Who among us has not walked to their closets and dresser drawers with dread, bored to tears of everything inside and knowing that they can’t just buy a whole new wardrobe just because their picky heart desired it?  Sometimes all that is needed is a creative spark of inspiration, scissors, some string and/or thread, and nimble fingers.

I’m talking about renewing that wardrobe by reusing the clothes in fun inventive ways, so essentially recycling the wardrobe items.  Need some ideas?

With strategic snips of the scissors and skilled ribbon use, a shirt can get new ruched sides that will flatter the waistline and draw visual interest!

Sleeves can be tinkered with by cutting them completely off, shortening them, cutting slits into them for butterfly sleeves.  A strategic cut into the neckline can create a v-cut neck to the shirt.  With a glue gun and crystals or a bedazzler, exciting sparkle can liven up even the most dull shirts.  If feeling really adventurous, mixing up a bucket of dye and changing the total look of the shirt is an idea.  Fabric markers or decals can also be used on the shirt for personalized designs.  There are many options for the thrifty soul who wants to make totally new items from their old shirts.

Jeans that have become ratty on the bottom can become broken in, just like new capris or shorts!  Cut off the bottom part of the jeans as short as you are trying to go and then either leave the hem frayed for a cut-offs look or hem the new pair of shorts.

Have a plain item of clothing that you want to look different?  Buy ribbon or extra materials and add spizazz to it!  No need to have boring looks if you don’t want them.

A rather ingenious way to turn old clothes that you are tired of into something enjoyable is to create accessories out of them.  That outdated denim skirt can become a totally cool clutch handbag with the right sewing!  Love the pattern on a skirt but utterly tired of the fit?  Cut out strips and make it into a headband!  Belt loops on a pair of denim shorts can be cut off along with the rivets on the on the jean’s pockets, glue the rivets onto the belt loop with hot glue and seal it into a loop for a cute new ring.  Turn that old college sweatshirt in to a one-of-a-kind bag!

Seeing the same old clothes in a wardrobe can be oh so boring, but refashioning them in an unexpected, fun way can liven it up enough that it all seems like new!

Each day, as you shower and get ready to face the outside world, do you think about what in your beauty products actually makes your hair shiny or your lipstick last? You should. According to Safe Cosmetics, beauty and body care products of all kinds contain tons of chemicals, many of which are linked to cancer. The average woman in the United States uses about 12 personal care products a day, and men use about six—and each of these products contain a dozen or more chemicals! Of these hundreds of chemicals, less than twenty have been evaluated by the industry’s consumer safety panel—so it is a big mystery what they are doing to us!  Thankfully, there are ways to replace these dangerous chemicals in your daily usage with natural products that won’t make you sick. Here are five of the best, natural solutions to our beauty (or handsome-ness) dilemmas:

1. Need to control your frizz? Instead of Infusium 23 Complete Frizz Control Treatment, try Got2b Glossy Anti-Frizz Shine Serum. Where Infusium contains eight ingredients known to be dangerous to your health, Got2b has infinitely fewer ingredients and only one that may be questionable.

2. The shampoo you use to wash your baby’s hair is also a place where dangerous chemicals hide. Instead of Johnson’s Head-to-Toe Baby Wash, use Method Baby Squeaky Green Hair + Body Wash. Method’s product only contains only four ingredients of low concern, while Johnson’s has over 30 ingredients, nine of which pose some health concern.

3. When you are washing your own hair, look out for Nexxus. Their Botanoil Botanical Treatment Shampoo contains at least one ingredient that is a suspected immunotoxicant, not to mention the company’s disregard for the climate and ethics in their manufacturing practices. Instead, use Dr. Bronner’s Magic Citrus Hair Rinse—it contains only ten ingredients, most of which are natural oils, and only two of low health concern.

4. If lipstick is your thing, switch out Stila for Peacekeeper’s colors. Stila’s lipstick has an ingredient, Oxybenzone, that is a suspected skin or sense organ toxicant. Peacekeeper’s Paint Me Accepting Lipstick has no ingredients that raise a health concern, and they make their product while reducing climate change emissions and giving back to their local community.

5. We know you can’t live without your deodorant—or at least, we don’t want you to. Instead of Arm and Hammer’s Ultramax Victory deodorant, which has the very dangerous Triclosan in it, try Burt’s Bees Herbal Deodorant. It has no ingredients that raise a health concern, and is made of five ingredients that are all natural.

Until the government regulates the chemicals that are allowed into beauty products, our choices are frequently going to have to be between the greater and lesser evils. To see how your favorite products rank in terms of health, environment and ethics, check out www.goodguide.com. If you can, switch to products that will help you, rather than hurt you.

Plastic bags are one of the worst things for the environment that we can think of. Research suggest that 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed each year. And only one city in the United States has banned their use in markets and pharmacies—San Francisco.

So, they aren’t going away. But what can we do with them to make them more useful and keep them out of landfills?

You can make plastic bag yarn!

(pic courtesy of hellejorgensen.typepad.com)

You can then use it to knit, and even make clothes and bags from it! They’ll be waterproof! Consider using plastic bags from your old shopping trips to knit a tote for a new way of shopping! We promise, you will be forgiven for all the bags you used before. You can also make rugs and placemats as well.

You can also make better, stronger totes by fusing bags together to incorporate their designs into a new, better one. The same technique can be used to make an awesome dress like this!

Fusing can be done with a simple iron and parchment paper, but be sure to do a little research before getting melting or you may have some difficulty. Then, the plastic “fabric” can be sewn together into anything you want to make.

Fusing can also make beautiful, funky jewelry and hair accessories.

By making anything from plastic bags—or even carrying them for another use—you help keep these volatile landfill-mongers out of our earth a little bit longer.

Pic courtesy of craftster.org.

Perhaps the best way to lower your carbon footprint is to bike to work. Of course public transportation and carpooling do help, but nothing is as good for you and the earth as relying on a bicycle to get around. Biking is a great, low-impact exercise for those of us with damaged or stiff knees, and an awesome way to incorporate exercise into your day naturally. You probably already have a bike—here are a few great accessories for it to make the switch to cycling an easy one!

• TransIt Grocery Bag Pannier, $39.99 Maybe you are still driving to the store (with reusable bags of course) to buy your groceries. Not anymore! A great grocery bag pannier allows you to load up on food and then set the bag solidly on the back of your bike. Not only does this one fit on most standard panniers, it has a reflector stripe for added safety and a strap so you can take it into the store with you. Not grocery shopping today? That’s fine, just fold it up!

• CycleAware Reflex Mirror, $17.99 Nervous about biking in the street? Don’t fear, with a rear-view mirror you will be more aware of your surroundings than ever before. After attaching the mirror to your helmet, bend the flexible wire it is on to hit right in your peripheral vision. The base adheres permanently to your helmet, but the wire and mirror can be removed by ball and socket joints.

• Garmin Edge GPS with Heart Rate and Cadence, $599.99 In addition to guiding your bike route through the built in satellite map, this nifty tool will allow you to upload workouts, courses and saved rides. You can share your data with other GPS users, and automatically measure your speed, heart rate, cadence, distance, time, calories burned, altitude, climb and descent.

• NiteRider Sol LED Headlight, $129.99 If you work late or like to ride at night, don’t go anywhere without a headlight. This bright light can run for four hours per charge. Just plug it in to your wall and walk away! The charger self-monitors battery levels, so no worries about over charging. It is lightweight, compact, and fits most handlebars.

Depending on how serious you are of a biker and your intentions for your bike’s use, there are endless accessories to make your ride as convenient as a car trip. Bike around, see what you need, and get shopping!