Plastic yogurt containers make great starter pots for seedlings.

elsifer

You guys are amateurs. You can reuse toilet paper because it has two sides to it, just be careful not to break the squares, and when it is stretched to its full length, flip it around and wrap it back around the roll.

I save like $1.50 per month doing this.

Daniel-Bham

Not a personal re-use, but I think it counts: we take our milk cartons to the local reptile shop. They use them as containers for the frozen mice, rats, etc. that they sell as snake food.

Also, tissue boxes and toilet paper tubes are great if you have pet rabbits (stuff full of hay) or other small pets (make them into cheap tunnels and nests). In fact I think one of my local humane society offices will take toilet paper tubes...I should check that out.

cabingirl

If anyone has noticed those yellow clips that florists and party shops use to keep their balloons corraled, they make very good 'chip clips'. just cut the balloon string once it's dead and hand wash the clip.

Haven't had one break yet, so you may wind up giving some away depending on how often you have balloons in the house.

TheBip

Plastic grocery bags. (When I actually get them.) We reuse as small trash can liners.

Zip lock bags. We buy the freezer ones in quart and gallon size and wash them out and reuse them many times over.

Plastic take out containers from Chinese and elsewhere. We use them for storing food. And, since we pack our lunches for work almost every single day, they're great for dividing up leftovers for the next day's lunches.

cbartlett

My water bottles. I have two that I use at home over and over again. They get refilled and put in the fridge. One is always out while the other is always cooling. (To all those out there who are going to ask, they are both #1 recycleables, so they are safe.)

RickS

Cut the bottom off a washed plastic bottle to use as a handy funnel for hard to reach or awkward places - I use them for refilling washer reservoirs and topping up the oil level in my car - handy when you're refilling from a full container!

pbarrett

Used dryer sheets will clean your iron - just run the iron over it on medium heat.

Used dryer sheets also wonderful for dusting. Even after you've already used it to clean your iron.

Sturdy plastic take-out containers can be washed and reused to pack your lunch or picnics, or can be used to store stuff.

kusine

Our family reuses bottled water bottles for--what else--tap water. Bottled water is handy to grab and run, but I'm not opposed to drinking the perfectly good water that comes flowing out of our taps. We toss them (in the recycle bin, of course) after quite a few refills or if we're away from home with an empty.

Equis

Insulin needles. My own, of course.

ThinkerTDM

Like Confuzius, I reuse Ziploc bags unless they've had raw meat or greasy food stored in them (in which case it's either unsafe or impossible to clean them - especially if you don't have a dishwasher). I try not to get plastic grocery bags and use a cloth bag and a backpack, but those I do get are used for trash bin liners.

I also re-use 500 ml. soda bottles as water bottles that I fill with Brita filtered water several times before recycling them. In Japan, most urban areas recycle almost all types of plastic (not just PET), paper, glass, and metal so very little is wasted in landfill.

Mainly, I try not to buy stuff which is packaged wastefully, particularly food items like margarine which are sold in plastic tubs. I try to get the items which are sold in thin cardboard boxes (which are also recycled) so there's actually less that can be reused.

ShariC

I reuse those disposable tupperware style containers, the ones made by Glad or even generic that you can buy at the grocery store. I use them for my lunches at work and wash them on the top rack of the dish washer. After a couple of times they get a little warped, but no big deal since it's only a couple of dollars to repllace them and they come in a pack of three.

jlkirkjr

Plastic grocery bags and ziplock bags (provided they weren't used for meat, I don't have a dishwasher, and am too lazy to give the bloody ones as thorough a wash as needed to make me feel safe)
Also plastic cutlery if there's party leftovers it gets washed 99% of the time.

Confuzius

Plastic bags always get reused as trashcan liners, big or small.

I burn DVDs on a regular basis, and often keep the spindles for holding all sorts of objects. The covers can be turned upside-down and used as small tabletop bins as well (especially the 50 and 100-packs).

kureshii

Stick used dryer sheets into drawers to keep clothing smelling nice.

Nylon mesh from fruits and veggies can be used to protect glassware (mostly bottles).

ac042186

Those CDs that come in the mail make great coasters if you are not too concerned about how your coasters look, or just like the look of cds.

daybringer

Tea bags.

In my case, from green tea. I read somewhere that brewing a cup of tea only releases about 35% of the nutrients in the tea (although I'm not sure if that's true), so when I make instant oatmeal, I mix in the dried leftover tea from one tea bag. I suppose you could use leftover tea in a lot of cooking, but it's the only one I've tried.

MyPetFly

Refill used plastic bottles and put them in your fridge or freezer - this actually saves energy because it helps keeps the inside cold when you open the door, so the fridge doesn't have to work as much to chill itself back down

andylogaz

We reuse so many plastic (and paper) grocery bags that we end up running out of them several times a year. We use them as lunch bags, garbage can liners, doggy poop bags... the paper ones to hold the recyclable newspapers (so we don't have to tie them with twine), sewing patterns, craft projects...

Has anyone mentioned reusing wide mouth glass jars as grease cans?

Ihaveasmartpuppy

That was a very good list.

Any food container that can possibly enter the house, we save (yogurt, peanut butter, pasta sauce, eno).

plasticware (knives, sporks, ziplock containers)

and apparently stuff I haven't thought about but do anyway (ziplock, water bottles)

goodywitch

What can you do with a used DVD or CD?

Durbrow

@ShariC: My wife and I specifically buy the margarine in the plastic containers because after the margarine is done, we re-use the containers over and over again - lunches, snacks, baked goods, etc. We probably get a good 6 months or more out of one depending on what we store in it.

shockwaver

@Daniel-Bham: Classic...

I personally use everything as a fire starter. Junk mail, toilet paper rolls, plastic bags, old light bulbs, empty bottles of bleach, etc.

OX4

@ShariC:
Definitely make purchasing decisions based on packaging... it shouldn't be excessive and it should be reusable or recyclable. Reduce, reuse, recycle - in that order - right?

The other thing to consider is volume and type of recyclable. Unfortunately most of the hints in the article are low-volume items - great to reuse them if you can, but they won't save much landfill space (newspapers and other paper products being notable exceptions). Metals are highly efficient to recycle, especially aluminum. Paper and some plastics not so much, which makes it that much more important not to buy wasteful amounts of plastic packaging. Why hasn't anyone come up with a recyclable aluminum can or bottle for water yet? Reusable bottles are obviously much better, but it's absolutely horrifying to see what the huge a quantity of plastic beverage bottles ending up in landfills.

Logical Extremes

Toilet paper.

Just kidding.

donotronix

To all the people that are reusing cleaning bottles for other things...

This is a HORRIBLE idea. You never reuse cleaning supply bottles. For starters, you can really never clean them enough to make them "safe". And if you are doing it to put in a different type of cleaner, this can have fatal consequences.

Also, you now are storing things with the wrong labeling. Is that the cleaner with bleach I use for the bathroom? Or is that the container I reused to water the plants? You're just asking for safety problems.

Remember, do NOT reuse cleaning bottles!

homerj

1. Water Bottles, we wash them in the dishwasher after each use.
2. Plastic Straws
3. Any reusable plastic food container from butter or whip cream, ect
4. CD Spools for piles of burned disks
5. Plastic grocery bags

--My Brother picks on us big time for the water bottle recycling we do...even though he drinks the water too.

anthonylitz

Metallic balloons and other party decorations. After enjoying the helium the first year (lol), I flatten them and store them. For the next party, I use a straw to blow them up by hand, then tape them high up on the wall somewhere. Looks just like they're floating, and we have more balloons that way. My kids choose sleepover birthday parties every time, and we just reuse the same birthday banners and decorations. They've become a tradition that the kids get excited about.

We have a woodstove for heat (live in a heavily wooded area), and we do a lot of camping, so various paper items/packaging/junkmail are kept and reused for firestarters. Previous to living here, I used a shredder and made homemade recycled paper crafts from some of it. Neither of these ideas are good for glossy, thick, or highly decorated papers.

Clothing, not just for hand-me-downs, but also for quilt or craft fabric or rags. Else, it goes to Goodwill.

Egg cartons, if you know someone with chickens they will reuse the cartons to sell/give away eggs. Teachers often like them for crafts.

Kids can make Barbie furniture from cardboard food boxes, fabric, and some scissors and glue.

Obsolete electronics are often enjoyed by the elementary or preteen set, (good training tools). Items without small removable parts can be enjoyed by even younger kids as 'pretend' items, sans battery.

The key to not being storage-challenged is to be realistic about what you will and won't use, and how much. The packrats you've seen that couldn't possibly re-use all they've saved were NOT being realistic. For instance, I'll keep all the food containers, because I DO bake and give away cookies at Christmas, and I use them up each December. Milk cartons, however, we empty more often than we reuse. I just put them in the recycle bin, because if I need to use one for something, I can grab it back out or just wait a day or two for a newly empty one.

@Durbrow My MIL uses used DVD/CDs for coasters. Or cover one side with felt and place under breakable figurines so they don't scratch the furniture. Or hang them on a porch because the reflections are a repellent for flies, supposedly.

mrs_helm

Haven't checked other brands - but the Stonyfield quart-sized yogurt containers are marked as dishwasher safe. We make our own chicken stock, and freeze it in those yogurt containers.

We've also switched pretty much entirely to the "disposable" gladware and similar. We reuse that stuff over and over. We also don't worry about collecting a dish afterwards when we go to potlucks or send guests home with Thanksgiving leftovers.

We also reuse our beer bottles for homebrewed beer. :)
Different kind of recycling - I'm also trying my hand at composting in a trash can on our back porch (apartment, no yard). It probably doesn't work as quickly as a traditional pile, but it's just a standard tall kitchen trash can that's looked half full for weeks, though we keep adding to it, so I know it's breaking down. Biomass doesn't break down nearly as fast without air, adding unnecessary bulk to landfills.
I plan on doing this until the trash-powered flux capacitor is invented.

skyesong

Baby wipes.

Seriously.

We already cloth diaper and use cloth wipes. Then my wife discovered that the disposable wipes are made of cotton and will survive a few trips through the washing machine.

phil.gs

@uncleruss: yeah I was thinking the contact lens thing too... but I would trust your optometrist regarding the reusability factor - mine said that I could wear the dailies twice with no worries, but the monthly ones certainly have different characteristics including resistance to decomposition and fungus, breathability and irritability.

Fierock

With all the discussion of BPA in our foods I'm surprised that so many continue to reuse plastic containers

Fierock

Up here in Canada (Ontario) we have milk bags as well as cartons, so those get reused as sandwich bags, icing piping, etc. They're really sturdy so you can use them for piles of things that require a small but heavy plastic bag.

evester

Contact Lenses.. Some may not agree, but I would purchase the daily disposables and can easily get more then a month's use out of them. I think they are the same product as the monthly disposables.

uncleruss

Anything that I get in a plastic container like water bottles or the thing that some restaurants pack the food in. Also, plastic bags and ziplock bags.

Paper: print on one side the print again on the other side. In case that I have to show a rough draft that will not be kept by my professor. And then, after printing on both sides recycle.

Tissue boxes: I love any kind of box.

The wires that come in every gadget that you buy: they hold the cables together. I love those things. It is unfortunate that I have not been able to find them anywhere.

Ow, and toilet paper. (I just had to). :P:D

Cheers

reg4c

We have kids who are constantly breaking our drinking glasses, so I reuse wide mouth glass jars such as the bigger salad dressing jars or salsa jars. They're a bit thick, but sturdy!

I also reuse the latex gloves that come with my hair dye - and I keep and reuse the hair dye applicator bottle so I can cut the 'recipe' in half and just do my roots. It makes a $10 box of dye last for 2 applications.

We save shoe boxes for kids crafts and toy storage.

On a 'recycling' note in a sense, whenever we move, rather than buying boxes - we go to the local liquor store as they give their boxes away for free.

virtuallin

Cloth Baby Wipes launder really well. Use a mesh garment bag to keep them together in the wash machine.

Re: packaging. Those plastic 'air lock' bags just need to be snipped along a seam and you get (sometimes a whole bunch of) scrap bags for garbage, etc.

elanne

Prophylactics... Sounds gross I know, but they're dishwasher safe. A touch of 10w-40, roll them up and return to the wrapper.

Saves literally a ton of money... Just don't tell my girlfriend.

l337_7r4d3r

The plastic bags that newspapers are delivered in make for a great umbrella bag (when you have to carry your wet closed umbrella into your office, etc.

Thunderpants

@Durbrow: Make Christmas decorations out of 'em. We decorate our trees outside every year with a bunch of junk disks. Wrap two together with decorative cord, shiny side out, and clip them to the trees.

I buy frozen veggies in bags, but after they're opened, the contents tend to start tasting refrigerator-y no matter how tightly I roll the bags (and clip with binder clips). So I store the rolled-up bags inside ziplock bags, re-used again and again. When I finish off a bag of veggies I take its ziplock bag, open it wide and hang it on the dish drainer to dry out, then I put it in a box on top of the fridge for future use.

We also have a small container of plastic bread-bag clips in a drawer, for reclosing the bread bags that don't come with them originally.

My mother-in-law used to save bread bags to store stuff in. She'd turn them inside out to get rid of the crumbs. My father-in-law was a pack rat who wouldn't get rid of anything that "might come in handy someday." This is why my husband's siblings had to throw out a ten-foot tower of margarine tubs and 20+ small styrofoam coolers that the VA shipped his insulin in. Sometimes "useful" stuff has just gotta go.

infmom

Oh, and altoids tins and cigar boxes. Any wooden or metal tin really. And glass food jars.

donkeyjote

@l337_7r4d3r: Don't worry. Once she finds out and dumps, you'll still save a ton of money, by not getting any, and therefor, having no need for prophylactics... :P

donkeyjote

Any plastic container or bag can be reused in a wide variety of ways.

2 wine corks can make a quick and easy laptop stand.

Junk CDS and DVDs make decent coasters.

Sometimes I'll use an empty 2-liter soda bottle to pre-mix a 50/50 antifreeze solution.

Brad N.

I used to have to pack my lunch for campus twice a week, but didn't feel like halling a bulky lunch box or re-usable lunch bag with me. So I just reused my brown paper bag. I think over the course of a semester I only used three or four bags. I also reused most of the plastic baggies I packed my lunch in for up to a month. Except the ones that had my sandwhich: those were usually filled with mustard, mayo, tomato guts, or olive oil.

I also keep a stock of scrap paper around: you know all those things that you thought you needed a print out of, but turns out you didn't? I just stick it in a folder next to the printer, and when I need to leave a note, or jot down a list or something, I reach for some scrap paper.

Used to reuse the bottled water bottles, as well. After a while though, they get pretty funky and have to be recycled. So I just went to Target and got a more heavy duty one with a wide enough mouth that it can actually be cleaned.

bmearns

The large clear clamshell packages that strawberries come in at Costco are great for storage. Peel the label off and it is easy to see what is inside! I have a half dozen stacked up full of stuff. They fit together well and they were free!

RubberduckGrrl

I save those pop-up tissue boxes for the car. They make great trash receptacles and it is easy to tell when they are full.

Old CDs/DVDs - I glued about 100 together in a collage thing (silver side out) and my nephew has all of his friends sign it with a Sharpie when they visit him. :) He loves it!

RubberduckGrrl

My grandmother is a veteran re-user: Boxes, plastic containers, bags, napkins, moist towelettes, they are all fair game. And of course, gift wrap. (Another reason to wrap nice gifts for her!)

tomify

Lets see I re-use waterbottles, yoghurt containers, pasta sauce jars, old papers as instant throw away notes, and plastic bottles/cartons for immediate made do projects. :)

Silver_Back

Paper. We print tons of it at work, almost all one-sided. I use the back for scratch paper, and take stacks of it home for my printer. Unless it's a formal letter or something, I rarely use "fresh" paper. The last time I bought a ream was about 2 years ago.

Geek in Texas

General consensus is that the #1 plastics aren't safe for multiple uses.

MikeT

@virtuallin: Liquor boxes are great for moving, especially if you have a lot of books. They're already sturdy enough and sized appropriately for moving several pounds of liquids.

phil.gs

Great list!

Plastic cups of iced coffee can last days, if you keep rinsing them out, before they give off any weird plastic + biology smell.

(And for some reason, using one makes me feel like I'm having a luxurious drink. Must have watched Mary Louise Parker too much in "Weeds".)

I have saved every twist-tie I've come into contact with, and I end up re-using every one. Keep your pens together in your bag. ear bud cables organized at the gym. chip clips. shower curtain rings. Any tech cable that's snaking around the room. Half of that single-serve bag of coffee.

I get the feeling one day I will be dangling from a cliff and need an extra milli-ounce of support, and lo there will be a twist-tie in my pocket I can lash to a rock to save myself. They're just so versatile.

Transuranic

My husband buys the boxes of surgical gloves at Costco for construction jobs - they have saved his hands from untold damage. The new kind aren't latex, and I pop the ones which aren't too destroyed into the wash with his work clothes. They even go thru the dryer - he says they are sometimes too weak, and tend to tear, but I keep them around for household cleaning jobs. Kind of cool to see these formerly crummy looking gloves come out of the dryer, clean and kind of flat, like they just came out of the box! I just hate to see them go to waste.

renewbee

cheap plastic water cup, i've been running one for past couple of months yet i've see hundreds go to waste. every time someone has a drink at the water machine it goes straight in the bin.

so wasteful.

LuKeNuKuM

I don't drink alcohol, but the velvet sacks that comes from Crown Royal bottles are good for storing cable cords, loose change, handhelds, chargers and pretty much anything you can fit into it. I keep Scrabble tiles and playing card in some of them as well. Soon as I get older I will buy the bottles just for the cool velvet sacks and give the booze to my drinking friends. Hope someone enjoys the tip.

lilparker780

@l337_7r4d3r: dishwasher???

purleeeeze!

ffolliet

I was looking at my collection of 5L beer kegs wondering what they could be used for. As well as the bags from boxed wine...Ya I drink it.

JiltedCitizen

@JiltedCitizen: Check out instructables.com Someone posted an instructable where they chop the top off a heniken consumerable keg and turned it into a bin (which they used as a garbage can)

donkeyjote

Coffee sleeves The coffee sleeves from coffee shops are easy to reuse. Since they fold flat they're easy to tuck away in my coat pocket or laptop bag. And they hold up well for a couple of weeks.

AntoniaGaia

Shipment boxes, left over from the stuff bought online, especially the ones which are good quality, can be used for storing nitty gritty stuff. You dont need to buy a fancy tray from staples to store small things.

amolkolhe

I would be careful regarding contacts. I use the two-week disposable kind and I used to wear them for three weeks or more at a time to make them last longer, but I noticed my eyes would get irritated towards the end of the period. My opthamologist told me that since they're made for e shorter period of use, they get nicked up more easily on the edges and can in turn scratch your cornea (which you *definitely* don't want).

CelesteM

Comment on What Disposable Items Do You Re-Use? I used to reuse plastic grocery bags, newspaper bags etc as trash bags, but they are REALLY bad to end up in landfill....so now I try to use reusable cloth (best) or paper (a little better) bags whenever possible. Nylons bags are great because they are strong, lightweight (I carry a couple in my purse all the time), and can easily be washed. Lots of good ones available --try chicobags.com and olivesmart.com. I recycle any plastic bags that I do end up getting-- I know that doesn't get rid of the bag, but at least it prolongs its life, maybe keeping it out of landfill for a while. Plastics are very toxic, and even if they break into tiny bits, those bits are still toxic. I like to line kitchen and bath trash cans with plastic bags, so I have decided that buying biobags (which biodegrade) is a luxury that I allow myself. They are not cheap but I feel better, and it's probably a trade-off for refilling my stainless water bottle instead of buying bottles of water. I save all the twist ties that come with electronics, etc.--they are great for lots of things since many are much longer than kitchen twist- ties. I don't use up a lot of them, but I'm saving used CDs and DVDs to make a lamp base--I have a stack about 6" high now. I think it will look great--the edges are different colors, can make stripey patterns with them. Unfortunately I can't take credit for this idea it since I read about it somewhere, but don't remember where. I come by reusing and recycling honestly--my mother always was VERY frugal and found a second or third use for everything! Isabel

LilAutonoe

Old plastic miniblinds make excellent plant labels, large or small. If you write with pencil you can erase and reuse indefinitely.

Plastic food containers also make plant labels but you usually have to write on them with permanent marker.

An outer plastic container from a 50-spindle of CDs or DVDs makes a great desk pen or craft tool holder if you tuck toilet-paper tubes into it.

Milk jugs make mini-greenhouses for sowing seeds (cut 3/4 way around, about 4" up the jug, make drainage holes, gives you a planting container with a built in greenhouse lid. Leave the cap off for ventilation.

I tear the wire closures off cookie packages when the cookies are all gone, and keep them as mega-twist-ties. When i was growing veg for market they worked great for bunching carrots and radishes. I also used bread tags to label my bags of heirloom tomatoes with the variety name.

BTW, saving butter wrappers for greasing baking pans is normal if you're a baker. I've done it all my life, learned it from my mother, and even non-bakers who see the stack in my fridge door know why I keep them!

And to the person who reuses the Glad etc food containers you can buy at the store: dude, those are SUPPOSED to be reusable. Read the packaging! I have some that are 4 years old and still going strong. You can also reuse those elasticized plastic bowl covers multiple times.

Composting in a garbage bin: you can drill holes in the bin to allow air in and get aerobic composting, though it will never get as hot as a full-size pile it still works. For apt dwellers though, consider a worm bin instead.

CDs and DVDs make good bird scarers in the garden, hang them from tree branches or from a string where they can dangle and spin freely so the random reflections scare the birds away from your berries (or, in my case, pea seedlings)

Kevin

kevinw1

I sell and trade a lot of used books, so I cut up the heavy plastic wrap from the cases of bottled water and use it as a waterproof liner for shipping. I use brown paper cut from grocery bags for the outer wrapper.

gwynn1101

I use gallon milk jugs as pitchers to make kool-aid in. They're actually better than a pitcher because you can shake the kool-aid mixture to mix it as apposed to stirring it. This blends it better in turn making it taste better. Also glass peanut butter jars make great cups and a halved 20oz bottle makes a great funnel.

Rock_Strongo

Vacuum cleaner bags. Open the bottom, empty contents, staple or use strong tape. I only use them twice though.

jdean58

plastic shopping bags: trash bags for small trashcans

paper bags: store paper for curbside recycling

newspaper: kindling for campfire

plastic Chinese food containers: store miscellaneous parts in in my garage

wire ties from toys and other purchases: great for tidying up network cabling

gargouille

Also, used dryer sheets can be used in shoes to help clear up any odors you might have lingering in there. I know they work wonders in my daughters sneakers.

Darkenigma75

@kevinw1 - How do you store the butter wrappers so they don't make a horrible mess in the fridge? I've been wanting to save mine, but can't figure out how to avoid getting butter everywhere.

A2JC4life

@OX4: Using plastic stuff as a fire starter is not very wise. Toxic gases develop, and from an environmental point of view I suppose it's better to throw it away than to burn it. Also, if you burn it, the oppurtinity to recycle it again is gone.
BTW how do you use lightbulbs as a fire-starter, I thought they're inflammable?

Porree

@A2JC4life, I just fold them up, butter side in, and put them in one of my fridge door bins. You could also reuse a plastic box from the bakery or deli to keep them in. I admit that sometimes I do get an oversupply of them and have to get rid of a few!

kevinw1