This winter, my husband and son were caught in a rain storm waking back from the park. They found a broken umbrella and adopted it for the walk back to the house after which we disposed of it. As the winter went along, from time to time I walked past more broken umbrellas left on the side of the road or next to garbage cans. My thoughts went mostly to, "Why do they have to make them so very crappy. It wouldn’t take much to make an umbrella that would last."
Well this week the problem came home. One of our umbrellas broke when I was walking up to school to pick up my son. Once one stay broke, more followed. As the umbrella dried out I looked at it grimly. Each stay had broken in the same place, in the same way. Clearly a design/materials flaw and it didn’t look like it was going to repairable with out disproportionate effort. Well now that my own umbrella was broken, I started thinking about what to do and the first place I turned was Google. I found a wonderful (new to me) web site called, How Can I Recycle It?Here were the most interesting suggestions for Umbrellas:- Kite
- Light weight shopping tote with draw string
- Sun & Rain shade for dog run (or chickens!)
- Circle skirt for children's dress up
- Travel bag for dirty cloth diapers
- Sew up and stuff to make a soft ball
- Colorfull bunting
- Rain poncho!
- Add a zipper and turn it into a make up case
- Use it to store paint brushes
- Doll dress
- Something to slip over the front of your detachable car stereo
Or
- Something to put silver wear in for packed lunches!
- Travel toothbrush and toothpaste case