Ironing with my butt...saves time and energy.

I don't iron with my butt to save electricity. I butt-iron because I'm lazy.Plus, if life gives you lemons in the form of a big butt, you might as well make lemonade, right?


I have nothing against wrinkles. If God made the fabric to have wrinkles, who am I to diagree? Don't worry, I usually wear knit tops that don't get wrinkly. But, when something does get wrinkly, I fold it carefully and sit on it (sometimes first dampening it with a wet hand, which is what I did with this). I sit on it while eating dinner. The first pic shows the scarf after washing, the second, after butt ironing. Works great for pants. I don't do men's shirts.

PS: if you click on the photos, you can see more detail

Save time and money when brewing iced tea

Might not be the season for this post, but whatever. I brew my iced tea myself and store it in gallon container. I found I can cut down on time, energy and ice cubes (that water it down), by only boiling enough water to cover the tea bags in my pitcher. After letting it steep for 4 minutes, I fill the rest of the pitcher with cold water. I can't discern any difference in flavor from when I used to boil all the water. Plus, I find it lasts (unrefrigerated) just as long as tea that used 100% boiled water. (Conversely, if I make sun tea in the summer, I find it starts getting funky the next day unless it is refrigerated.) I like to refrigerate the tea, but sometimes I just don't have the room for a gallon container. If I want hot tea, I just microwave a cup of the tea from my pitcher...no waiting for it to steep.
Bonus tip: I read someplace that drinking a lot of tea can give you some type of stones (kidney, gall...I can't remember), but putting lemon in the tea solves that problem.

Trying to save without doing your homework can backfire

The other day I was in a government-owned facility that had installed those motion-detector lights that come on when it senses movement. We had to keep waving our arms around to turn the lights back on when they timed off. This wouldn't be so bad in itself, but the lights were fluorescent. Fluorescent lights blow off a bit of ballast every time they turn on, shortening their life substantially. I discovered that the CFLs in my main-floor bathroom (where they are turned on and off a lot) only lasted a year, rather than the 3+ years promised on the package) because of this ballast-loss. Imagine how fast those fluorescent tubes are going to wear out going on and off all day. And CFLs are not only fairly expensive, they contain mercury...something you don't want to stuff in the landfills. I'm not sure if LEDs have a similar problem (I hope not). But, I'm going to research them before I start buying a bunch.

Couldn't find a "not new" thermostat

My thermostat broke. I did LOOK for a thermostat at Buffalo ReStore (they often have new merchandise donated from stores and manufacturers), but had no luck. Didn't have time to look further: I needed heat! I did resist the fancy-schmancy Nest and Lyric thermostats that you can program from your phone (over $250 AND I don't trust them). I did spend the extra $6 ($26 total) to get a 5/2 day programmable unit even though, being retired, we don't need it. I figured the next owners will appreciate it.
Turns out thermostats often contain mercury and need to be properly recycled. You can find out where here: http://www.thermostat-recycle.org/zipsearch