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Do Just One Thing
By Danny Seo
Do you have functioning old DVD and VHS players gathering dust at home? Turns out, there's real demand for them in the resale market. A growing number of younger consumers are experiencing "streaming fatigue" as subscription costs rise and content seemingly disappears overnight, driving renewed interest in physical media like VHS tapes and DVDs. And because manufacturers have largely stopped making new players, functioning older models can fetch up to $150 on the resale market. Even the original remotes and cables can be surprisingly valuable.
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As you rake leaves and prepare your garden for winter, consider leaving dead flowers and plants intact. Dead stalks and seedheads may look untidy, but they provide an important source of sustenance and shelter for birds and other wildlife when snow covers the ground and food becomes scarce. Even ferns can provide cover and habitat for small animals and beneficial insects. Black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, sunflowers, marigolds and zinnias are all excellent candidates to leave standing through winter. The hollow stems of many perennial plants provide nesting sites for native bees and other beneficial insects, helping support pollinators through the cold months.
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If you have a cat who spends time outdoors, consider bringing him inside. Free-ranging domestic cats are estimated to kill between 1.3 and 4 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals in the United States each year, including small mammals such as mice, voles and rabbits. To make the transition easier, create an enriching indoor environment with scratching posts, cardboard boxes, climbing spaces and plenty of interactive toys.
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Restaurants and commercial kitchens throw away tons of food every year -- it's considered excess inventory, even though it could be given to food banks or hunger charities. One of the problems with getting the excess food to the charities is that often there isn't enough manpower to transport it. Contact your local food bank or hunger charity and ask if it needs any volunteer "food runners," who donate time to pick up excess food (that's been properly packaged by the commercial kitchen) and bring it to the charity. It's one easy step to stop waste and alleviate hunger.
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If you're having a party for a large group of people and you rent glassware, dishes and flatware from a rental company, it may seem rude to send them back dirty, but it isn't. The reality is, even if you do a thorough job in washing your rentals, the companies are required to use a commercial-grade dishwasher to fully clean and sanitize them before they go out to another party, so they are prepared to clean them anyway.
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If you have a collection of old wire-framed eyeglasses -- perhaps inherited from a grandparent -- they may actually be gold-filled. Look for the marking "GF" on the frames, which indicates that they're gold-filled. Gold-filled frames are often made with 12 or 14 karat gold, and on the resale market, they can be more valuable to collectors than to scrap-metal buyers.
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Leave driftwood where you find it. That seemingly lifeless log on the beach is actually a busy ecosystem. Driftwood provides shelter for insects, spiders, salamanders and other small animals; offers birds places to nest; and helps trap windblown sand, supporting the formation of stable dunes. Wood that ends up in the water can provide hiding places for young fish and, when it eventually sinks to the seafloor, becomes food and habitat for an entire community of marine organisms.
Through his best-selling books, television programs, products and syndicated column, environmental lifestyle expert Danny Seo shares the creative ideas that have made him America's leading authority on modern, eco-friendly living.