54 replies to this topic

[MakingCents]

We also use old towels and t-shirts to clean the house. Towels typcially to clean the carpet from the dogs messes and t-shirts make awesome dust rags!

[Hysssss-teria]

I can’t sew worth a tinker’s you-know-what. But I took a ratty old towel and cut it in 8-inch wide strips longwise. Then I managed to straight (kind of) stitch the edges of a strip together to create a long tube. I stuffed that tightly with plastic grocery bags and stitched up the ends of the tube. Voila -- a draft dodger for a door or window!!! (I made up a bunch of ’em for that really drafty place we lived in.)

Like everyone else here, I reuse every single thing that can possibly be reused. Glass jars and plastic containers of all sizes and plastic zipper bags are washed and used for storage throughout the entire household.

I make homemade frozen juice pops for my kids with plastic 4-oz cups and popsicle sticks. These are washed thoroughly and reused until they’re shot. Then the sticks become plant markers and the cups become gnat traps.

Suitable plastic bottles are well washed and turned into water or Gatorade bottles for husband and kids on the go. I keep a Pur water dispenser for refilling (our tap water has a lot of chlorine in it) and I make Gatorade from the bulk cans of powder. The plastic bottles are reused until they won’t hold liquid anymore.

Plastic produce bags become nice, clean bags (with no holes) for my homemade loaves of bread. Plastic grocery bags become wrap for leftovers and freezing. I haven’t bought “plastic wrap” for a number of years now.

Barely soiled paper napkins are set on the counter and used later for wiping excess food from plates and bowls into the garbage disposal.

Clothing is donated or relegated to the rag bag my husband keeps in his semi.

I don’t buy note pads or scratch pads -- that’s what junk mail is for.

And I don’t care WHAT my mother says: That Kleenex will hold more than one nose blow.

[MakingCents]

Wow, the do it yourself draft dodger is an awesome idea! We have a major drafty front door and I'm sick of buying draft dogers that my dog rips up so maybe I'll look at some make ityourself one's like you did.

[rbaker_59]

I wash and reuse bread bags, cereal bags, and ziplock bags to freeze food. I take old clothes that have worn spots and cut away the material that is still good and use it for dish cloths, dusting cloths, and remake into to quilts, etc. Old worn out jeans make good batting for the quilts, which are the heavy ones for winter. Sometimes I reuse milk cartons and coffee cans to plant in. Pickle jars and the like that have good resealable lids make good canning jars. The plastic jars come in handy to hold buttons or small items you use around the house, or are even good to make pencil and pen holders for the desk.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

MakingCents, on 26 February 2012 - 08:11 PM, said:

t-shirts make awesome dust rags!

Reusing dryer sheets (if you buy them in the first place, I don't but I used to) make good dusters. The dust clings to the
sheet.

[dkramarczyk]

I always try to reduce and reuse items. If I can't reuse it myself, then I find someone that can. For example, any time that my children or I outgrow our clothes, I bring them to thrift stores. If I can't use it, then I know that someone else can. I know that it would be such a waste to just throw the clothes away, especially since there are so many that are in such great condition. The best part about this is that there are some places that are willing to PAY you for your used items. Not only are you doing good for this planet, but your getting PAID to do it. What's the harm in that? There are so many wasteful people out there. Another example, who is willing to grab some of the nice couches or chairs that people try to throw away? If it looks really nice and is in good condition, then why throw it away? I have seen quite a few of nice couches and chairs out there and I'm not afraid to go and take it so it's not wasteful and it's being "reused."

[4leafclover]

There are tons of things to reuse! :) The most common of which are shopping bags. I love how one of the major malls here in our city did. Every Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, if the shoppers will bring their own shopping bags, there is a discount given. I think this is a very good step to make so people will be encouraged to really reuse the things that they already have. :)

[aspen]

Nails. I have a bucket of nails salvaged from timber whilst dismantling things. They are reused eventually.
My home is lined on the walls and upstairs ceilng with packing crates. Chocolate ingredients and cocoa butter was imported into Tasmania for Cadburys in 3.5 foot cube boxes made of three-ply. I suspect the timber was from the harvesting of rainforests in Malaysia.
These panels were purchsased for 10cents each, denailed of reinforcing timber and then used. I coated the ply with a mixture of beeswax and natural turpentine. After 20 odd years it is still in good condition.

[clewand550]

I reuse old clothes for rags. We use old deli containers, ice cream containers and butter containers for food storage. They work very well when I want to send home food with my kids or other family members. We also use old large ice cream containers to store our dog food in. It is pretty easy to think of ways to reuse old containers for something useful.

[Green Thumb]

REDUCE.

While I was at the supermarket I noticed all the eco-friendly shopping bags the market is selling. I know how it would benefit the environment because they are recyclable materials but I still favor lesser material consumption. Biodegradable plastic bags are now available though I still don’t know how they made it. In the long run we could all be using products that are all ecofriendly… hopefully. Better if these products are made from other recycled materials, less toll on our environment, trees and plants could again be abundant because there’s no need to continuously cut them. Technology could maybe soon find means to reuse stones, wood, roofs, and irons from old houses or building ruins in building new structures. On someplace, this may be is being practiced I just don’t know where. I have been to a store where what they are selling are all recycled materials, The Kultura Filipino Crafts for a Cause - old telephone directories, magazines and newspapers are fashioned into wallets, pouches and bags; tin cans are transformed into novelty items; wristlets, coin purses, stylish bags, baskets, shopping bags, bed mattresses are made from tetra and snack packs and shampoo and laundry powder sachets; home items and other wax products are also made from recyclable materials. And they are all creatively done with good quality by different foundation such as NGO’s looking after street children and abused women, community livelihood programs, and released prisoners and inmates of jails. It’s good to shop to this kind of store should we already need to buy a new product for our own use - new products from used ones. And also we ourselves could re-fashion those secondhand products we found in our place. This ways recycling and reduction is achieved.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"What to reduce and reuse?"

These students have re-purposed many items. Check it out.
http://inhabitat.com...r-salone-milan/

[clewand550]

My daughter reuses old woman's tops and makes them into dresses for her 2 year old daughter. She uses her sewing machine and turns the old top into a pretty child's dress.

I re-use old glass bottles to make candles with them. Just put a small candle in the glass bottle and you have a candle holder.

I re-use paper garbage bags and paper lunch bags and use them to make gift bags. All you need to do is have your child color a note and/or a picture on the paper bag and turn it into a gift bag, or you can use a stamp and ink and stamp something on the paper bag and make a gift bag out of it. The gift bag can then be used again by someone for a gift bag to someone else. I do this a lot and the paper bags turn out really nice.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Reduce-paper.
Millions of trees saved, not to mention the money saved.

[MakingCents]

I saw someone who took old milk jugs, punched a few holes in the lid and used it as a watering can. What a simple but great idea!

[4leafclover]

Re-use old clothes. Instead of buying a new one for the little ones, let them use the ones that were grown by their older brothers or sisters. This can definitely save money. And I for myself, makes my old clothes an inspiration to continue trimming down so I can still wear them again!