A lot of times recycling can be a bit boring. Lets face it, sorting trash isn’t the funnest thing on Earth (feel free to disagree and tell me why you love to sort trash!) Recycling can also be time consuming or tricky if you are making something out of an old something else and you are not particularly creative or crafty (aka me! I cannot even use a glue gun well). A few weeks ago, however, Hubby came up with a great Reuse idea that really worked well.
Our school age daughters, Meg, Mita and Enu, love to play tether-ball at school and were asking Hubby to get a one set up at the house last week. His green light-bulb moment happened rather quickly as he remembered that we still have the four poles from our old trampoline! These poles are from the net enclosure around the trampoline to keep the kids from falling off. These poles have hooks on them to hold up the net.
Hubby quickly set up two separate tether-ball poles and purchased the balls and ropes at a local sports store. Having two for us was a must with the four kids. I didn’t want to hear the whole taking turns battle that would have for sure erupted. For about $40 and an hour or so of time we were set up for action and the kids have been playing during every free moment is seems!
To Hubby, his idea may have been more about saving money than being green, but as it often is, we win both ways! I have seen tether-ball sets from $25-$65 online and that is just for one and the trampoline poles seem much sturdier than the poles for sale are.
We gave the other two poles to my brother and sister in law, and the recycling just continues. So go look for a old trampoline on Craig’s list or a yard sale and make some tether-ball poles! It is a great way to keep your kids active and busy and OUTSIDE. Oh yeah, my kids like to bend the rules a bit…here are the rules to tether-ball if you need them!
I would love to hear other ideas about reusing kids toys in creative ways!
