Official EchoMerx Blog » diy

Green work #5: Reuse Costco produce tray to organize warehouse

EchomerxBlog — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:20:16 +0000

Over the years, I have asked a few business owners how much they usually spend on storing racks and bins for their warehouses. As I expected, the costs ranged from a few hundred bucks to thousands! If you aren’t quite ready to spend this much money and time, you can get your racks and bins set up in just a few minutes; and best yet, it costs absolutely NOTHING!

I came across some sturdy grocery boxes at Costco, and realized that these boxes would serve as perfect storage bins for many small businesses. Here are a few things I particularly like about these boxes:

1. Since these boxes have open end design, the space between 2 stacked bins allows you to check the contents of each bin, as well as reach the products you need to grab, without having to remove surrounding bins. What I do sometimes is cut off a small portion of the box to get an even bigger “window.” (See 1st image)

2. You can stack up as many bins as you like, since they fit right over each other. Yep, building your own rack couldn’t be easier!

3. Corrugated boxes are very sturdy, many can hold up to 20 lbs.

4. Most boxes are made from recycled materials and can, of course, be recycled as well. By reusing these boxes, you know you’ll be helping the environment at the same time.

5. If you need more bins, just make a trip to your local grocery store. They almost never run out of stock!

Here are some tips: Make sure to pick CLEAN boxes, because you don’t want your merchandise smelling like garlic! Plan ahead by measuring the dimensions of your shelves and checking the size and quantity of your products. You don’t have to bring in hundreds of boxes in just one trip; but keep in mind that there are a variety of sizes and shapes to choose from, and depending on availability, you may not be able to get the same sized boxes each time. And finally, to make your life easier, print out stickers with the products’ SKU numbers and label the outsides of each box for easy reference.

I hope you found this post helpful. Enjoy your new convenient, super inexpensive, and eco-friendly racks and bins!

DIY external hard drive on Earth Day

EchomerxBlog — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:36:32 +0000

Earth Day is just around the corner on Apr 22.

This year will mark the beginning of The Green Generation Campaign^TM which will also be the focus of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.

For more information on Earth Day, you can check out Earth Day site that can give you detailed events for this year.

I know a lot of folks out there use the flash memory card in camera, camcorder and use it to save large files of videos and downloads. The price of average flash memory card is dropping fast each year and in the process, many households are ending up with not-so-popular cards in a variety of capacity, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB. The same can be said on laptop computers.

I use flash memory card and love them, but I don’t like the notion that consumer are paying for the revolution and the inter-changebility. So I decide to research this topics a bit, my goal would be to find something that can act as a external flash drive and retrofit it with my old laptop hard drive. Our average laptop drives are manufactured with at least 10GB+ capacity and this would be perfect for replacing flash memory cards and save a lot of money!

The first stop for my adventure is local Fry’s. At the hard drive department, I quickly find they carry many different brands of “hard drive enclosure”. The right type for laptop is labeled “2.5 inch” since most laptop drives are 2.5 inch. So I pick one for about $12.00. Amazon also carry a lot of the external USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure – 2.5 in, here is a shot of what it looks like:

Inside this enclosure is a circuit board that will interface with your USB port, a cable is provided as part of the kit to plug into the USB ports. Installation is easy, all you have to do is to unscrew the case using a jeweler’s screw driver and plug the laptop hard drive to the circuit board. When plugged in, make sure the circuit board is flushed with the drive. If not, most likely the drive is plugged in wrong direction, and you just need to flip the drive and re-plug the drive.

Laptop drive has two rows of golden pin and they are straight. The straightness is very important to mate the circuit board to the drive. If the pins are bend, you will have a hard time to plug the circuit board.

Once you put back the enclosure, all you need to do is just to connect the cable to the USB of your computer and the other end to the enclosure, and this is it – your portable high speed flash drive that is recycled from your old laptop!

The finished flash drive is small and measures 7.1 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches (typical) and 0.8 ounces. It can easily fit into your pocket or attache for easy carry and best of all, you save money and being green on Earth Day.

DIY Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap

EchomerxBlog — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:47:12 +0000

This “wrapping” season, let’s try something creative AND eco-friendly, using fragments of paper and

miscellaneous items from around your house. Save money, save earth and enjoy the work of art.

Two Fragments

Ribbon Join

This wrap uses two pieces of typical wrapping paper. These fragments often have damaged parts. When you cut them away you are left with odd-shaped pieces. The fearless wrapper applies the striped piece first, then adds a second piece along the angled edge of the stripes.

Easy: A ribbon is applied along the edge where the two papers join. It precludes the need for a perfect cut along the join. The ribbon can be taped on the back of the box. If necessary you can use rolled-tape strips or glue gun to overcome challenges of ribbon placement.

Contrast: stripe/floral. Foil/flat.

Different Paper

While wrap art can be made with scraps of regular wrapping paper, I also save special papers. The yellow paper is an art paper. The checkered paper was a shopping back. Their contrast is a delight. The white bow brings it all back into the realm of gift wrapping.

Contrast: color/black & white. pattern/solid. The bow’s shiny complexity/the yellow’s flat simplicity.

Small Package

The two-fragment technique is an obvious choice for little packages. It uses up small pieces of charming paper. Thus it justifies saving small pieces of charming paper.

Easy: The ribbon smoothly joins the two papers, hiding the papers’ cut edges. Tape it on the back.

Contrast: bright color/dull color. Pattern/no pattern.

Contrast Cap

The paper you have on hand may not fit the gift box. Take an even smaller piece of paper, like the red paper here, and wrap one end of the box. Then wrap the remaining part of the box. Finish with ribbon taped to the back, and a bow.

Contrast: the flat red contrasts with the fibrous green paper. The rough deckle edge contrast with smooth red paper. The green paper is light; the red paper is dark.

Easy: the gold ribbon tapes to the back.

Contents and images are originally from http://www.boakart.com/wrap/WrapArt.html.

Green Works #3 Dollhouse In a Shoebox

EchomerxBlog — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:42:28 +0000

A friend found this amazing work of art on a foreign website. It’s hard to believe that this entire 3 bedroom unit is built inside a shoe box, with all recycled material from used fabric to newspaper and magazine ads. I’d like to share the following with all of you, either you love dollhouse, or crafts work, or care about the planet. Please read on to see a lot of close ups. Enjoy!

Entrance and hallway. The purple cardboard created the shoe shelf and coat area.

Hallway carpet is wrapping paper scraps.

Living room.

Again, the flat panel is an ad on newspaper.

This miniature plant is from a used silk flower. The planter? A toothpaste cap wrapped by a chocolate paper cup!

Glass without bottom. Why? That’s a straw tip.

Water dispenser, hehe. Water container is an eye drop bottle. How about stools? Tiolet paper wrapped by winkled color tissue.

Master bedroom.

Kid’s room.

Curtains are made of a used top.

Dresser in the master bedroom.

Home office.

Books on the shelf are folded magazine stripes.

Kitchen. The handles on cabinet? Staples.

Bathroom

The toilet lid can open! This isn’t an easy task. The seat is a pistachio shell. How creative is that!

Let’s take a look at the entire house again, hope you enjoyed!