I have recycling bins by my back door, but I’m still astounded at the amount of trash we produce in a week. I am also kind of ashamed of the amount of stuff I still bring in my front door when I know I have a basement full of stuff that needs to be cleaned out. So I’m on a quest for reusable ideas for normal items that come in and out of our homes every day. This is a personal challenge to myself to look for alternate uses for the things I already have in my home, to “go shopping” in my closets and drawers before I go to the nearest store, and to get more creative with modifying and using what I already have.
Things like this: (can you relate?)
- Clothes. I have a husband who literally wears out his everyday clothes. He works hard and plays hard, so nothing he wears is fit to give away. It’s usually not fit to mend, and I already have a basket full of cleaning rags. We’re talking sturdy, utilitarian work clothes and normal, casual guy clothes like t-shirts, shorts, socks. Nothing that will make pretty pillows… So what else can I do with it? Ideas?
- Boxes and packaging. I know I can recycle these items, but if there are ways to reuse them before they have to go through the recycling process I want to incorporate those. I use some smaller boxes as drawer organizers, and I use some bigger boxes for storage. I see a lot of in-between sized boxes come through, and then there’s just all the random packaging material from gifts, mail, food items, and other purchases. I need to get creative here.
- Random stuff: old computers; dishes, household stuff, and strange gifts that I have received; old magazines; fabric scraps; lumber scraps from our basement bathroom demolition; lots of old journals, school notebooks, and three-ring binders; and a collection of old make up and nail polish.
I’m looking for any and every idea that you have. Hit me, people! What would you do with this stuff? What’s your craziest idea? What’s your easiest idea? What do you do to reuse items in your own home?
Image Credit: bacondog.
