Those beloved-but-worn salad bowls? The slightly scratched teak table you scored at an antique fair? Your 90-year-old wood floors? Make them shiny and new with one of these simple wood cleaning recipes (chances are you can make one with ingredients you already own.)

Where would we be without a little ingenuity? For one thing, we wouldn't have new products like RD Shady, a line of interchangeable lampshade covers out of Olympia, Washington. Based on the concept that it should be as easy to update a lamp as it is a throw pillow, these clever covers zip on and off in jiffy. 

If you are planning to plant a garden this year, you probably have some garden supplies that need organizing. Here are some creative storage ideas for a variety of spaces using things you might already have at home. 

This woman brings her Pomerian to the park and feeds the squirrels every morning.

When I first moved to my new city, I commuted two hours, which involved being driven to the train station, riding the train for an hour, riding the Metro, and then riding a bus. It was ridiculous and fortunately short lived. Now, I walk a mile to work, mostly through a city park that is blissfully quiet in the morning and bustling with happy activity in the evening.

I'm fortunate to have a house in the city with a backyard that receives lots of morning sunlight and a front yard that basks in the strong afternoon sun.  I get to experience the best of both worlds, but many of my friends aren't as lucky, and their gardens and yards often show it.  Last week we gave you a few ideas for shade-loving plants — this week I'm going to round off the list with a few suggestions for shade-loving trees (and for an added bonus, they're also perfect for compact spaces!).  

Q: Can I recycle a slate counter from our kitchen island to an outdoor table surface? We're renovating our home and I'd like to salvage and re-use as much as possible. The 7' x 2'6" honed, black slate slab topping the island is the perfect size and shape for an outdoor dining table.

Got a little space in your backyard for an out building? Want to build a little getaway structure outside the city? Then a yurt may be just what you're looking for. These simple structures have been around for a long time and they're gaining new popularity with easy build kits.

If you've been collecting piles of seed packets this spring, it can be hard to keep track of them all, especially if you need to sort by season or variety. Keep this idea in mind the next time you browse a flea market!

If you need some simple storage for your garden but don't quite need a potting bench, this eco-minded Etsy how-to upcycles a wooden pallet into outdoor shelving.

It doesn't take a jug of toxic chemicals to clear most slow or clogged drains. A drain auger can help cut through the hair, grease and food that's clogging a drain without flushing chemicals through to the water system.