Apartment dwellers are urged to recycle

Dear Heloise: I hope you can encourage apartment dwellers to donate good used items instead of throwing them into the apartment- complex trash bins. I live in a complex and am appalled at what gets thrown away.
Some people will put items next to the trash bins to encourage someone else to take them, but the maintenance employees throw the items in when they make their rounds.
Also, I wish apartment-complex managers would encourage recycling. You have a large concentration of people living in an area, and newspapers, glass and plastic all get thrown away. In regular single-resident neighborhoods, the garbage collecting includes recycling. A Reader, via fax
Recycling is important no matter where you live! Readers, if your apartment complex does not have recycling containers or trash bins, talk with the complex manager. Also, maybe the management would consider a "set things out" day once a week or month where others are free to come take a look-see and "adopt" an item. Heloise
Dear Heloise: Thank you for your many helpful hints and information that have helped me throughout the years. Each day I look forward to your column in The Meridian Star in Meridian, Miss.
Another use for used dryer sheets: Dampen one with water and use to wipe away black scuff marks made on linoleum floors. Nayoka Givens, Quitman, Miss.
Dear Heloise: I live in a near-the-beach community in Southern California, and we have considerable offshore winds, especially in the afternoon and early evening. My husband and I enjoy patio dining and entertaining, but find it difficult to keep our tablecloth on the table. I have tried various solutions, but none particularly good or successful. So, I came up with one of my own.
In a nutshell, I sewed a "sleeve" on the underside of my tablecloth on all four sides. I then cut a 11/4-inch round wooden rod (any size rod can be used) to insert into each of the sleeves to put equal weight on all four sides.
I made the sleeves approximately 2 inches shorter than each measured side so the rods don't show, and positioned each sleeve so that when the rod is inserted, it hangs just past the bottom of the tabletop and well above the knees of anyone sitting at the table.
The sleeves are also placed where there is enough of the tablecloth to drape over it and hide it completely. Robin Mercer, Oxnard, Calif.
King Features Syndicate