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Another 2010 resolution I have is to think of how to reuse items around the house as another way to be environmentally conscious. My goal is to always think first of how I may be able to reuse something, before recycling or throwing it away. Here are a couple of ways I’ve come up with so far:
Take-out, dip, cottage cheese and sour cream containers can easily be repurposed as food and odds ‘n ends storage containers. Most of these types of containers cannot be recycled and have to be tossed in the trash if they are not reused.
Plastic Ziploc bags that held bread or crackers can easily be washed out and reused. Just make sure to throw away used bags that held raw meat or other potential E. coli contaminants.
Speaking of plastic bags, you can reuse nearly every plastic bag that comes into your house, instead of buying new ones that you will just throw away:
• Small grocery and shopping bags can be used to line small garbage cans and they are great for throwing away smelly kitchen food when your large kitchen bag isn’t full enough to toss.
• Large plastic shopping bags e.g. Target bags, work great as large kitchen trash bags.
• Plastic newspaper sleeves are good for protecting your packed shoes, scarves, souvenirs etc. when you travel. If you have a pet, these odd-shaped plastic sleeves are great for picking up doggy do-do and for scooping out the litter box or cage.
Used dryer sheets are great for two things:
• Picking up pet hair off furniture and bed spreads.
• Cleaning up dirty pans: just fill the pan with water and soak two dryer sheets in it overnight. The pan wipes clean the next morning. Really!
These ideas will not save the world, however it has helped me get into the habit of finding new uses for consumable items before either recycling or throwing them away.
Have other ideas on how to reuse household items? Please comment!
