Reduce Reuse Recycle

The three "R"s have been literally branded into my long term memory by a certain science teacher in gradeschool... I honestly doubt I'll ever forget the phrase... it does however take a little more to consciously live by it though....

We are a family of juice drinkers and carton tetra packs pile up pretty quickly in our home, being bulky they take up a lot of room in the trash and are far from bio degradable... We've found a fun way to reuse almost all of the cartons by turning them into playroom building blocks/bricks etc. This tip should actually be credited to my mom, she was a daycare principal for many years... and we had a whole wall of milk carton blocks!

These blocks are light weight and great for making towers, building forts and igloos, giant dominos, indoor bowling, you name it! and best off they're free!

You can make them out of juice or milk cartons. Start by cutting off the angled top creating an open ended block. Once you've rinsed the cartons with soapy water (to prevent icky sour milk smells) and let them dry thoroughly, take two cartons and push one all the way into the other to create one block! If you're feeling especially creative you can paint them, wrap them with funky paper or your childs drawings, or try filling some with a handful of dry rice, beans, or pasta to make a percussion instrument!

Now all we have to do is find a way to reuse those discarded tops... I'm open to ideas.