Just because your restaurant leftovers are gone after you devoured them last night at midnight, doesn’t mean the container your leftovers came in needs to be thrown away. You don’t have to be a restaurant owner to find a use for food packaging. Surprisingly enough, regular people have several uses for the common take out box you are given to take home your leftovers in, and anymore they are well-designed and durable so they don’t look like obvious eyesores. By reusing the plastic take-out containers you’re also doing the planet a favor. Five great ways to use leftover food storage containers include:

Replace the Tupperware

Plastic food storage containers typically used to deliver take-out or package up leftovers were specifically designed to protect and store food. So why not use them for the same reason after you eat your restaurant leftovers? Simply wash the containers out and use it to package your kids’ school lunches or even your own. You can even use them to store your own homemade leftovers, and many are microwave safe which makes reserving the leftovers a breeze.

Small Storage

Paper clips, push pins and rubberbands can easily create a mess in any desk drawer, and you guessed it, placing a small food storage container in a drawer can easily organize these items. Most plastic take out containers even have compartments in them allowing you to separate all your desk items.

Art Projects

Not only can the left over food packaging be used to create jewelry boxes or faux treasure chests, but they can also be used to facilitate the creative process by serving as mixing dishes and water bowls. After consuming your leftovers, simply wash out the containers and keep a small stack of them with your children’s art supplies so that they may easily be grabbed when your kid sits down to create.

On-the-Go Watering Bowls

If you and your canine companion frequent the local trails or dog parks, you know the importance of keeping your dog well hydrated, and letting your dog drink out of your water bottle isn’t always an easy or sanitary task. However, with a cleaned take-out container, you can easily provide your dog with a water bowl without having to haul the big one around.

Water Saucer for Flower Pot

Have a flower pot that drains all over the floor? Well, why spend an extra $2 for a water saucer when you can just use a left over take out box? Both the top and bottom pieces of a plastic take out box make great water saucers, and they’re free with the purchase of your restaurant meal.

If you already have a house full of plastic take-out containers being re-used, remember to recycle the new ones you have brought home. While re-using is one great green way to live, so is recycling so don’t be afraid to toss your take-out containers in the appropriate recycling containers if you can’t find a use for them.

Let’s keep with a safety theme. While keeping our kids safe is a top priority, it’s also important that we safeguard our rights. One way to do that is to become aware of the things that are happening in various aspects of our lives.

Public Citizen is a watchdog group that sets out to protect consumers. Founded in 1971, this non-profit group fights for openness and accountability in our government. Since they recieve no corporate (advertising) or government funding, donations are welcome.

Public Citizen monitors Auto Safetly, keeps tabs on Congress, watches over Global trade and has divisions for energy, health and litigation. The organization has been instrumental in removing Red Dye #2 (a carcinogen) from the market, releasing the Nixon White House tapes and organizing protests against the World Trade Organization. While diverse, these are all issues that concern every citizen.

You’ll also find a contact form at the site for any inquiries you have. This isn’t the place to complain that term life insurance quotes are too expensive but it is the best place to stay informed about the Global economy and what our government is doing day to day.

If you like what you see here, please consider a donation. You can become a member for as little as $20, although $35 will get you the Health newsletter, too.

I spent seven years working for an internet company. The owners/partners of the company were all about security. I learned quite a bit from those guys about keeping a network secure.

I’m not sure why but those lessons never really transferred over to my real life. Perhaps growing up in Small Town, USA I just never thought much about keeping my home secure. We’ve always had a low crime rate around here and neighbors still watch out for each other. Yet, times are changing and I don’t necessarily like those changes.

Over the past 15 years our garage/shop has been broken into 3 times. This is supposed to be a safe neighborhood but it seems even safe places aren’t so safe these days. So far, we’ve lost a few hundred dollars worth of tools but I’m not comfortable waiting around until something worse happens.

In fact, I can’t help wondering what will happen if someone gets the courage to break into our home. And what if that happens when we’re all there, asleep perhaps? What about my kids who sometimes fall asleep in front of the TV on weekends?

Yes, we do have a dog and she can be quite intimidating when she greets visitors with her bark. She’s a Pit Bull and they do have quite the reputation. The truth is, though, Belle is a very typical Pit Bull, meaning she’s friendly and affectionate. She just loves people and it wouldn’t be difficult for someone to calm Belle and turn her into a friend in a matter of seconds. Her bark may alert us to a visitor but a watch dog, she isn’t.

For the record, most family dogs are useless for protecting the home. A skilled thief can get around most any dog other than those trained solely for the purpose of guard dog. Yes, a dog may protect its master and I’m sure Belle would risk her life to protect my kids, but at the end of the day, she’s just a lovable dog whose strong suit is scaring off inept amateurs.

So, what to do? I’ve been looking into home security systems and I’m just amazed at the wide array of services. Not only can ADT Security monitor your home for break-ins but also for fire, flood, carbon monoxide and medical emergencies. Now, we’re not at risk for flood here on this hill but with our wood burner this winter, fire is a frightening possibility. I just never realized that one monitoring service would handle so many different situations.

I’m not sure if we can use one system to handle our house as well as our garage, since they’re not attached. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem. I know I still have more research before I make a decision but so far, I really like the system and service that ADT offers like the 24 hour monitoring at five centers across the USA.

So, do any of you have a home security system? If so, has it calmed your fears of safety for your family? If not, have you considered one? Do you like what ADT has to offer? Take a minute to let me know what you think about home security in general.

My husband can build houses. He’s a brick mason but he can do just about any part of home construction. I consider myself fortunate that he’s so talented. He doesn’t, however, work on cars. Oh, sure, he can change the oil and do some minor repairs but he’d rather hire someone to do the big stuff. Working on vehicles frustrates him. He’s the kind of guy that isn’t interested in the latest turbocharger or new rims; he just wants to get in his truck or car and drive. Some guys are like that.

I’ve been around long enough and have owned enough cars to know that finding a reputable car repair person can be a daunting task. I don’t know why that is but I think it’s a pretty universal situation. Maybe it’s just that most of us don’t understand automotives or maybe we expect too much from our mechanics. Or maybe a good mechanic really is hard to find.

I have one son who has helped a lot with my car repairs and we have a very trustworthy regular mechanic, but for those still searching, there’s finally some help. Repair Pal claims to take the mystery out of auto repair and by the looks of the website I’d say they’re definitely on the right path.

Repair Pal is full of information for the car owner. There’s an Encyclopedia with answers to your questions about car parts and services. There’s a knowledge base of common problems and ratings of cars as well as an area to list your car with your own repair information. This information along with the ratings you give to mechanics in the Shop Directory help to make Repair Pal even more useful.

My favorite part of the site, though, is the RepairPrice Estimator. Just enter your car’s details, your city and state or zip code and the repair work you need done and the Repair Estimator will give you the price range you can expect to pay. Scroll down and you can see the price broken down into parts and labor. That service alone makes Repair Pal an invaluable site for car owners. Check it out and be sure to rate your favorite (and least favorite) mechanics.

Okay, kids, I’m going to play to my age for this one. You younguns might want to just run along and skip this altogether. For now, at least.

Now that I’m 50 I’ve decided to look into joining AARP.

There, I said it. I admitted that I’m old enough for the old people’s club. And you know, it isn’t so bad. I mean, now that I’m over that initial shock, I can see that there are many benefits to being this age. Being able to join AARP is one of them.

I’m still too young for Medicare but AARP does offer reasonably priced life insurance as well as some nice travel deals. In fact, AARP offers discounts on all kinds of items like the great buys in their Health Essentials Catalog.

Oh, and the one thing that convinced me to join AARP is that my membership is free when my husband joins. That’s two for the price of one. After 50 years, it’s about time good deals started coming my way!

We all know that there are numerous job hunting sites. I know quite a few people who have had enormous luck finding new jobs by posting their business resumes online. The problem with those sites, though, is that they’re geared toward management and white collar.

I’ve been trying to help my husband find work for the winter. My husband is one of the best brick and stone masons in the country. His work speaks for itself and you can’t really put that in a resume. Sure, he’s run projects; he’s ordered materials, estimated and managed crews. But his forte is his eye for beauty.

Although the pictures are lovely, the home my husband worked on in Hawaii is just breathtaking in real life. He and my son built every arch, laid each stone from the house to the barbecue to the bridge over the lagoon style pool. In fact, my husband laid the block on that house in 2001.

Anyway, he’s now looking for work since things are slowing down around here with the cold weather. I’ve had no luck at the traditional job search engines but I have found a number of leads at Simply Hired and Indeed. These sites seem to include a wider variety of occupations.

I’ve just discovered the employment forum at Indeed so I’m going to look through there to learn even more about online job searches. If you know of other good job search sites, especially for the construction industry, let me know. And if you know of someone who needs a top-notch brick and stone mason, drop me a note. I know the best!

Let’s get this straight. Women are not genetically engineered to enjoy cleaning. There is nothing in estrogen that compels us to scrub a toilet or scour pots and pans. Yes, I like my house to be clean but no, I don’t get any satisfaction or sense of accomplishment knowing that I’m the one who made it clean.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s be realistic. I clean up around here more than anyone else. Part of the reason for that is simply because I’m here, in the house, more often than anyone else. (I really need a job outside the house.) Even when someone else is doing the cleaning, I’m usually consulted on the tough jobs. You know, like stains. Or is it safe to submerge the electric skillet in the water? Why do these people think I would know that stuff?

Perhaps it’s because I know where to find the answers on how to clean anything. Whether you need to clean a kitchen sink drain or a baby’s finger nails, you’ll find the answers quickly. At How To Clean Stuff, you’ll find cleaning tips for everything from typical household items like Crown Moulding to your favorite tech gadgets and games like the Wii Fit Balance Board.

Needless to say, my favorite part of the site is the Strategies category. With articles on How to Polish a Turd, How to Wash a Rabid Monkey and (my favorite) Getting Your Spouse to Clean Up After HIMself, I’ve bookmarked the whole category page. Laughing at the mess my family of men makes sure beats running a steam cleaner through the house every day.

A terrific site like this deserves a little help so if you have any cleaning tips, be sure to offer them up for others. Not only will you get a great feeling knowing you’ve contributed but for every tip they publish, the site owners will donate $0.25 to the Clean Water Fund. Not bad, huh?

I love hardware especially anything past its prime. I tend to “collect” discarded electronics and then fix them up to squeeze more use from them. It’s all part of my packrat thing and the fact that I love hand tools.

The biggest obstacle to this harmless past time is that most of the older items I have do not come with any documentation. Add to that the fact that most people have tossed out their old stuff, there aren’t many places to find help with specific problems. Or is there?

FixYa is fast becoming my very favorite site ever. This is the best place for any consumer to get information on virtually any product at all. From computer hardware, photography equipment, kitchen appliances or even cars, you’ll find troubleshooting information, tech support accessories and Manuals.

You can search the vast database or go straight to one of the experts with your question. If you have a special area of expertise, you can also register as an expert and answer questions. FixYa combines an easy way to find the information you need with a helping community to give consumers a much needed helping hand.

I first put FixYa through a few tests to see if it would really be useful. First, I searched for my old computer monitor, entering Hitachi CM772. Sure enough, it was listed along with a list of questions about monitors, a link to accessories and one to the owner’s manual.

I also searched for accessories for my daughter’s old camcorder. She lost the battery charger a long time ago and it’s been sitting in her room, not being used at all. It took just less than a minute to track down a battery charger for the camcorder. Not bad.

I also searched for some generic terms like CAT5e cable, vacuum (I need a new one) and Bunn (as in coffee maker). Every term brought up usable information.

I haven’t yet tried asking a question but I’m sure I’ll do that soon enough. Heck, maybe I’ll even offer myself as an expert – I’m just not certain what my area of expertise is. Oh yeah, drinking coffee.

I’ve always been impressed by those who can sew or knit or crochet. I can’t do any of those things, and not for lack of trying. I had to face the fact long ago that fabric is not my friend. And so I turned to other creative outlets. Like soapmaking.

Making soap with lye and various oils takes a bit of patience and practice. I was looking for a fun activity that would be faster than making soap and just as fun when I found a great tutorial on making candles. After reading through the basics and moving on to the more detailed instructions, I ordered my supplies and waited for delivery.

My first candle making attempt worked out well. The candles were lovely and I thank Candlewic for providing so much information, especially the safety guidelines. If you use these instructions for children, be sure to take note of the History of Candlemaking. Quite an interesting read.

Even though I prefer to buy my container, taper and tea light candles, I’m glad I gave candle making a shot. It was a great learning experience and now that I have the equipment, I can share the fun with my kids and grandkids as fun craft projects.

Are you watching the housing market and wondering what might happen next? Have you been trying to sell or are you hoping to qualify for a loan to buy your first home? Or maybe you’re just hoping you can continue to make your mortgage payments until the economy stabilizes.

With housing prices so low, this would be a great buyer’s market except for the difficulty in securing financing. Rather than doing nothing, this is a great time to do research and figure out what neighborhood you might like once our economy is in better shape. That’s what I’m doing by keeping an eye on homes and neighborhoods at Cyberhomes.

This one-stop home finding site can narrow down your search by zip code or street address, minimum and maximum price, bedrooms, bathrooms and even foreclosure sales. You can search for specific schools and there’s even rental listings. The reading room has some very informative articles including A Homeowner’s Guide to the Financial Crisis.

Unless you’re in the market for St. Martin villa rentals or your own private island in the Pacific, you’ll find exactly what you need at Cyberhomes.com. The site covers buying, selling, renting and even moving. This really is a one-stop site for house hunting.