Don't Throw Away Those Silica Bags Any More!

The silica gel bags we often find in shoe boxes usually end up in the trash, just because we believe they’re completely useless and even toxic.

However, the truth is that they are not poisonous whatsoever. Rather, they are filled with a substance called silicon dioxide which should not be eaten but can be very useful around the house. They’re a non-toxic inert desiccant that will dry out anything around them. Here’s how you can use them:

1. Put Them in Your Gym Bag

The main purpose of these little packets is to absorb any extra moisture and protect the item they are added to from growing bacteria or mold. Bacteria thrive in damp and moist environments so adding one of these guys to your gym bag will eliminate dampness and germs thus freshening it up. They can even remove a very foul odor.

2. Put Them Between Towels

Prevent your towels from getting damp and smelling unpleasant by putting a few of these in the towel cabinet.

3. Make Your Razors Last Longer

Instead of leaving your razor around in the bath where it’s always wet put it in a plastic container with a few silica bags inside. It will make it last longer.

4. Save Your Drowned Phone

If you happen to drop your phone in water and it gets wet, don’t lose hope! Instead of putting it in a jar of rice try the same with silica bags. Fill a jar with them and put your mobile in, it will be much more effective.

5. No More Foggy Car Windows

I absolutely adore this one, since foggy car windows cause me a lot of problems especially in this damp weather season. This goes to all you drivers out there; it’s a true lifesaver in the winter. Instead of waiting for your windows to defog, which in older car models can take forever, put a bunch of these silica gel bags under your windshield from the inside immediately. You’ll see that tomorrow your windows won’t be foggy. It’s the fastest way to stop your windows from fogging up and you’ll save yourself the 10 extra minutes needed to clean them up.

6. Save Your Old Photos

Old photos usually deteriorate with time, which is really sad because they are the sole reminders of our past and are quite dear to our hearts. Put a couple of silica gel bags in your box of old photos to save them from the dampness that can ruin them.

7. Save Your Make Up

Every women needs to have a bag or two of silica gel in her make up purse to stop the powdery make up from curdling.

8. Save Your Jack-O-Lantern

Simply adding a silica bag  to the inside of your jack-o-lantern will extend its shelf life significantly. Nobody wants to smell a rotting pumpkin breaking down on the porch in the fall.
There you have it, 7 fun and useful tips which can make your life easier. Next time you buy something with silica gel bags in it don’t throw them away, they can be quite useful. Can you think of another way you can use these bags, maybe you’re already using them for something we haven’t mentioned? Please share your thoughts and ideas, we can all learn something new.

[via RealFarmacy]

Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know About Pumpkins

While you sip on that pumpkin spice latte, consider these unusual pumpkin facts about your favorite fall produce.

Maybe you want to know why pumpkins fit so effortlessly into sweet and savory dishes, like pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin pie. Perhaps you are curious about how early American settlers used this foreign gourd for cooking, or why we carve faces into pumpkins on Halloween.

Pumpkins haven’t always been as popular as they are today. In fact, pumpkins were hardly eaten by people for a considerable part of the 19th century. Hard to believe considering pumpkin spice seems take over our taste buds every fall season. No food is above a little help from pumpkin spice: Pumpkin flavored yogurt, coffee, candies, and even English muffins are cropping up on our supermarket shelves.

This fall season while you snack on your artisanal pumpkin [insert food here]; consider the facts about this versatile, tasty treat to discover how pumpkins went from the bottom to the food chain to the top of fall food trends over the past several hundred years

1.  45 Different Varieties of Pumpkins

While the round orange pumpkin is the most recognizable pumpkin, pumpkins come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Some of the cleverly named pumpkin varietals include, Halloween in Paris from France, Cinderella (the varietal cultivated by the Pilgrims), and Wee-Be-Little a miniature pumpkin varietal.

2. Irish Jack-O-Lanterns

The tradition of carving pumpkins originated in Ireland. The Irish would carve jack-o-lanterns out of turnips to scare away evil spirits during the Celtic holiday Samhain, the night when spirits of the dead would walk the earth.

3. October = Pumpkin Month

80 percent of the pumpkin crop in the U.S. is available during October. That is roughly 800 million pumpkins out of the 1 billion pumpkins grown in the U.S. each year.

4. “Pumpkin Capital” of the World

Morton, Illinois is the self-proclaimed pumpkin capital of the world. Illinois is one of the largest producers of pumpkin in the United States with 90 to 95 percent of its crop being used for processed pumpkin foods.

5. Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds contain more protein than peanuts and are a wonderful roasted with spices or salt. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top of salads or eat as a snack on their own.

6. Pumpkins are 90 Percent Water

Admittedly, this is less of a surprising fact when you consider that pumpkins come from the same family as the watermelon and cucumber.

[via The Daily Meal]

Tips for an Eek-O Friendly Halloween

A green Halloween? Yes, it can be done.  As you’ve probably figured out from walking into any store this October, Halloween has become a bit of a nightmare for the environment.  These days anything short of an entire yard transformed into a lit-up plastic graveyard or petro-chemical-based spider hatchery has come to be considered un-festive.

And here’s a spooky Halloween fact: Last year alone more than 40 million kids went trick-or-treating. All that adds up to a huge amount of consumerism and waste with ghoulish impacts on our environment and wild lands.

That said, I love Halloween and I sure don't want to be the neighborhood curmudgeon who shuts herself in and turns off the lights on Halloween night. So I think I'll balance my guilt by having myself a green Halloween. I invite you to join me in any way you can.

Here are ten ideas for making your own green Halloween:

1. Green Halloween Costumes: Leave the toxic Halloween costumes on the rack: Halloween costumes are supposed to be fun-scary, not scary-scary. Yet, store-bought costumes are often made up of nonrecyclable petro-chemical based plastic and synthetic fibers. Those Halloween costumes can include one of the scariest plastics--polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a soft plastic and known carcinogen that releases harmful toxins in its creation and breakdown. Avoid these toxic Halloween costumes and go for a green Halloween costume made of natural fabrics and materials.

2. Know what's in your Halloween face paint: In their 2009 Pretty Scary report, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent ten kid's make-up sets to a lab and found that all ten contained lead, which can lead to neurological damages in children, as well as nickel, cobalt and chromium. Six out of ten contained cobalt and/or chromium at levels far exceeding safety standards. These metals are not listed on product labels. Look for organic, non-toxic face paints that comply with standards set by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics or try these homemade recipes for your green Halloween face paint:

• How to make organic facepaints
• Recipes for homemade facepaint, hair gel and hair spray

3. Concoct your own fake blood: Similar to face paint, fake blood can contain stuff that's not so nice to mother nature. Try making your own fake blood from natural products.

4. Shop the ultimate green Halloween markets: Last year alone 41.2 million kids went trick-or-treating, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a lot of Halloween costumes, not to mention the packaging they come in. Decrease the waste and have some fun sorting through costume selections at local thrift shops. These places have clearly beefed up their Halloween selections over the years, offering an inspiring selection of used costumes and period pieces these days.

5. Hold a green Halloween costume swap: Arrange a Halloween costume swap at your school, church or community center, or do it in your neighborhood.

6. Select not-so-scary Trick-or-treat bags: Avoid the ubiquitous bright orange plastic jack-o-lanterns that have no chance at ever breaking down in a landfill. Instead use reusable shopping bags, canvas totes or the ole pillowcase trick. A funky thriftshop handbag can add a fun twist to a green Halloween costume as well.

7. Choose green Halloween treats with less packaging: Decrease candy packgaging waste by buying in bulk and selecting Halloween candy that uses the least packaging. Candies that come in individual boxes have a chance at getting recycled, whereas those that come in plastic don’t. Other waste-less ideas include pencils made from recycled money, small coins or recyclable items that will find a useful place in a kid's life--as opposed to a home at the bottom of the garbage bin.  One of our staff members reports of a neighbor who hands out books every year. Not a bad idea if you live in a neighborhood with light Halloween traffic.

8. Give organic Halloween candy: Yes, it's a bit pricier but certainly less scarier for the environment. Organic means less environmental damage during production and transportion, as well as healthier ingredients:

• Endangered species chocolate gives ten percent of net profits to fund endangered species and conservation products. 
• Yummy Earth certified organic sells individually wrapped lollipops that can be purchased at Wholefoods, Toys R Us, Vitamin Cottage, Sprouts and others.

 9. Green up your Halloween Pumpkins: Buy organic. Save seeds for roasting with a little oil and light salt. Save the pulp for pies, muffins, soup and other recipes. Yum! Compost your pumpkins so they don’t add to the landfill where they will produce methane gas, a dangerous greenhouse gas.

10. Make your own green Halloween decorations. Halloween is the second biggest decorating holiday of the year, and so many of the decorations being peddled are made of non-recyclable plastics. If you do buy new items, at least choose durable non-petroleum based items that will last for many years. Otherwise, make a dent in the waste by creating your own homemade decorations with recycled household items.

A few green Halloween decorating ideas:

• Giant Spider: Use black trash bags for a giant tarantula (stuff with garden leaves--or newspapers but be sure to recycle the newspapers and trash bags when you’re done). How to here.
• Ghosts: Stuff old bed sheets with leaves or newspaper, tie with a string to form a head and hang  from trees.
• Spiderwebs: Make with shredded black pantyhose or cotton balls, instead of the sythetic messy ones from the store. If you're extra crafty, and want a dramatic look, weave a web of yarn near your entryway. Just select organic cotton or other eco-friendly yarns: Yarn web instructions.
• Eco-friendly Halloween craft ideas
• Halloween craft ideas from recycled items: To make these extra eco-friendly, choose non-toxic paints with low or no VOCs and other kid and earth friendly craft supplies.
• Plastic pumpkin makeovers: If you’ve already got plastic Halloween trick-or-treat pumpkins from yesteryear, the ones the kids have outgrown, but that are too faded or cracked to donate, don’t throw them away. Those pumpkins can be given new life. Just be sure to use non-toxic eco-friendly paint and second-hand props for these ideas Check out these ideas.

[via The Wilderness Society]