Things You'll Need:
- A little time and a little imagination.
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Step 1
Plastic shopping bags can be reused in an almost limitless ways. Here are a few ways we reuse these bags in our household.
Use them to line bathroom trash cans. They are large enough for most of the larger trash cans in a bathroom and can be used easily in the smaller ones. When you need to empty the can simply pull it out and tie up the handles and toss into your larger trash can. -
Step 2
If you have pets and use a litter box, keep a bag of plastic grocery bags close by your litter box. Simply use 2-3 bags, one inside the other (incase one may have an unseen hole in it) and use it for disposing of your litter. Simply fill and tie up the handles on the bag and toss in your dumpster or larger garbage can.
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Step 3
Keep a stash of these plastic grocery bags in your car to reuse at the grocery store. You can tuck a few into your re-usable shopping bag and ask the checkout person to pack your groceries in those bags.
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Step 4
Use these plastic bags for cleaning up pet waste on your walks outside. They can be easily disposed of once you tie up the handles.
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Step 5
Take a bunch of these bags when you go to any road-side farm stand or farmer's market. It not only saves the environment it also helps save the farmers money by not using the bags that most of the farmers have to buy.
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Step 6
Re-use peanut cans, Pringles cans, glass jars or other containers you purchase your food in. Simply wash and dry and re-use them in your garage and household for containing all those little items that always seem to accumulate. You can cover the cans with cloth, paper or let your kids decorate them for you. Re-cover a Pringles can with glued on photos, postcards, stickers, ribbons, bows, beads or paint (use your imagination). Then cut a hole in the top for coins and it makes a great gift. This is also a great idea for a child to create on a rainy afternoon.
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Step 7
Re-use plastic laundry detergent jugs or plastic cat litter containers for your birdseed or other items you buy in bulk that need to be poured out. Simply wash and dry the container before use. Cat litter pails are great for carrying your small gardening tools around in. I use them for putting small gardening tools, gloves, bulbs and I even use one for mulch and an empty one for when pulling weeds. They are easy to carry around for those small garden areas that need tending. They have tight fitting lids so they can be left out during a sudden summer rain storm and not get things wet. They also get used for picking apples, cucumbers and other small vegetables at harvest time.
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Step 8
Save all those leftover candle wax ends from the candles you burn and when you have enough, simply reheat them on low heat (an old double boiler works good), pull out any leftover wicks and discard if too small to reuse. Prop up a taper candle in the center of tall paper milk carton container and refill with the warm wax and let set. Simply pull off the milk carton when completely cooled and you have a whole new candle to use. Fill the milk carton with broken up ice cubes or whole ice cubes around the taper candle before refilling with wax for a funky hole filled candle.
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Step 9
Reuse those emptied plastic or glass spice jars and refill with beads, thread, buttons, small bows, pins or anything small that you need to store. You can decorate the outside of the jars and have a whole set of matching jars in your craft room.
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Step 10
Got a bunch of birthday, all occasion or other Holiday cards tossed in a box or drawer? Glue them all to piece of poster board, randomly over-lapping as you go. Trim with a paper or cloth trim border to make a large piece of art that can be framed and hung on your wall to help remind you of all the people that sent you those cards!
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Step 11
Going to have a garage or yard sale and want to bring in more traffic? Put out a rack of clothes and a table and/or box of items like stuffed animals, shoes, knick-knacks, etc. Use a large sign to mark it FREE! You don't have to give away the farm, but shoppers looking for a bargain will stop to check out the free items and will more than likely purchase something from your sale while they are there. You get to recycle some items, make someone's day with a freebie an hopefully make a couple bucks while you are at it.
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Step 12
Re-purpose old curtains into a rag rug (find directions online), a tote bag, other curtains, a pillow covering or cut into squares and strips and sew into a large quilt along with other items of clothing that you would normally toss out when worn out. Remember that it only takes a few inches of cloth to sew together into bigger squares to make a great crazy quilt.
