As a renter I don’t really see the point of store bought Christmas trees. They’re synthetic and kinda ugly and we have no where to store them inbetween Christmases (like most rental properties, storage cupboards are lacking). I don’t see in the point of a cut tree, and the potted variety seem to die off in the summer heat anyway.

I also should mention that we don’t really have the space for a big Christmas tree, our living room is quite small!

So I was excited to see these photos of DIY christmas trees using household objects…

The first three are from here. The ladder looks great and I like it as it doesn’t take up too much space. The second photograph is of an old drying rack, I think something similar could definitely be made with an old clothes horse!

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Rooting a plant in water allows you to add more green around the house without buying more plants. Simply take a clipping from an existing plant and place it in water. In one week, roots will have begun to grow. Not only do we like the fact that we can spread the greenery (and green) around our house this way, we love the look of rooting a plant in a transparent glass container.

via Apartment Therapy.

We’ve done this at home to good effect with mint and geraniums.

Over the next few weeks, here at Green Renters we will be taking a look at:

Handmade and homemade gift  giving

Shopping locally and Ethically

Eco friendly Christmas decorations

Christmas wrapping the green way

Dealing with non ‘green’ relatives

Preserving your plants whilst you are away…

Also we will be having a very special giveaway next week!

Stay tuned for more details!

We all waste far too much  food! Leftovers from other meals can easily be re-used in whole new meals, the wondrous baked beans can make any meal interesting and great again…

For more ideas take a look at this blog post from howstuffworks.

recipes.howstuffworks.com/fresh-ideas/easy-dinner-ideas/10-meals-to-make-from-leftovers.htm

I’ve seen those little bottles of hand sanitizer on every desk or front counter of most offices where I work.

I’m a bit reluctant to use them as I always was lead to believe a few germs help boost your immunity and that normal soap and water hand washing

pic from here

as needed would suffice.  Further I haven’t seen any that state the were not tested on animals.

Planet Green has a couple of recipes for making your own sanitizer which I thought I’d share:

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I’ve been reading alot about toilets lately. It’s exciting to see that the enthusiasm many people have for cloth nappies and reusable sanitary cloths has extended to other bathroom activities.

There’s  Crunchy Chicken’s annual cloth wipe challenge which involves using fabric cloth instead of toilet paper for either number one or number two depending on your enthusiasm. Even those the cloths need to be washed, it reduces the use of water in manufacturing toilet paper, oil, energy and of course tree production. It also saves money.

pic from Treehugger

I was interested by her comment

I know when I first started out, I felt like I was doing something illicit. Like wiping my ass on the bath towels and not telling anyone. Or picking my nose and wiping it on the carpet. Well, you get the idea. Once you get over that strange feeling of wrongness and embrace the softness of cloth wipes, one can become rather giddy with excitement. Or something like that.

There’s also a murmur of interest in DIY bidets, either clip or or more organic means such as a garden hose trigger gun (hehe). Find out more here

I really like these handmade chairs by Foto. These would be wonderful to make out of old wood and crocheted blankets.