Upcycled File Cabinet Drawers - create shelving and planters from old drawers

If you have any old metal file cabinet drawers or can get your hands on any at a flea market this spring - they can easily be turned into amazing hanging shelves and planters.

The drawer's pull handles make great places to hang your doodads and the file name insert (shown here with the dictionary definiton of GROW) make great spaces for words, pictures, business cards, etc.

The easiest way to hang these is with a screw into a screw anchor. They can also be stacked or used as shelf dividers - too many possibilties to throw these babies into the junk heap!

Earth Day Countdown - Getting a Little Greener in 2011 - Spring Cleaning

As Earth Day 2011 approaches there may be some ways we can tweak our lives and live a little bit greener.

Spring Cleaning for Greenies -

1. Reduce - this one is all about buying less stuff with less packaging and cutting the clutter in our lives.

(clutter gets in the way of everything - it is hard to even set an intention for what we want in life when we have filled our lives with too much stuff)

2. Reuse - after you create that pile of stuff you want to get rid off - take another look at the pile - can anything there be reused in a better way - not to hang onto it just to hang onto it - but don't toss the books when you can glue them together and make an amazing side table!

3. Recycle - I know you are already doing this so maybe the next step is a compost pile - composting is super easy

my post with some tips is HERE and a great post on the EcoEtsy blog is HERE.

I recently bought some wonderful worm compost tea to add to my garden from Maryellen of MaryZoom - she has volunteered to help me when I launch my very own kitchen worm bin with red wrigglers, which she promises do not smell and are easy to maintain.

4. Donate - 80% of what we own we never use - maybe someone else can! There is a great list of what to do with our stuff on Martha HERE

5. Make our own cleaning supplies HERE

6. Make it a no-trash cleaning day - ditch the paper towels, the throwaway mop-head thingies and those sticky pads that you have to toss - there are better alternatives to all of these things - if Grandma didn't clean it that way, we probably shouldn't either.

7. Break up with our mailman - get off the junkmail lists with greendimes.com or 41 pounds , go paperless with your statements when possible

At EcoEtsy we are having our 2nd annual Earth Day Auction - this year we are raising money for Habitat for Humanity in Japan - check it out HERE - there are several packages of handmade goodies you can bid on and get yourself some amazing loot while supporting a wonderful cause.

*Jane Austen quote dishtowel at Brookish

What Small Makers Might Learn from Big Companies and Their Policy & Procedure Manuals

When I worked for a bank we had lots of rules and lots of regulations and lots of manuals.

There was a rule for everything and a certain way that almost everything needed to be done.

Many of these ways and rules were exactly the reasons some of us no longer work for places like banks or dream of no longer working for places like banks

but one positive thing the writers of those policy and procedures manuals did for us was create a system of practices that allowed us

(even with a sign in every office reminding everyone that the customer was always right)

to say no when we needed to.

When we don't have any rules for what we will and will not do, we are more likely to make reactive rather than proactive decisions.

Reactive decisions are made on the fly and often depend on our emotion in the moment or on guilt or wanting approval - proactive decisions are thought out and support the intentions we have for our business.

Proactive decisions allow us to grow in intended ways. They help us set up the systems to spend our time in the best possible ways for us.

For example I get alot of requests for charity donations for auctions and things. Early on I would ask them to fax me a request with the letterhead of the charity and I would send them off some jewelry, but it got to be a little too much and what I really wanted to do with my donations; support the causes I was passionate about - was getting lost. So, I made myself a little policy about dealing with charity requests and I stick to it. I also made a little policy about brussel sprouts and I'm sticking to that one, too.

(this is not to say we can't bend the rules sometimes - except for the brussel sprouts rule because, well, they are really gross - because of course we can, but just not so often that the intention behind our setting it in the first place gets lost)

If you are asked to do something in the moment that you really don't want to do, you don't have to come up with lame excuses or trudge along and do it anyway - well, sometimes we do have to do the things we don't want to do and trudge along and do it anyway, of course, but those things should be the exception- mostly we should be doing the things that support the intentions we have for ourselves.

(you also do not have to answer a request until you are clear on what you want - saying "let me get back to you on that" - is often a good idea and allows you to see how the request fits in with the intention for your business and your life)

Some clear guidelines about what we will and what we will not do might make our small maker lives alot easier.

Sometimes the big companies get something right ... sometimes.

watch your back - they REALLY are out to get you today ...

Rules for April 1st - don't believe anything anyone says today, open doors slowly, do not move any oddly placed objects, check toilet seats for saran wrap, do not come running when your kids call you,

(sneak up on them - trust me- they are up to something)

check for thumb tacks before sitting down anywhere, do not eat anything that has been out of your sight for 10 seconds ...

(actually these are all good rules to live by everyday, except for the eating thing - that would be a hard one)

I don't want to make you all paranoid and suspicious today, but .... maybe you should be.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, congrats to Unni and Lindsay for their giveaway wins, don't forget to enter Studio724's amazing giveaway HERE - next week we will begin our Earth Day countdown, I will have a new upcycled tutorial you won't want to miss and a little post on the value of working together ....

xo - enjoy your weekend everyone ... and be careful .... seriously