Most of us are living more frugally these days, well; I had to tighten the financial belt just like every body for awhile now. And instead of throwing away or recycling my old household items, I have been reusing them to make other great, very useful things. A whole lot of these transformed items are so wonderful and make life a little easier for my family and for the environment. The 36 household items you see here can be reused very easily.
1. Panty Hose – To stop mildew and mold in enclosed areas like plastic storage bins, you can cut the feet off of the pantyhose fill them with Kitty Litter. The Litter will absorb moisture. And instead of using kitty litter, you can make little sachets filled with potpourri to keep stored items smelling fresh.
2. Socks – You can reuse miss matched socks by making a heating rice bag. These heat bags are very simple to make by filling half the sock with rice and sewing the open end shut. Then you simply microwave your rice bag in the microwave until warm. I love using old socks as wall cleaning rags. The sock fits right onto your hand so you no longer have cramped hands from holding onto wash rags.
3. Old Towels – You can make placemats or drink coasters out of these beauties.
4. Sheets – Make couch covers, tear up into strips to make a cat toy. You braid strips and then hang the braid on an inside door knob. Now you simply decorate the braid by tying on little cat toys onto the braid.
5. Old Jeans – Old jeans are great to make into soda can covers, change purses, and sunglass cases.
6. Plastic Dog Food Bags – You can fill a pet food bag with soil, cut a couple holes in the top and bottom and then plant plants inside the slits to make a make shift garden.
7. Gift Wrap – I like to use old gift wrap to cover a plain ordinary cardboard box, and then fill it with things like office folders. Or even better, you can make a decorative bread box to store loaves of bread inside. You can make book covers, and origami projects.
8. Old Crocheted Blanket – If you have an old or falling apart crocheted blanket, just unravel the yarn and crochet something new.
9. Rugs – Old rugs can be reused to make pet condos, use as automobile floor mats, and if you clean the rugs really well, you can cut them to size and make drawer liners in an office desk.
10. Egg Cartons – Egg cartons make great paint easels and bead sorters.
11. Dryer Lint – You can scatter dryer lint outside so birds and animals can use it for nesting material, or make a scent pocket for your car.
12. Coffee Grounds – Used coffee grounds are great for compost, and to dye clothing.
13. Plastic Soda Bottles – Plastic soda bottles can be reused in a variety of useful ways. My favorite idea is actually used in the garden. I like to take a 2 liter soda bottle, take off the label and then cut off the bottom of the bottle. Then you make sure the lid is on good and tight. Then I poke holes in the sides about the size the diameter of a pencil. Then I take the soda bottle to my garden, and then dig a hole deep enough to cover the soda bottle except for about two inches that stays out of the ground. And then you simply fill the bottle with water, and you have an excellent self watering system that will water your plants deep in the roots. This transformed garden waterer is excellent to fertilize the roots of plants too.
14. Old Pillows – You can use the stuffing from old pillows to reuse a self made throw pillow for the couch. Or you can even use the stuffing to make sparkly snow for craft projects. To make the snow, all you have to do is lay a sheet of newspaper flat on a table. And then you take a couple handfuls of fluff and spread out to make a layer. And then you spray the fluff with glue you spray from a can like 3M self adhesive spray glue, and then just sprinkle silver glitter. Then you wait for about an hour for the glue to dry.
15. Pillow Cases – Pillow cases are excellent to reuse into laundry bags. All you have to do is fold down the cuff part of the pillow and sew a seam all the way around leaving a two inch opening. Then you string a long piece of rope through the seam and then tie the end with a knot. You can also take a wooden cross stitch hoop and place it at the case opening to keep your laundry bag open for easy dirty laundry disposal.
16. Empty Coffee Cans – There are several ways to reuse coffee cans. You can take the coffee label off the side, and then stick your own label on. And now you have a great place to store monthly bills or important papers.
17. Old Coffee Cups – Coffee cups make wonderful plant holders, or you can fill them with candy and place the cup right onto of your desk.
18. Plastic Ice cream Buckets – You can use these ice cream buckets for on the spot cleaning. I have two of these buckets right under my kitchen sink with a clean rag placed inside. Now, when I need an immediate clean up, all I have to do is grab the spot cleaning bucket and add hot water and soap.
19. Pickle Jars – Pickle Jars can be reused into cookie or herb jars.
20. Empty Peanut Butter Jars – You can easily reuse peanut butter jars to store nuts, bolts, nails, cotton balls, or an assortment of nail polish bottles.
21. Old Toilet Bowl – I know reusing a toilet bowl might sound a bit yucky, but you can throw in dirt into the bowl and make a flower garden.
22. Old Kitchen Sinks – Old Kitchen sinks can be placed outside and used to clean really dirty things like dirt on the bottom of boots, gardening tools or rinse really dirty laundry.
23. Old Picture Frames – If you have old pictures you would never hang on the walls in your house, simply cover the picture insert with a beautiful piece of material and glue cut out shapes in other material onto the insert or even sew on a button display to the fabric.
24. Magazines – Magazines can be used as packing material, or even to line animal cages.
25. Newspapers – I have a great idea I like to use every winter. If you have a fireplace or woodstove, simply take a whole newspaper and tightly roll into a tube and then tape the edges. These little make shift newspaper logs burn quite slowly almost like piece of wood.
26. Glass Jars – Glass jars can be reused for almost anything. You can use them to mix drinks, and I love to use them to mix up pancake batter of all things. You place all the pancake ingredients into the jar, screw on the lid and then shake the jar until all the contents are all mixed up.
27. Plastic TV Dinner Trays – I like to recycle TV dinner trays into disposable dog dishes. And I even throw a couple of these trays into a picnic basket. Instead of using paper plates, we use the TV dinner trays to serve a meal out with nature.
28. Pie Tins – You can use pie tins as paint pans, or even to hold beads and other crafty materials.
29. Cookie Cutters – Cookie cutters can be reused into Christmas ornaments adorned with pretty Christmas ribbons.
30. Straw Brooms – My cat just absolutely loves my old straw broom. She likes to sharpen her claws on the sewn part near the handle. Or you can use an old broom for holiday decorating scenes.
31. Tarps – You can make a fun teepee or even a sweat lodge out of old tarps.
32. Automobile Tires – Make a tire swing or lay it on the ground and fill it with dirt for a flower garden. They make great bumpers too.
33. Shower Liners – You can use liners for drop clothes or to cover outside lawn furniture.
34. Bath Mats – Bathmats are great to line the bottom of closets.
35. Cardboard Boxes – You can cut cardboard boxes into manageable flat pieces and use them to cushion breakable things. I also like using them for file dividers in the old file cabinets.
36. Colorful Hard Candy Wrappers – This is one of my favorites, you can make a candy wrapper wreath out of wrappers. You take a foam craft ring, and flattened candy wrappers and a crochet needle. And then take one candy wrapper, place the crochet needle tip in the middle of the wrapper and poke the wrapper right into the craft foam. Do this until the whole wreath is covered with candy wrappers. Add a nice ribbon bow and you have a beautiful wreath for any wall.