If you haven't already ditched them... Do you have a saw? I think they would make great garden gates, either free standing or in a fence. If they are built so that you can cut them you could also make planters, and tables, and stools, etc for outside use. You could also attach it to the side of the garage, a shed, back of the house, etc..., put up some chicken wire, and use it as a trellis back ground. Or attach shelves for potted plants and garden things. Could possibly use them for raised beds if you need those. If they could be cleaned up enough for inside use, you could make a table or desk or coffee table. AND, if you have enough space inside, I've seen some really neat barn doors recycled for closet doors, room dividers, etc. They use a track system (on the wall) and to access the room or closet the door slides back and forth. Of course, some of the track system is sticking out even when the door is closed, but it's a really cool look. Come to think of it, I could use something like that in my entry hallway. One wall is always getting dinged or smudged. That would be a great way to solve that problem. Paint it an accent color, attach coat hooks and maybe a mirror or two, and you have a sturdy wall that's not as delicate or hard to clean as drywall. Oh, and you could make a head board or two from them! Can you tell I'm an HGTV junkie? Wish I had seen this forum sooner... After this lecture, do you even still have them? tr

Hey West - we are in the same boat. but what about the colored paper, the glossy paper, etc. like magazines etc??? There is no place around here that will take that stuff either. I have been shredding the smaller glossy stuff (that comes in the mail) to mix into the compost pile but I can't take the time to tear apart and shred magazines. It either goes into the garbage or sometimes hubby sneaks it in with the newspapers that we take up to the recycling center or sometimes I wait till hubby's at work and I burn them. None of these is a good alternative really. Wish the recycling programs were better in my area. Dulu - in our last place (different town) we had a similar thing as you. Fortunately, we have a single sort system that allows for all manner of paper types/magazines, cans, bottles, and plastics #1 thru 7 to be dumped together in one large wheeled bin and picked up every two weeks. The only difference was that you could not put in magazines or cardboard and they only took plastics 1 and 2. Yours sounds much more comprehensive. Val

We live in the country, too. There is a weekly trash pick up service in our area, but we don't use it. It takes us a month or two to fill a single 30 gallon trash bag. When one is full, I take it to the trash & recycling drop off and pay a by-the-bag fee that is probably one tenth the cost of the pickup service. I have made a concerted effort to stay off mailing lists, and we still get plenty of junk mail, which we shred. We have poor soil, so the shreds get sprinkled wherever we need the organic matter the most. I'd rather compost than burn. Yeah, I admit, sometimes it looks like confetti on our lawn, but the lawn is getting thicker! We compost vegetable scraps from the kitchen, autumn leaves, etc. As for cans and bottles, we recycle everything possible. Only non-recyclable plastic and meat bones find their way into our trash can, even with all the decluttering I'm doing with the help of FlyLady. Household items that are useful to someone else go to the Re-Use It Center, or I Freecycle them on the front porch. At first, I used a couple of cardboard boxes for the recyclable materials. But leaking liquids made them messy. So I replaced them with clear plastic bins that could be washed. I measured the shelf in the garage where we keep the recycle bins. I went to two or three stores that had a good selection of plastic storage containers. I used my measuring tape to be sure that whatever I got would fit into my space. I only need two boxes. One is for styrofoam, which shares space with a bundle of #2 & #4 plastic bags. (The bags are easy to pull out at the recycle place.) The other box holds cans, recyclable plastic & glass, which is how my local recycle place wants everything sorted. I also got a smaller box with a snap-tight lid. The mice chew aluminum foil and make a mess, but with the lid, I can keep foil out in the garage with the rest of the recycle stuff. When I have trash and/or recycling, I drive it over to the place which is also conveniently near some of the stores I need to visit anyway. I can combine my errands and save gas. It works out well for me. MaryLiz

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to canning stuff. I'd only use NEW Ball or Kerr lids for each batch of stuff canned. They're designed for exactly one use only, and every food safety site reinforces that. I wouldn't try to reuse old rubber rings. The ring does nothing but hold the lid (snugly, not excessively tightly) in apposition to the glass rim so that as the food is processed, steam escapes through the headspace; when the jar cools, the steam in the headspace condenses to make the seal. (That's the 'boink' sound you occasionally hear as the jars cool down.) So if there's a little rust on the ring, no big deal, as long as the ring can mechanically hold the lid down on to the jar rim while it's making the seal. BTW, some people recommend taking the ring OFF the jar once the jar is sealed; that way you can easily see if the seal ever fails. (With a properly formed seal, you can pick up the jar by the lid alone. If you can't, you don't have a good seal.) Any of the jars that aren't designed for the Ball or Kerr lids: I'd just use them for bulk storage of dry stuff like beans or grains or pasta. I have a bunch of old Italian style canning jars, and they're great for that. Attractive, too. Just my $.02