Day 135
Just when I thought I was done with school supplies, I get a note from one of my fourth grader’s teachers that she needs a couple of additional items. Which, I would like to be irritable with the teacher about, but in the dim recesses of my memory, I recalled she sent a letter at the end of school last year letting the parents know about the additional supplies. Try as I might to place blame somewhere else, I guess I can’t. So, I spent a good portion of the evening rummaging around the house for the following items:
1 ½ inch binder
I actually found one in the cabinet, barely used, from last year.
Yeah…la, la, la, la la. But my celebration dance was short-lived. I realized it said Kelsey on it. And, since I’m pretty sure Kayla wouldn’t want a binder with her younger sister’s name on the spine, I tried a little Goof-Off from the hazardous material facility. It worked effortlessly, yeah!
Score one for me!
Oh crap, the plastic sleeve suddenly started to melt–stupid goof off. Yes, yes, I realize that in the realm of environmentally friendly initiatives, I suffered a setback. I finally found another binder which was two-inches and toxic fume free–good enough.
Dividers
I toyed around with the idea of making them out of recycled items on hand. That would have been really good…but it was 9:00 PM and I was getting tired. So instead, I dug around in the box of “IMPORTANT RECORDS” my husband packed and found some perfectly good dividers in a binder labeled “Chris and Kerry Annual Credit Reports”. I replaced the dividers with Snoopy post it notes I found and we were good to go. He’s going to be so pleased. (my husband, not Snoopy)
Everything else, I found without incident.
On, a final reflective note, I have seen at least 10 gazillion binders at thrift stores over the years. Why is that? And, why didn’t I ever consider buying them second hand before this year? Maybe a binder upcycling project is in our future?
I’ve recycled many of Jeff’s business binders and yes, the goodwill will every now & then have school supplies that are brand new but you’re not really buying ‘brand new’, right????? 😉
Ha! Love it! I used nail polish remover (also very environmentally friendly) to remove sibling names. When that didn’t work on some of them, I put on cool BMX bike stickers to cover little girl names. My 6th grade son was satisfied. I am afraid he still might be made fun of (or beat up) when they find out he still believes in Santa Clause. He figured out sex after a few sperm and egg conversations, but there is still a magical small bunny who can carry big baskets of goodies and open doors to hide things.