Recycled Fun

It seems no accident that spring cleaning and Earth Day coincide. As the world outside awakens, our indoor habitats beg to be refreshed and renewed. Like the birds that warble again from the window ledge, we nest. They gather bits of fallen twigs and dry grass; we gather half-empty bottles long past their expiry dates, chunks of cracked bar soaps, an assortment of random junk culled from the home office. As we come uncluttered, inspiration dawns, and to the delight of our ingenious children (who mistake the meticulously organized cleaning piles for islands of misfit toys), old things destined for the trash bin take on new life.

In honor of this springtime ritual, we’ve given families around the Kansas City Metro an Earth Day assignment: Take everyday household items and recycle them into creative projects for kids.

Box Fort

I saved cardboard boxes to use for a fun, recycled "fort" for my kids to build and play with. We used four large, sturdy boxes for the base and built the fort up from there. First, we taped all the boxes together. Then we cut doors, windows and secret passageways for their action figures to play in. We glued colored construction paper to the front and then decorated with markers and stickers. To make it last longer, I covered the entire fort in clear packing tape. The kids love hiding a special toy in a room and having us hunt for it. It's a great way for them to use their imaginations when they're playing and was a fun project to work on together!

~Leah Heinauer, Overland Park

Do-It-Yourself Bath Soaps

We are all about the “reduce, reuse, recycle” motto in our house. It frustrated me to either keep track of the small slivers of soap left over in the soap dish or throw them away, wasting what was left. My husband also travels quite a bit and often comes home with hotel soaps that we never use. After searching online, I found several recipes for making our own soap using leftover bar soap or those little hotel soaps. So, I gathered ingredients, and the kids and I got to work. Here’s what we did:

• With a cheese grater, break up larger pieces into small slivers.
• Put soap slivers into a microwave safe bowl.
• Add a handful of oatmeal (for exfoliating) to the slivers.
• Sprinkle with enough water to dampen the mixture and make it clumpy.
• Microwave in 1-minute increments until the mixture bubbles up.
• Stir to combine, then divide and add several drops of food coloring.
• Lightly grease a muffin tin.
• Press the mixture into the muffin tin and allow it to cool, then pop out the soaps to dry overnight on a plate.

Now we have fun colored soaps to use and there are no more random soap slivers all over my sink!~Katrina Kanary, Olathe

2-Liter Terrarium

My son, Trey, and I love making science projects at home. To learn about plants, we brought nature indoors with a homemade terrarium from a recycled plastic soda bottle. First, we cut the bottle into two pieces with scissors about a quarter of the way up from the bottom. We filled the bottom piece with dirt, watered it, and planted forget-me-not seeds. To plant, we made holes in the dirt with the end of the spoon, dropped two seeds into each hole and patted the dirt on top. Trey caught on fast and had fun planting. We put the top piece of the bottle over the bottom piece, positioned it next to a window to soak in the sun, and are now anxiously awaiting our first sprouts!

~April Tebbe, Gardner

Pop Princess Tiara

To create a simple crown to adorn my daughter’s head, we drew a design in dry-erase marker on a 2 ½-liter soda bottle. Next, we traced our design in t-shirt paint, let it dry for an hour and cut it out. It was a simple project, and my daughter loves the new accessory for her dress-up clothes. I envision a rainbow assortment of coordinating tiaras in our near future!

Bagel Holder

To keep plain bagels fresh, or to transport bagel sandwiches without the mess of smeared cream cheese and migrating lunch meat, our family uses a recycled plastic CD spindle and twist-on top that comes with CDs purchased in bulk. Our bagel lunch box is just the right size and comes in very handy at our favorite bagel restaurant.

~Wendy Connelly, Overland Park

With a basement storage area worthy of the hit show “Hoarding: Buried Alive,” and two pint-sized crafters of infinite resourcefulness residing in her Overland Park home, writer Wendy Connelly has become an expert at the MacGyver-style art form of recycled crafts.