How to Reuse Household Items

Most Americans are extremely conscientious of the importance of recycling their glass and plastic bottles, newspapers and grocery bags. What they may not realize is that there are dozens of other household items that can be reused instead of thrown away and wasted. Here's how you can further help the environment by reusing your own household items.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Fill your grocery bags with other items. You can either reuse plastic grocery bags at the store when you go back, or put them in small trash cans around the house for quick emptying on garbage day. They're just the right size and easy to remove by the handles, which can also serve as bag ties.
2. Wrap your presents with homemade paper. If you carry your groceries home in brown paper shopping bags, keep them tucked away in a kitchen drawer or pantry for wrapping birthday presents. This can be especially fun for kids because they can decorate the packages using markers, crayons and stickers.
3. Organize clothing and seasonal items with cardboard boxes. Rather than spending a fortune on heavy-duty plastic bins and lids, reuse any cardboard boxes you have to pack away your summer and winter clothes as well as holiday decorations. You can use a permanent marker to identify each box's contents on one of its sides.
4. Create workshop and garage storage with old jars. Instead of sending every spaghetti or baby food jar to the recycling center, remove the labels and wash them thoroughly. You can then attach new labels to the jar and store nails, screws, fasteners, bolts or other small items that need a home.
5. Construct small projects with leftover lumber. Once your major home-improvement project is finished, take the remaining wood scraps and build a birdhouse or mailbox. Even if you're not into wild birds or don't need a new home for your mail, these items make great gifts.
6. Sew something new from something old. When you clean out your closets at the end of a season, there's usually some clothing that's in good condition but has a small hole, rendering it unfit for donation. Rather than throw them away, use these items for dusting rags, or fashion them into new throw pillows, small table runners or doll clothes.
7. Save your styrofoam egg cartons. Cleaned-up egg cartons come in handy for arts and crafts; donate them to your child's school, or keep them at home to hold different color paints, small beads, googly eyes or pins. Alternatively, you can decorate egg cartons to make jewelry boxes or plant this spring's seedlings in them.

Tips & Warnings

• Reuse old paper that's only been printed on one side for children's art projects, notes and scratch paper.
• Donate your recent old magazines to doctor's offices, libraries, schools or nursing homes.
• Reuse plastic bottles of any size to plant seedlings for your garden.