All Bottled Up: Safe Battery Disposal

With growing concern about button battery ingestion, I thought I would post this incredibly obvious simple hack for battery disposal.

While this solution doesn't address the problems of button batteries while in use in everything from greeting cards to remote controls to toys, it does keep the old batteries corralled until they can be recycled or disposed of properly (call your local solid waste district or trash service for more information).

We drop our dead batteries in a child-safe vitamin container, and put the containers out of the kids' reach. I relabel the containers solely for my own amusement (Do you do this? Maybe we should start a Pinterest board).

The filled container is deposited at our wonderful local recycling facility (which accepts a broad array of batteries in a co-mingled bin).

Not only does this hack keep our batteries away from our little kids and out of the solid waste stream, it also means that batteries outside the bottles are easily identifiable as fresh.


***Baby Toolkit is a frontrunner in observing the obvious and the ridiculous in parenting. It is written by two geek parents presently enjoying a Fall-like Spring somewhere slightly above the Mason-Dixon line. Although we make no links in this post, we are admittedly Amazon affiliates, so a portion of purchases made through our Amazon links fuel our pipe dreams of owning a bathtub with a water slide (thank you!). Our actual voices (and sordid secrets) can be heard on our board gaming podcast GreatBigTable.com.

Help the planet (and your bottom line) with online auctions: shopgoodwill.com

Like an angler with a bountiful fishing hole, bargain hunters like to keep their best sources secret. While I'm sure to draw the ire of other cheapskates, it seems wrong not to tell people about this cornucopia of savings.

All proceeds benefit a charitable non-profit. Buying resale items keeps usable goods out of landfills (longer) and prevents redundant manufacturing. It can also save consumers a fortune.

We married young, so in the first years of our marriage, Jim and I were lucky to buy the essentials. By the time he got the first professional job in our family, even a single dollar had meaning. Around that time I discovered antique malls and consignment sales. After a while I started looking into thrift shops. Now, over a decade later, I answer most "Where did you get that?" inquiries with some form of resale or reuse answer (thrift shop, yard sale, consignment, gift, loan from a friend).

When we're clearing out the house, I like to give usable to goods to friends and some of my favorite charity shops. It was at one of these drop-offs, when I stumbled upon shopgoodwill.com.

In its early days, I visited and found mostly tchotchkes requiring dusting, dolls that give me nightmares, and handbags. Beyond the amusement of the occasional suggestive monkey teapot, I didn't think it had much promise. But I didn't think the Web would catch on either (didn't Gopher already offer everything minus the images and sound? Is that really such a big deal? In my defense the early web featured the blink tag WAY TOO much).

In the time since my initial introduction shopgoodwill.com has grown into a real beauty.

The savings are mind-blowing. This cool metal dollhouse's current bid is $10.99, while an identical dollhouse (possibly with fewer furniture pieces) sold online for $130 at an antique shop. The antique store has better lighting and photographs, but are they really worth the additional $119.01?

Not only can you find many of the original Fisher Price Little People buildings- from the barn to the A-frame house (that I wanted to live in) to the great merry-go-round to the school, you can also buy NEW stuff and current electronics.

Just cruising through I've found new in package games for systems ranging from Leapster to DS to Xbox 360 to PS3 to didj to PSP.

Want a DS or a Leapster?

Are you shopping for someone who likes Lego, American Girl, Hannah Montana, Star Wars, or Sesame Street?

And who doesn't love this vintage Fisher Price tabletop kitchen stove (presently with a $6 bid)?

Shipping seems to be reasonable. If you are willing to drive to the selling Goodwill, you can often arrange for pickup.

I can trust you to keep this under your hat, right? We wouldn't want the place overrun with hipsters looking for Elvis memorabilia.

***Baby Toolkit is a couple of geek parents with more opinions than should be shared. While we shop at Goodwill Industries and drop off lots of unwanted stuff there (including review samples), we are not affiliated with Goodwill Industries nor have we received any compensation for this review (beyond the joy of sharing something awesome with our readers).

Halloween 2009: Making Mario

My favorite Halloween costumes have function beyond the holiday. Before his first Halloween, Ranger's grandparents gave him a cowboy outfit, so we just added a Western hat to complete the costume.

I found an old chef's coat at a thrift shop, so Jim and I talked about a mad scientist costume (in the spirit of Dr. Horrible), but that amused us more than it would Ranger.

Cruising Dabbled.org's great Halloween coverage, I found a great costume that would delight Ranger and satisfy my hopes of reuse. (Thanks, Dot!)

Ranger follows the adventures of Mario in Kart , Tennis, and Strikers via Nintendo. When he saw the Flickr photo a Mario costume became a regular topic of conversation. I launched the hunt for a long-sleeved red shirt, denim overalls, white gloves, and a hat (or sewing pattern).

By Sunday, I had everything but the hat. Jim helped me search through pattern books for a good match and we settled on Simplicity 2808 (note for sewists*: this pattern is for adult sized hats as we're big-headed folk). Ranger's preschool Halloween parade was Thursday, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights as an amateur milliner. The hat needed to look cartoonish, so all errors in tailoring could be deemed value-added features.

Jim fashioned Ranger's fine mustache from brown felt. I attached it to a loose-fitting loop of thin, soft elastic which fit over the ears and behind the nape.

Thursday's parade went well. Even the people who didn't know about Mario (like the nursing home residents who Ranger's class visited) loved his mustache.

On Friday afternoon, I noticed a long sleeved green onesie in the Raptor's closet hanging near her overalls. When I told Ranger about this, we both came to the same conclusion. On Saturday, Jim, Mario, and the Ranger hit the fabric store for more elastic while I sewed against the clock.

If you want to show off a homemade costume to people who will appreciate it, go to the fabric store on Halloween. Ranger got full rock star treatment from both staff and shoppers and EVERYONE knew about Mario. I think he preferred it even to trick or treating.

They returned home and one mustache later, the Mario brothers were cavorting on the front lawn.

Mario pulled out Ranger's golf set and entertained the neighborhood with some impromptu Mario Golf (why isn't this available for the Wii) while Luigi mostly laughed and pointed.

Luigi's hat is also an adult size large. I sewed a tuck in the back of the hatband to size it down. The large size makes her look more like Baby Luigi than Luigi and it leaves us the opportunity to reuse the hat set as the kids get older. Plus, I can wear it too.

Happy Halloween!

*Yes, this is an emerging word, but neither seamstress nor tailor really seemed appropriate and sewer (to me) always starts with a su sound and bears an entirely different meaning, so sewist it shall be. Feel free to suggest better terms.

***Baby Toolkit has received a Nintendo DS and a review copy of Mario Tennis from Nintendo. We have no fiscal interest in nor undisclosed relationship with Nintendo nor its parent companies. Baby Toolkit is written by geek parents who can be seen driving around town in felt mustaches.

photos: (c) Baby Toolkit, 2009. All rights reserved.

Our Hobo Kitchen: Reusing Everyday Objects

Play kitchens can be loads of fun for toddlers, but new ones can cost a small fortune.

You can build a kitchen from cardboard or score one at a yard sale (like our $10 kitchen), for nominal costs. Really lucky folks may get hand-me-down kitchens from friends or family.

Our kitchen was bare bones when we bought it. It lacked any utensils or fake food. I was way too lazy to buy the food and utensil sets, so Ranger found it stocked with real kitchen items (duplicates, cast-offs, and rarely used items) and clean, empty food tins and boxes.

While Ranger isn't a dedicated junior chef (probably due to a lack of kitchen role models), all our young visitors gravitate to our pell-mell kitchenette. It actually gets so busy at times that I have to unearth a second phone handset so more of the junior chefs can make important calls.

Jim dubbed it the hobo kitchen because its cookware is primarily old food cans which had their lids removed with a smooth edge can opener.

The idea of a hobo kitchen charms me immensely, as my adoptive grandfather Lonz (Alonzo) used to tell me stories of riding the rails looking for work during the Depression so he could support his young family. I'm sure he cooked over his old tins in far less hospitable settings, but I like to think he'd be proud that those lessons he taught me about thrift and conservation are ones I value enough to share with the next generation.

Current contents of kitchen:

• plastic travel mugs that I do not like using in the dishwasher
• some polycarbonate food bowls with lids
• silicone ice cube trays
• empty tea and cookie tins
• clean, empty food cans
• empty salt shaker
• plastic drink mix container
• pot holders I made on a loom during childhood and a random promotional pot holder
  
• duplicate set of measuring cups
• canning funnel
• manual juicer
• potato masher
• baby food jar spatula

What kinds of things do you repurpose as toys?

Bowling With Recyclables

Growing up on military bases, Jim had easy access to bowling alleys. Jim's dad bowled in military leagues and (coincidentally) now works for a bowling ball manufacturer.


Around two and half, we took Ranger bowling for the first time. He loved it. We've gone a few times since.

Last night Ranger kept mentioning bowling, so we dug through the recycle bin for some impromptu pins.

Our Simply Lemonade containers are ideal choices. We all prefer them upside-down because it improves the chain reactions and delivers a very satisfying clatter when they fall. The lids are heavy enough that Ranger has no problem setting them up on our own.

Other bottles that worked well are water bottles, shampoo bottles, and half gallon juice bottles. Milk gallons will work, but don't provide much satisfaction in sound or tumbling action when hit.

We used a foam ball, a spherical soccer ball pillow, and a rubber ball. All the balls worked well, so it looks like you could use any ball that fits your toddler's hands well and isn't too heavy.

We think soda bottles would work well, but didn't have any on hand to test.

These impromptu bowling sets can make an easy and cheap activity for entire herds of toddlers.

It's always fun to find toys in the recycling bin: check out our homemade milk-carton building blocks. (They'll also do substitute bowling pins in a pinch.)

Letter-Perfect: DIY Toddler-Friendly Custom Storage Labels

Whenever we buy a warehouse box of wipes, we get another pop-up dispenser box. This isn't a real boon since we're still using our original wipes box at the changing table and our second wipes box downstairs.

A friend's brother uses some of our surplus boxes to organize and store auto parts and hardware bits in his garage.

Ranger's been pretty obsessed with his magnetic letters lately. Late last year he explored the house for new magnetic surfaces, so now magnetic letters, shapes, and potholders can be found hanging on many doors and appliances around the house.

The bulk of the letters used to travel together around the house in a lidless cardboard Clementine box. In the last week, that box has been deemed perfect for marble play, so the letters would be randomly heaped in front of doors.

The wipes box was perfect for holding his letter collection. At least until Ranger decided to use it to hold two marbles and the alphabet heaps began reappearing around the house. A label seemed like it might help as long as Ranger could read it.

I scanned some letters for a label (our scanner has a glass bed so all voids show as black space) and printed the resulting image. It easily attached to the box with two strips of packaging tape. Ranger now understands that the box has specific purpose.

How do you help toddlers learn to put stuff away?

the Boneyard: Not Just for Dominoes Anymore

Today the mail brought a copy of Heifer International's WorldArk magazine. On page 7 they feature the licensed electronics recycler MyBoneyard.com.

Although I've drug home a few cell phone recycling mailers, I've never felt totally comfortable sending used cell phones to semi-anonymous organizations collecting them. The Boneyard guarantees to strip and permanently delete personal information from recycled products. They also email you a link to a prepaid shipping label, so all you have to do is package your item and drop it in the nearest post office box.

If your PC, laptop, cell phone, or flat panel monitor has resale value, the Boneyard will credit you a reward on a Visa debit card.

Whenever possible products are remarketed and reused (the best form of recycling). Older and damaged products are disassembled and some components can be reused. Remaining waste material is disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner. Because of the hazardous elements used in electronics, this kind of recycling can keep a lot of nasty materials out of the landfill.

So, if you community isn't lucky enough to have a Free Geek-like recycling initiative, please consider disposing of your unwanted electronics through environmentally responsible companies like the Boneyard.

I'll be shipping out 5 old cell phones tomorrow. These old and feeble phones have no resale value, but I'm glad to think someone can reuse some of the parts. And another dark corner of the Jones house will become a little cleaner...

Hard As Nails: Reuse BPA Plastic Bottles

Plastics with BPA are tough. They're shatterproof and can withstand a lot of torment.

In the 1970s, my dad worked at stoplight manufacturer Eagle Signal. One of the salesmen there, before an appointment to sell the expensive new Lexan lenses, would place four lenses on the ground and then park his car with one tire atop each lens. It was a strong sales pitch for strength and durability.

So, as we're all clearing the BPA plastics out of our kitchens, let's not relegate this near-permanent stuff to clog the landfills before giving it a second thought.

How can we repurpose this effectively non-recyclable material to give a longer useful life without putting anyone's endocrine system in harm's way?

Here at Baby Toolkit Labs we have lots of screws loose... wait, loose scews.. and nails, and washers, and such. My dad stores all his loose fasteners in an army of glass baby food jars which he wraps with clear tape to minimize cleanup in case of breakage.

It wasn't a big leap to see those Soothies, Dr. Brown's, and Avent bottles full of small metal bits and bobs. The bottles are easy to throw in a toolkit and keep the parts in a single, easily accessed container during the job.

How else can we reuse these plastics?

We set up a BPA reuse Flickr pool (http://www.flickr.com/groups/bpa-reuse/), so please post photos of your own solutions.

Happy Earth Day!

Maybe it's some subliminal resentment of the Earth's recent rattling under my family in the middle of the night, but Earth Day snuck (my apologies to British readers, but we just don't use sneaked here) up on me entirely.

Anyway, we all still love the Earth even if it has been waking me up in terror this week.

In honor of Earth Day, I'll reuse and recycle some of our favorite hacks:

• making building blocks out of used milk cartons,
• reusing an old shower curtain as a splat mat,
• Anna's great DIY plans ($7) to make a great play kitchen out of old boxes,
• reusing an old vinyl table cloth to protect your car's cargo area,
  
• why we choose fabric over paper and plastic.

Plus, here's a way to show the Earth a little extra love this Earth Day, Mother's Day, and/or Father's Day.

Jim and I have long been supporters and HUGE fans of Heifer Project. So we're asking Baby Toolkit readers to fund some bees and trees through Team Baby Toolkit at Heifer.org.

We would love to have 300 friends (about half our current subscribers) join us in supporting this great cause. If you're interested in participating, you can set up your own team member page and have donations made on your behalf. Did I mention that your contributions are tax deductible in the U.S.?

What better way to tell the Big Mama you love her (especially as she can grow her own flowers)?

Cleft in Twain: Recycled Shower Curtain Splat Mats

Okay, the title really gives away the whole idea. Rather than using a flimsy, disposable, wipe-clean splat mat under our high chair, we opted to vertically cut an old waterproof shower curtain in half. The result is durable and cheap splat mat.

The best feature of a shower curtain splat mat (other than fact it lays pretty flat on the floor and doesn't bunch up) is machine wash-ability. Add a half cup baking soda to the wash load and a couple towels or sweatshirts (for friction), and air dry. Do not use bleach or detergents with bleach.

***This is the independent opinion of Baby Toolkit, (c) 2006-2008.

Cardboard Kitchen Update: Plans now available

Remember Lara's recycled cardboard kitchen made by her brilliant mom Anna?

Anna has made the plans available. You can pick up the 14 page instruction book (pdf or hard copy) for only $7!

It also turns out that Anna loves some of the same games we do (see some of our favorite games)!

Raid the Recycling: There may be a cool kitchen in there!

Cruising Craftster I found an AMAZING play kitchen (made from salvaged-from-the-dumpster cardboard!) and a smart new(-to-me) blog.

Anna of Forty-Two Roads: Art, Craft, Life made this ingenious interlocking (glueless, nail-less, duct tape free) play kitchen for her daughter Lara's second birthday. And not only is it well-engineered (it disassembles into totally flat pieces for storage!!!), it's also breathtakingly cute. This is one glorious geek mama at work.

With no further ado, please go check out young Lara's delicious kitchen...

Nov. 1, 2007 UPDATE:
Plans are now available for this great kitchen!
Photos used with permission. (c) Anna Wulick, 2007. All rights reserved.

I, Bag Lady: Plastic Bags

Some years ago Jim and I volunteered for a river cleanup on the White River where it meanders through suburban and rural Indiana. It sounded like a fun way to spend a day canoing through the countryside. The White River is known locally for some very severe industrial fishkills, so no one really ever plans on going into it above the knee.

Needless to say, our group ended up filling all the canoes as well as a large flat raft with everything from washing machines to spare tires to every kind of plastic implement ever made so everyone was walking their canoes down the river- and then the river got deeper and deeper (before we were near our final destination), so we all ended up swimming and pushing our barely-above-water garbage skiffs. If Ranger ever develops a third eye it won't be a real mystery.

When we got on the school bus to head to a picnic, the conversation turned to one thing- plastic bags. How had so many of them ended up in the river? Was there a community-wide initiative to dam the river using only Wal-Mart bags? Every volunteer had spent just a little too much time disentangling their own share of thousands of plastic bags from our local flora and fauna.

I've never looked at disposable plastic bags the same way since that river trip.

We became dedicated users of cloth bags overnight. Sure, we still end up with a plastic bag every now and then, but we've substantially reduced our plastic bags consumed. We also try to reuse any plastic bags that make their way into our home.

So here are some of our household's favorite plastic bag tips:

• KNOT THE BAGS: For bags being stored bunch the bag at the base in one hand and pull it with your other hand toward the handles to push out all the air and make a rope. Then tie it once in the middle. This makes the bag less of an entrapment and choking hazard. It also keeps them more compact in storage. It's good to tie a knot even in bags you're throwing away because it keeps them from blowing into the local landscape.
  
• USE A BAG HOLDER: We used to use a cheap plastic one from IKEA that looked pretty bad when the bags eeked their way out the holes. My friend's mom saw fit to make us a very cute cloth one out of a tea towel and some ribbons similar to this. Lifehacker even has an extraordinarily utilitarian one made from a used plastic bottle. Amazon has some sleek steel and plastic ones.
  
• MANAGE TRASH STINK: We're notorious for letting take-out move into our fridge on a semi-permanent basis. It gets past the safe consumption zone and I forget to put it out on trash day. So we'll double bag it before putting it in the trash. If you don't live in a hot climate this can buy you a few stink free days. If it's hot here I double bag the hazardous waste and put it in back in the fridge until trash day. That way Ranger's cottage cheese doesn't have to smell like lo mein.
  
• MANAGE DIAPER PAIL STINK: Ghastly diapers double bagged do less olfactory damage in even a floundering Diaper Champ.
• Stow a few in your car for wet clothes, dirty shoes, emergency barf bags, or use as vehicle trash bags.
• Shopping bags make great liners for small trash cans.
• Clean plastic shopping bags are usually welcome donations at thrift stores and food banks.

I strongly recommend cloth bags or durable, reusable plastic bags (IKEA and Trader Joes both sell great ones) for every family. Yes, it takes a little bit of time to get used to taking them to the store, but it's well worth the effort. For each ton of plastic bags not used 11 barrels of oil are conserved.

That doesn't sound like much but each plastic bag used ALSO consumes fossil fuels in transportation, storage costs for manufacturers and retailers, more fossil fuels in transportation to landfills, and landfill space. Often these bags are only used once.

Plastic bag recycling is problematic. The EPA estimates that only 1% of America's plastic bags were recycled in 2000. I learned from someone in the recycling industry that a lot of the store shopping bag bins end up contaminated and can't be recycled. It turns out that there are subtle differences in the plastics (including dyes) that make it impossible to recycle say a Target (white with red), a Wal-Mart (blue with multi-color), and a Best Buy bag (yellow with black) in the same lot. Long story short- most of those grocery store plastic recycling barrels are there to ease consumers' consciouses rather than actually recycle. The contents of those plastic bag collection barrels frequently end up in landfills.

To make your own cloth bags (and some friends), see the tutorials at morsbag.com (social guerrilla bagging) or craftster.org.

Building Blocks: A Recycler's Do It Yourself Project

As a kid Jim loved playing with those cardboard blocks with the somewhat inexplicable brick pattern printed on them (bricks made of mini bricks?). He had dreams of owning so many of them he could build a big, somewhat perilous ediface. That dream lives on today.

So, I started looking for cheap blocks to build "Ranger" (in this case- Jim) a huge collection of architectural materials. Amazon has quite a few options, but they were all too pricey for a cheapskate like me.


Google led me to the always helpful Berkeley Parents Network and their commentary on brick acquisition. Their advice on purchasing bricks through Lillian Vernon's catalog look great, but the June 1999 tip for making cardboard bricks with old milk cardboard cartons captured my imagination.

We had to buy half-gallon milk cartons because our local stores only carried organic milk in that packaging. My vegan parents had ample soy milk cartons and we love acid free orange juice (again, a beverage only sold in half gallons here).

So we rinse, cut, and wash our empty cartons, and then assemble them into individual blocks. The process is pretty easy, but cutting the cartons evenly can take a bit of technique.

Start by piercing the container on the side opposite the pour spout at approximately the location of the pour spout. This lets you have a jagged entry mark without marring the clean cut of the carton.

Cut downward at angle to sneak up on the fold line. When you reach the fold line, cut along it for a nice, even edge. It you happen to screw up an edge monumentally, make that the inside carton when you pair them.


Slide two cartons together, and presto- one water resistant building block! Soon you'll have enough for a whole playgroup. Don't like the patterns? You could cover them with contact paper or standard paper that your kids can decorate. Me- I'm lazy, so my son will get to appreciate the joy and value of reuse.

Jim recommends creasing the long sides of the carton to flatten the sides of the block- making it more stable for stacking.