Tip of the Week: How to get Smells out of Jars and Bottles

The longer I live out in the real world the more I realize my Mommy taught me a lot. This is a tip she learned from my Grammy and passed on to me when I was young.

So you want to up-cycle some pickle jars, salsa jars, etc for cute apothecary jars or craft storage. The only thing holding you back is the smell inside the jar which gets absorbed into everything you put in it. I recently had to do this to my husband's shaker bottle when the rotten protein powder smell wouldn't go away.

Take some newsprint (aka black and white news paper) and rip it into crumpled handfuls. Place the paper into the container so that it is full and lightly packed. Screw on lid and leave it for a week. The odors will absorb into the paper. Change out the paper every week to two weeks depending on how strong the odor is.

Scrap Quilt

Finished Quilt on our Bed.

Any good crafty person will probably have a few projects going at once. A bad crafty person will let them sit and never finish them. I make sure to set deadlines and goals for finishing my projects. Sometimes I have to adjust them to be more realistic, but I always try to finish them. 

First completed row of the quilt.

This Quilt is just one example of that in my own home. While my husband was deployed I worked on this to keep me busy. Any other military spouses know what I mean? Those long nights when you can't sleep so you work yourself into exhaustion? Well, its one of the things that works for me. I used a someone else's pattern so I wont be posting it for sale on etsy, but I can make pillows after altering the size of the motif a bit if anyone is interested. I made it a point to use this project as a "stash buster." I only used remnants or leftovers from other projects to make all of the squares. Tonight I stitched on the batting and the backing to make a soft quilt. I hope this inspires a few of you to use your scraps too :)

DIY Plunger Caddy

Please tell me that I am not the only one who is grossed out by putting a dirty plunger on the bathroom floor. Well, I have come up with a re-purposed solution to our problem, but be sure to do it ahead of time and save yourself extra sanitizing. But don't forget to sanitize when you clean the bathroom if you had to use it!

You Will Need:

• clean, plastic 1 gallon milk jug
• heavy scissors or a craft knife
• marker

So this is really simple. Use the marker to draw the line you will be cutting on the judge. Cut the jug. This is the remains of mine when I was done cutting.

 

Round of the edges edges off so your plunger does not get caught. And you are done. I plan to go back and spray paint a replacement for this later. But now it is functional and easy to clean. Try it !