Last week I shared some awesome ideas for how you can re-use kitchen items for other purposes around your home. Re-using items not only helps you save money, but you can also rest assured knowing that you’ve done your part to help the environment of Earth too.
If you can save a little money by recycling or re-using household items you would normally either use for a different purpose or toss in the garbage, why not? It doesn’t always take a lot of time and effort to find household items to re-use and save money. Here are 15 more household items you can re-use and save money.
1 Plastic grocery bags – You know the ones. Usually you throw them away, or you have a plastic sack full of plastic sacks taking up the entire cabinet beneath a bathroom sink. Instead, turn them into a cool rug for your apartment. Or, recycle them as trash sacks in your car or to line a small trash can in your house. They are also great for wrapping shoes inside a suitcase to protect your clothing.
2 Shredded paper – This can be used for several things: Line a gift basket, stuff a dog bed, or cushion an item you are shipping.
3 Newspaper – Newspapers are great for other purposes besides just starting fires in your fireplace. Did you know you can use newspaper to weave baskets? You can make them any size you need. Check the internet for instructions. Or, protect a tabletop when gluing a craft project. I also used newspapers as free “stuffing” to help protect fragile items the last time I moved.
4 Rubber bands – I keep a couple with me at all times. In a pinch you can close a bag of pretzels with one. You can also wrap them around long cords to contain them. When baking, wrap one around your bowl to rest the spoon against and prevent it from slipping down into the batter.
5 Paper boxes or shoe boxes – Wrap them with pretty paper or fabric and use them as storage bins on open shelving units.
6 Tin cans – Repurpose them to hold pens, pencils and other tools on your desk. You can decorate them with paper, fabric, or even paint.
7 Buttons – Make a craft project by gluing or sewing buttons to a canvas or on the front of a pillow. Cover a lampshade with them, or string some as a garland on a Christmas tree. Two that match could be into earrings.
8 Christmas cards – If they are too pretty to throw away, make them into ornaments that you can hang on your tree and use for years to come.
9 Toilet paper tubes – Cut a slit down the length and use them to prevent wrapping paper from unrolling, or you can use them to create ornaments.
10 Wooden paint sticks – These make great identifiers for your garden. Use a paint marker to “write” the vegetable name on the top of the stick and pound it into the dirt by each row.
11 Worn toothbrushes – Use these when cleaning around sink facets, etc.
12 Worn bath towels – Cut worn towels and overcast stitch the edges to use as cleaning cloths. You can also sew a couple layers together to create oven mitts.
13 Mismatched silverware – Make these into wind chimes to hang outside your house.
14 Business cards – Use the back side of old business cards to create labels for storage boxes.
15 Kleenex box – These are great to store plastic sacks in. I also loved putting rubber bands across them and playing them like a guitar as a child.
These are just a few common items you can re-use and save money. There are tons of other things around your house that you can re-use too.
What other household items can you re-use and save money? Can you think of any other uses for the items on this list?
I use old toothbrushes to clean and polish shoes and keep newspapers and magazines because there are times that kids need them for schoolwork. Great tips Kayla and I know there are lots of use out of these 15 items.
That’s a great way to use toothbrushes and newspapers! I love it!
These are excellent ideas.
I particularly like newspapers and shredded papers. Taken from lessons I learned from my younger days, I use old newspapers to create paper mache, which can be used as displays in our apartments. All I need are glue, newspaper, design, glitter, and some imaginations.
With shredded papers, I put them inside enclosed hanging glass frames. To make the shredded looked pretty, I dyed them first just to have some colors before putting them in the glass frames.
Great ideas!