Creative Ways to Reuse "Disposable" Items
Posted by Gina Trapani at 2:00 AM on May 5, 2008

We asked earlier this week what disposable items you had found creative re-uses for, and the answers are in. Not surprisingly, some of you have some pretty crafty uses for household goods that usually end up at the curb. From CD-R spindles to corks, twist-ties to tissue boxes, lots of supposedly one-use items can save you money, free up space, and be seriously handy when the need arises. After the jump, a roundup of our readers' waste-reducing reuses. Yogurt photo by Dan4th, all others by How can I recycle this.

Organise your clutter of cables in your corner by storing them all in a container with drilled holes to allow for the flow of air. The container you're looking for is much cheaper than the alternative (about $2 versus $75 or so for a "cable management kit") and doesn't look half bad. The Simple Money Rules blog says:
Hide your networking and television cables with WireTracks, a wire management solution that hides your messy cables behind crown molding and baseboards. The WireTracks site is full of instructions on
Maximum PC magazine tackles how to organize that mess of PC cables under your desk—namely, with zip ties and coloured tape labels. I prefer Velcro or twist ties since they're easily undone, and while I've used a label maker to ID cables, over time mine started to peel off. Back in the day Adam walked us through his
The Cool Tools weblog features some neat-looking, refastenable cable ties for getting all those wires under your desk under control. The Millepede Cable Ties are basically reusable zip ties, and they sound strong! Cool Tools reader David Perry writes:
If you've got a pile of tangled extension cords (or any kind of long cable) stuffed in your closet, save your toilet and paper towel cardboard tubes. The Unclutterer blog recommends wrapping the long cords and slipping the tube over them for easy, no-tangle storage. You can also use twisty ties, but the cardboard tube seems better suited to thicker cable, and from the looks of it, strings of holiday lights, too.