Tips to Recycle, Reuse, Re-purpose

[Sorsha]

Kitty litter buckets I saved to different ones 1 is clean mop water the other is for rinsing my scrub rag or mop keeping cleaning water clean....empty the dirty rinse water as needed.

Still get usually 1 or 2 buckets of kitty litter a month parents took couple of buckets at a loss as to what to do with them.

Milk jugs not found good use for them either. Yougurt cups with no lid, detergent bottles, oval ice cream buckets they plastic now too have no handle.

Container gardening!!

As long as you punch drain holes in the bottom, most of those containers would make wonderful gardening containers. Milk jugs = cut them in half right below the handle area. Punch a few small holes in the bottom of the bottom half, fill with soil, and seed with spinach, lettuce, herbs, etc. You can eat the baby greens as soon as they are ready, then start all over again.

Yogurt cups make wonderful seed-starters, and then when the plants get big transfer them into the ice cream buckets or the kitty litter buckets. I have often had all sorts of crops growing on my patio in buckets, especially things that grow up, like tomatoes, peas, etc. You just have to give them something to climb on. I had a yellow pear tomato bush last year that was planted in a bucket and grew like a tree - reminded me of the plants in The Land. It was absolutely huge - taller than me - and we ate pear tomatoes off of it for months.

ETA: Another plus to this, in cold climates like Montana, is that when it freezes at night in July (as it often does) its easy to just drag all the buckets into the house or the garage - no covering garden-bound plants and I don't lose all my veggies to the cold.

 

[Promomx2]

Back to the fabric softerner. I save the empty container and then when I get a new bottle of fabric softerner I dilute it 50/50 with water. Been doing it for years and no has complained about towels or clothes not being soft.

 

[dyna]

Tear fabric sheets into 4ths bounce usually but I also use vinegar in the last rinse too . Fabric softner only goes in if the load is going to be something that has lots of static most things the vinegar is enough ...

As far as growing things in milk jugs not big enough only thing I even interested in growing is tomatos guess the yougurt cups could be used for starting plants but this past years tomatos did so poorly we did not bother to save seed ....I have to be very careful what kind of tomatos I plant has to be either hearts which is a hybrid, romas or yellow (gold) besides here in the country it easy to get free plants someone else has started... OH I can't have indoor plants cats the mess they would make an dd is highly allergic to mold.


I recently got some wall paper put of free bin that I used for shelf paper an to line drawers with in kitchen I barely wet the edges so it does not slide but easy to take up if it ever wears out...

I just bought a basket at goodwill last week whole dollar for basket an use it to hold the wax paper, parchment paper, gallon ziplocks an plastic wrap that was always falling off shelf never neatly stacked more than 2 mins etc much better now ....

laundry basket in basement holds the goodwill donations till full then set in back of van an the next time i go to goodwill it dropped off usally at the goodwill every week or 2 anyway no special trip just to drop stuff off.

dryer lint great to put out in spring for the birds to use in their nests time to start doing that in the next week or 2 for early arrivals they will also use hair from hairbrushes bits of string an fabric ribbon most aanything like that they can find.

Chalk great for puttin mark on wall when movin furniture out from wall to clean place mark right above each end before moving after cleaning line up end with mark on wall.


Those junk mail return envelopes that you never use are great for putting kids lunch money in etc so hopefully they get to school safely with money just makr out the name an addy on envelope add kids name n teacher an what money is for along with amount. i've used those same type of envelopes for coupons an seperating money in purse etc for yrs.

We reuse all large envelopes that comes here in mail or are given to us. They great to file many things in just besure to lable clearly what is now in the envelope. Sometimes we even put new address lable on the envelope an mail them out in mail new stamps etc of course.

When DD was a baby i used empty wipe box for couple jars of baby food spoon an bib usually could get a wet washrag in there in a baggie we was set to eat! pringles can with couple ice cubes in it kept the plastic baby bottles cold most all day years ago not sure if that one still works or not.

 

[PolyndianPrincessJes]

We use the cute (DISNEY!) baby wipes containers for art supplies (crayons, stamps, etc.).

I recently saw an article that said to cut the top off a milk jug and make some slits in the bottom and use it to store bath toys. Just scoop 'em up post-bath, and the water will drain out of the slits.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Laundry soap bottles - we use them as sharps containers for all my son's syringes.

Milk bottles with screw on tops - drill small holes in the lid and a bigger hole in the top of the handle, and use it as a watering can.

Baby wipes container - use to store some of DS's toys in the car. It holds quite a few matchbox cars

 

[overlyspoiled4sure]

This idea is one my mom used quite often--if there was an area of her yard she wanted to turn into a flower bed/garden, she'd use newspaper to kill the vegetation in that spot. She'd put the newspaper where she wanted it & then get it wet. Worked like a charm & I bet this would also work as mulch.

 

[chefkellyb]

Empty small tissue boxes hold about 5-6 plastic grocery bags - we put them in the car and always have a bag for trash or for shopping. Also, DD 8 and DS 6 use card board boxes (like shoeboxes or larger) and make "houses" for their stuffed animals. (These ideas are submitted by my 6 year-old who re-purposes just about everything I put in our recycling bins)

 

[semo233]

Those return envelopes without my name and address on them:

I use them to write my grocery lists on and then stick the coupons for that trip in the envelope! Keeps my lists and coupons for different stores seperate!

 

[PolyndianPrincessJes]

Those return envelopes without my name and address on them:

I use them to write my grocery lists on and then stick the coupons for that trip in the envelope! Keeps my lists and coupons for different stores seperate!

So simple, but a GREAT idea! Unfortunately, I'm a visual shopper (I see it, I buy it! ), but that could make me streamline.