Reusing and Re-purposing: Rethink the uses of these 10 common items

I am always looking to see how I can re-use or re-purpose something before I throw it away. Recently I came across an idea which I implemented and helped me to not have to go out and buy something I thought I needed. Reusing and re-purposing is in style more than ever these days. Since it's just my Mom and me, we've decided to come up with a list of items within our home that we can reuse and re-purpose. So I encourage you to make reusing and re-purposing a family affair. Get the kids together, have a round table, and see who can come up with the longest list of household items to reuse and re-purpose. Kids, especially, think of neat ideas to reuse and re-purpose.

Here's a list of 10 items that I have reused and re-purposed.

1. Plastic bags from the grocery store. I could not tell you when the last time I bought garbage bags, except for the ones for my tall trash can. I have short wastepaper baskets in my bedrooms and bathrooms and all have plastic grocery bags as liners. At the end of the grocery line I snatch some extra plastic bags too. I also use these short plastic bags as shower caps by tying the handles behind my head.

2. Rubber Bands from my produce. I don't remember the last time I bought rubber bands either. I save the ones that come off my bunch of celery, romaine lettuce, asparagus, and other produce. I use them to band socks, folders, envelops - you name it, whatever it is, it has a rubber band around it at my house - well, not everything.

3. Shoe boxes I use to transport baked goods. I keep about five shoe boxes and line them with wax paper or aluminum foil when I need to use them. If they get beat up or soggy from the baked goods I just toss them out. Not only do I use the cardboard shoe boxes but I also use the plastic ones.

4. Olive oil is excellent for the skin. I have been using olive oil for a few years now, no more of the expensive lotions. My skin is so soft. Check out the link below to see how olive oil can benefit your skin. Some say that Crisco is good for the skin - haven't tried that as yet.

5. Spaghetti to light candles. That's right. I had to light several candles on a birthday cake and used several matches. One of my friends went to my pantry and got a spaghetti, lit it and used it to light the rest of the candles. Who knew?

6. Potholder for an eyeglass case. This is just adorable. I complained that my metal eyeglass case was scratching my sunglasses. The next day a friend gave me a sun-glass case she made. I looked at it and said, "this looks familiar." She said it was a potholder she folded in half and sewed up the side. Too cute!

7. Dryer Lint is a great fire starter. For those of you who use your fireplace begin to save your lint from your dryer instead of throwing it away. I clean out my dryer lint filter then place the lint in a plastic tub.

8. Cinnamon keeps ants away. For some reason at my mailbox I had ants crawling up the post and into the mailbox. My Mom took a plastic lid, placed powered cinnamon in it, put it inside the back of our mailbox, and that's been over two years ago and no ants since.

9. Styrofoam or plastic take-out containers make great paint pans. I was doing some painting and didn't have paint pans for the small rollers I was using. So I got a black plastic take-out container that my Mom saves and used it.

10. Dental Floss is not just for teeth anymore. It's good to cut your cake horizontally. I needed to put some filling between my cake layers. A good friend told me to minimize crumbs and handling, use dental floss. It worked great.