Make minor sewing repairs or alterations
No, you don't need to sew your own suits or make decorative throw pillows. But for only $2, you can buy a sewing kit and be your own tailor- sewing on buttons, mending rips and hemming pants (a sewing machine does this particular job a little better, but it's not a necessity).
Knowing how to add an extra hook to a pair of pants or to correct a gap in a blouse can make them fit better, so you'll wear them more. Learn how by watching video at sites like eHow.
Cost of a sewing kit: $2
Cost to replace buttons on a shirt: $6
Professional hemming: $9-$12
2. Craft a household budget and balance a checkbook
Many of us fail to reconcile our bank statements -- even though software like Quicken and free budgeting sites like Mint.com make it a snap. Even fewer of us bother to save our debit card receipts and record those transactions.
But that's something Tanya Wright of Pitman High School in Turlock, Calif., teaches her students in a "Life Management" course, as a way to live within your means and guard against fraud.
Cost savings: Around $27 per overdraft charge.
3. Make soup
When the going gets tough, the tough go back in the kitchen. Certainly everyone should be able to read a recipe and know a teaspoon from a tablespoon. If you don't, head to your library and pick up a classic like "Joy of Cooking." But every home cook should also have a repertoire of dishes that deliver the biggest economic bang for the buck.
Soups and one-dish meals -- the staples of home-ec cooking -- let you do more with less. One key is using less meat and more vegetables, plus rice or pasta, to stretch the meal.
The basis of most soups is a simple "mirapois," a fancy term for a 2-1-1 combination of onions, carrots and celery. Add stock, garlic, beans, veggies or meat and you've got a meal, says Sandi Coulter, home-ec teacher at San Juan High School in Citrus Heights, Calif.
Cost of a big pot of lentil vegetable soup and a loaf of French bread: 75 cents/serving.
Cost of a can of Progresso Lentil: $1.79/serving.
4. Comparison shop at the grocery store
Getting a good buy at the grocery store or warehouse club depends on your ability to discern the true deal, rather than leap at the lowest price. You'd probably be surprised at how much you can save just by taking the time to look at the per-unit price between a store brand and the most definitely more expensive name brand product- could be as much as a 20% difference!
Cost savings by comparison shopping: hundreds of dollars a year- a huge difference over a lifetime.
5. Take care of your own wardrobe
This means following the care instructions on your clothes -- yes, read the label -- and doing your own fluff and fold, rather than paying someone else to do it.
Learn how to iron a shirt, shine your shoes and treat spots on shirts and ties. These rudimentary skills will extend the life of your clothes and spare your clothing budget.
Cost to iron a shirt: $0.
Cost of getting a shirt pressed at the dry cleaner: $2 to $2.50.
6. Clean your house with vinegar and baking soda
You don't need a lot of different (and expensive) cleaners to clean and sanitize your house. These two dirt-cheap ingredients will do the trick for most surfaces. "You can do mirrors with the white vinegar, and the baking soda is great for anything porous," says teacher Coulter. Indeed, baking soda is a great scrub for your tub or your body, our experts said.
If you don't like the smell of vinegar, just add a little lemon juice. That and a little fragrance are probably what you are paying for if you buy those expensive "green" cleaners.
Cost of a 67-ounce refill of Windex cleaner: $7.49.
Cost of a 64-ounce jug of store brand vinegar: $2.48.
7. Bake in the microwave
Transferring some of your cooking and baking to the microwave can cut your utility costs and your time in the kitchen. Wright teaches her students how to microwave a whole chicken in a casserole dish and even bake cakes in the microwave. The cakes don't brown as much, but who can tell under all that frosting?
Cost to bake a cake in the microwave, 12 minutes: 3 cents.
Cost to bake it in an electric oven, 30 minutes plus preheating: 12 cents.
Value of a cool kitchen in the summer: oh, that's priceless.
8. Apply paint
When your walls get marked up, and your furniture has moved beyond "shabby chic" to skid row junk, you should be able to do something about it yourself. A good sanding and a bright coat of paint can wring a few more years out of that old dresser or chair and help you salvage thrift-store finds.
Cost of used dresser, knobs and paint: $80-$125.
Pottery Barn dresser: $899.
9. Replace filters and screens in your house
Replacing the filters in your air conditioner and furnace is routine maintenance you shouldn't pay someone else to do, Coulter teaches.
Buying filters and window screens at your local Home Depot or Lowe's is cheap. Buying them with a markup from a handyman or service guy, and paying for labor, is for suckers.
Cost of an air conditioning filter: $17.
Cost of a service visit to change your filter: $125.
10. Put together a resume
Sure, a friend could probably help you -- if you can get them to make the time for it. But with so much free advice and so many samples on the Web, even high school students can come up with a way to make their babysitting jobs, team sports and volunteering sound like selling points.
"We teach our students how to put together a portfolio and résumé and practice job interviews," Wright says. "It gets them thinking about the kinds of things they can do and put on their résumé" in the years ahead.