One of the ways you can cut down on your waste is to find other ways to use things than throwing them away.  You’ll be amazed at how many ordinary, everyday items around your house can be used or re-used for something useful.  Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

• Coffee grounds: Have you ever noticed that Starbucks usually offers used coffee grounds?  Coffee grounds can be used in your garden or in your compost pile.  Grounds make great fertilizers and break down quickly when they are composted.  You can add them to the soil in your garden or your indoor potted plants, sprinkle them on top of the soil, or add water and pour the mixture over your plants as a liquid fertilizer.
• Aluminum foil: Are you tired of buying dryer sheets or fussing with liquid softener?  Aluminum foil effectively eliminates static cling, and can be reused!  Just crumple up a piece of aluminum foil into a ball and toss it into the dryer with your clothes.
• Dryer sheets: If you aren’t ready to get rid of those dryer sheets just yet, don’t throw them away when your laundry is done, either.  Dryer sheets actually make great dust cloths for cleaning mini blinds.
• Empty wine bottles: Don’t you hate it when your tall boots crumple and fall over?  Empty wine bottles make a great way to keep the shape of the leg part of your boots without stretching them.  Most wine bottles are the right size, just make sure you wash and dry them well first.
• Orange peels: When you peel an orange, what do you do with the peel?  Or what do you do with lemon and lime wedges after you’ve done squeezing them dry?  Don’t throw these things away anymore.  Running them through your disposal eliminates smelly kitchen sink odors.
• Plastic shopping bags: Many stores are now pushing reusable shopping bags, and some have even eliminated plastic bags altogether, but you may still find yourself inundated with plastic bags.  Don’t just throw these away — besides taking back to the store to be recycled, you can also use them as packing materials when packing up your belongings for moving or putting together a box to ship to someone.  They aren’t as good as bubble wrap, though, so don’t use them for irreplaceable breakables.
• Used magazines: Today’s magazines often have full-color pictures of gardens, pets, and other interests.  Instead of throwing a magazine away once you’ve read it, tuck it away and use its pages as wrapping paper.  You can also use newspaper for this same purpose. For instance, the comics page makes great wrapping paper for a child’s gift.
• Empty glass or plastic jars: Glass or plastic jars, such as what you buy jelly or mayo in, have a lot of uses, so don’t throw them away. You can use them to store food such as nuts, raisins, sugar, and so on.  Glass jelly jars also make great little vases if you remove the label!
• Coffee cans: Coffee cans make great storage containers because of their size and durability.  You can paint the cans to cover the coffee labels and match your kitchen décor, and use them for storing flour, sugar, rice, and pasta.

You will be amazed at how many of the things you use and discard on a daily basis can actually be reused or reinvented.  How do you reuse everyday items?  Or do you have any ideas for how you can start reusing things from now on?

About the author

Vern Marker is a writer on several different topics including how to live cost effectively. She knows how to get the most out of everything from coffee cans to espresso machines.