Slice of Lucy: Reusing Stuff

 

Many folks in my world seem to have bought in to the practice of recycling, I mean, it is pretty easy to recycle with bins in many public spaces and door-to-door service in municipalities like mine. For awhile now, I have been looking for ways to reuse stuff in order to reduce waste. Call me weird, but it's kind of fun to brainstorm repurposing options. Here are some ideas that have worked for me:

I had three old cutting boards, the plastic kind from Ikea. I did not want to donate them for food use, so I gave them to the director of my school's innovation lab. At first, she looked at me strangely, then I suggested using them for hot glue stations. Her eyes lit up! 

After a visit to Trader Joe's, I provide a steady supply of disposable dumpling trays to the art teacher for painting projects.

When I traveled through India in 2004, I was wowed by the beautiful art created with repurposed goods, like the one-of-a-kind wall hanging made from scraps of old saris in my entryway and the intricate, miniature Kama Sutra painting on a discarded, official-looking government paper on my living room wall. This shows we can create demand for creative products that reuse materials.

At my boyfriend's work place, they have a 'free table' where people donate things they no longer want, but which might be put to use in someone else's space. One man's trash is another person's treasure! 

When I started composting, I looked at counter-top bins to store the scraps temporarily before taking them out to the garden. There were many options available for purchase on Amazon and elsewhere, but I thought I could do better. I found a 1940's aluminum ice bucket at a resale store. It looks adorable on my century home kitchen counter, plus the lid basically seals to reduce the potential for unsavory smells and pests.

The best way to store and easily dispense toothpicks in the kitchen is to wash out an empty spice bottle that has a lid with lots of holes.

Don't get me started on the million and one uses for an Altoids box!

My aunt taught me to keep my Christmas cards, then use pinking shears to cut out the festive pictures to use for the next year's gift tags. 

Reusable water bottles and old wine bottles can be paired with watering spikes for long-term irrigation of house plants and flora in outdoor raised beds.

When you dry a load of cotton clothing/towels/sheets, save the lint to use as great fire-starting material.

I am curious...What are some ways you have found to reduce waste and reuse stuff in your life? By the way, sharing these ideas is another form of recycling/reusing! Now, I just need to think of a use for that toddler potty I saw at the curb while walking my dog this evening...