Reusing CD Towers

But what if nobody does it that day... it still seems like it would be such a good system. I would want to have control over the timing too. I was thinking about the CD towers and may be you can make it into a towel holder too. Like fold them and put them in the little slots (but the towels would have to be small though).

Thanks RawBill! Everyone seems to have the darn things lying around gathering dust - I'm just happy to have found a practical use for mine now. I agree with you and hate to add to the landfill. We actively recycle (my daughters have been trained to really think before they toss something in the garbage can) and, over the past few years, our recycling bin has been going to the curb increasingly full while the trash can is becoming much emptier. I used to have to use two trash cans once upon a time... now the bag may take up just half of one can. I'm hoping this may be the year I can get a composter too... I'd really like to have the rotating drum style one but haven't been able to get one just yet.

I'd like to get our recycling level down also. Our town took away our small "blue bins" for recycling and replaced them with these tall, 36-litre double bins on wheels (one side for paper, one side for plastic, glass and metal) so now they are collected by mechanical arm, without the driver having to get out and sort each bin along the roadside. They started collecting bi-weekly, because of the increased capacity of these bins, but some people raised a real fuss so they moved it back to weekly collection. They will not take anything that doesn't fit inside the bin - so people that got used to leaving big cardboard boxes laying next to their bins aren't allowed to do that anymore. They have to cut them up and fit them inside. The way some complain, you'd think they were being asked to perform intricate surgery LOL I did have an open compost pile when I used to live in the country years ago and I loved having it. You're right that it makes for very very happy plants. Where I live now, I have less yard space (and much closer neighbors *sigh*) so just having an open pile isn't really a good idea. That's why I want to buy an actual composter (or make a decent sized one, as you mention!). Once I can compost food waste, my actual trash to the curb will be really small. I think it's a worthy goal

Congratulations on reducing your weekly trash. We have managed to do this successfully as well. With a family of four people, we only have one bag at the most each week. Even our recycling bin is nowhere near full these days either. As we do not consume a lot of processed foods and eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables we are able to compost most of our food waste. Not only does this reduce our waste that goes into recycling centres and landfill, but we also get to create our own highly nutritious soil that grows plants like crazy! Our veggies and fruit trees absolutely love it! I made my own large compost bin out of old roofing sheets. I do have to turn it by hand, but that is not even important either really as nature will still compost successfully without turning it. Layering the greens with the browns will still decompose, but will just take a bit longer.

Thanks, gittabest! :) I was on the verge of throwing my two away also... not because I wanted to but because I couldn't even give them away! No one wants the darn things because it seems like everyone has one or more of their own that they already aren't using How on earth did we end up with so many, really? LOL

Yup! It was either two or three years ago that they started that by-law. We used to be allowed to have them any weekend - but we had to go and get a permit. I didn't mind doing that because I could have a sale when it suited me. Last year, none of the three dates they scheduled worked out for me, if you can believe it! I'm not generally that busy on weekends but one of the weekends we had a family birthday celebration, another weekend I was out of town and the third was right before the new school year started and I was too busy prepping for that with my daughters to be planning a garage sale. So, all the items I'd been storing were still sitting there I don't have a huge storage room in my house so, when it starts bursting at the seams, I get antsy and start giving stuff away instead. Through one of my daughter's efforts, we fundraise for the Canadian Cancer Society, too, and usually one garage sale a year, we donate anything we earn to them. So they lost out last year too because we couldn't do it.

Thanks, GreenMoo! :)) I know what you mean... I've had mine for quite a bit of time and it really bugged me because I knew there would be something I could do with them... the ideas just weren't coming to me LOL They come in so many different styles too and some are built in such a way that the sizing of them is very restrictive so, with these anyway, I was really limited on what could fit in them if I wanted to use them as separators/organizers. I pay all my bills on the same day each month so it works great to keep my desk clutter-free while I'm holding on to correspondence :))

When you said a twin CD tower, you reminded me of something. I saw a cool use for two CD towers but, unfortunately, they weren't fused together: http://www.casasugar.com/Cool-Idea-CD-Holder-Dish-Rack-1996618 People have some really good ideas Good luck with building your cabinet!