Condo Blues: frugal living ideas
Showing posts with label frugal living ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frugal living ideas. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

DIY Stylish Throw Blanket Storage

On cold nights, I find myself reaching for one of the many handmade throw blankets I have scattered throughout my house. Lacey, my dog, is drawn to these cozy blankets like a magnet.  In fact, she loves them so much that she often takes over the entire blanket, leaving me no choice but to grab a second one for myself. Which is why more often than not, I use a throw blanket.

As a result of the crafty women in my family, I have amassed quite the collection of hand-knit and crochet throws. However, storing them in our coat closet has become a chaotic challenge.

disorganized coat closet before
Coat closet BEFORE - Yikes!

Our coat closet is a disaster! It's overflowing with random items, and the blankets contribute to the chaos. I knew I needed a better storage solution for our beloved handmade throws.

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

How to Use Any Brand Razor Blade in a Leaf Safety Razor

I decided to give shaving with a safety razor similar to this one a try after seeing the rising cost of disposable razors and cartridge razor blades. I got a nice, nick free shave the first time I used my standard safety razor. Great! I finally found a solution I thought. (Disclosure I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

Until I nicked, gashed, and cut myself on every shave since.

I was ready to dump the safety razor until I read a thread from someone in a similar situation on a frugal living forum. Many folks in the comment section empathized and even more recommended shaving with a Leaf safety razor like this one. The difference being that the Leaf safety razor has three blades and a pivoting head just like the cartridge razors I used with much better success.

The Leaf is more expensive than a standard safety razor but I decided to buy one because that was the only negative anyone had to say about it. Particularly since this was a frugal living group who want good results for less money (eventually) and not a green living group that will put up with bad performance for the sake of a zero waste living (glares at my safety razor.)

The only concern I had was that Leaf razors use what looked like a proprietary safety razor blade. Turns out, you can use any brand of safety razor blade that looks like this in a Leaf razor if you cut the razor blade in half. 

How to Install Standard Safety Razor Blades in to a Leaf Safety Razor

 
how to install any brand blade in a leaf safety razor

Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Friday, August 11, 2023

How to Make a DIY Yeti Cooler

Our coolers don't keep food cold enough for as long as we'd like. While the body has insulation, the lids do not. I began searching for an upgrade.

When it comes to coolers and cold boxes, it seems there are only two options:

1. Fairly cheap eskies with minimal insulation in the lid and body that only keep food cold for a day or less.

2. Expensive chilly bins that are heavily insulated, bear-proof, and keep food cold for almost a week.

While I value quality, I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars just to keep food cold for a few weekends a year. Additionally, I'm struggling to find a well-insulated cooler in the compact size of our favorite Playmate cooler.

Wondering if you can insulate a Playmate cooler to match the performance of a Yeti cooler? Yes you can! Not only that, but your DIY Yeti cooler will also weigh much less when it is empty.

Here's how to do it.

How to Hack a Cooler to Make it Colder

how to DIY a yeti cooler the easy way

Save this cheap and easy tutorial to your Pinterest Boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Friday, May 12, 2023

DIY Outdoor Plant Hanger

I have a bunch of pea seeds left from last year’s garden by design. I need to find a better way to plant them so the vines don’t take over my small patio container garden like they did last summer.

The heavy duty plant hanging eye bolt similar to this kind I used years ago and largely ignored gave me the inspiration to try growing peas in a hanging planter. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)

Spoiler alert: All of the hanging planters I found were so high off the ground they required my short little self to pull out a step stool to water them. I hate dragging out a step ladder to store things normal people can reach. That’s why anything above my head is dead to me – including hanging plants.

I considered a macrame plant hanger but I wasn’t sure how well cotton or jute cording would hold up outside. And again, the hangs the plant too high and over my head thing.

The only solution was to make an outdoor plant hanger myself. 

 

how to make an outdoor macrame plant hanger
Save this hanging planter idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Thursday, January 12, 2023

How to Repair Rips, Tears, and Holes in a Sleeping Bag

I tried washing one of our sleeping bags in my washing machine thinking it would fit since I washed our other sleeping bag in this same machine.

Turns out I was wrong.


Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Note to self: Next time go to a laundry mat and wash the sleeping bags using a big industrial size washer and dryer.

We invested in buying a good Coleman cold weather sleeping bag similar to this one. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) It’s in my best interest to repair it since the rest of the sleeping bag is perfectly fine and would be a bit expensive to replace for cosmetic reasons. I’d rather spend that cash on extra s’more supplies to be honest.

Fortunately, repairing a sleeping bag is easy and may already have what you to need to fix at home.

How to Repair Sleeping Bag Rips, Holes, and Tears the Easy Way!

Monday, April 7, 2014

How to Make a Milk Carton Easter Bunny Basket

I want to decorate for Easter. I’m running low on ideas that will appeal to our wee holiday visitors.

And I was out of soy milk.


howtomakemilkcartoneasterbunnybasket

Save this DIY milk carton Bunny Basket to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!