Last weekend I think I saw the most unusual and creative re purposing ever. We were on our way to dig razor clams on the coast, stopping at a friend's in-laws to do some native plant salvage. The ferns that needed to be removed were between two long stacks of firewood, and behind those stacks was a thing of beauty and ingenuity! A garage door was horizontally wedged between two trees, angled down at the back and was a magnificent example of re purposing. The garage door was, for whatever reason, no longer useful as intended, and the owner had tried to sell it, to no avail. Rather than taking it to the landfill, he gave it new life as cover to keep his firewood dry. Awesome!

Today I was directed to a link from REAL SIMPLE magazine that is a teaser from a book by the editors of the magazine for repurposing things. This section in REAL SIMPLE magazine was actually a part of my inspiration to do this blog.

The coolest thing I saw in the teaser was a wine cork repurposed as a sewing kit. They put a couple of needles in the top of the cork and wrapped various threads around it. Kinda cool, and definitely useful.

Personally, I found repurposing to be sort of MacGyver-esque this summer. My family was on our way home at the end of a long road trip when our car started to overheat. It was, of course, after the autoparts stores had closed, and we had some antifreeze but no funnel. We DID have a couple of plastic water bottles and a Swiss Army knife. So I cut the top off and used IT as a funnel. Not enormously impressive, but felt good at the time.

Any other cool uses for water bottles?

One only needs to wander any supermarket to confirm America’s love affair with carbonated beverages. Their containers, both aluminum and plastic, clog landfills and litter roads, forests, beaches, everywhere. The creation of said containers is a horrific process as well, in the drilling of our “economic blood” or petroleum for creating the plastic bottles, or in the mining of minerals to create the aluminum cans. Ideally we would all recognize the health benefit of not consuming gallons of diabetic coma inducing, high-fructose corn syrup laden fraudulent thirst quencher. In the absence of that healthy decision, we can still minimize the impact of that consumption by finding other uses for the containers before recycling them. The 2-liter plastic bottles are quite useful. Cut the top off and put it over tomato, pepper, and other plants in the garden to create an on the spot “green house”. They can be cut in half and a hole cut in the top of one side to fit over a spigot on an Igloo (or other) beverage dispenser to catch the drips and protect the floor or not encourage ants at the picnic table. There are spikes that fit into the spouts for continuous watering of plants- fill the bottle, put spike in spout, put upside down near plant roots. (This can be done with house plants and smaller bottles). They also freeze well if you leave room for the ice to expand, thus negating the need to BUY ice for your ice chests. The small water/soda bottles frozen in such a manner make fabulous “icers” on which to roll sore feet. I have also used them to store hummingbird food.

Aluminum cans are harder to find uses for. When I was a kid we would save the tabs and make had bands with them, but the new tabs don’t work in quite the same way. I have only found one use for the aluminum cans. I cut them up make garden labels. The aluminum is soft enough that a nail works as a writing implement and they don’t rust, so when nailed to a stake or on your garden bed, they last, and the names don’t fade. You can also punch a hole in one end and use a with a wire twist tie to label trees and shrubs.

What do YOU do with your soda/water containers?

Clear Stuff

Costco is great cuz it has such large quantities of "stuff". Some of the containers are pretty useful too. The apples, mangoes and sometimes the pears, come in these interesting clamshells, with spaces shaped a lot like the fruit they contain. They are also shaped a lot like Christmas tree balls. They work pretty well to keep the glass ornaments from bumping and breaking in the bins, and avoid the necessity of wrapping each one. The big rectangular boxes that lettuce or spinach comes in are great storage containers too. I use them in my pantry to keep mixer parts, salad shooter parts, food processor blades, cookie cutters, bags of stuff like brown sugar or coconut, etc. They also work well as craft supply containers, because they are clear and stackable. Who needs to spend big bucks on fancy containers, when you can reuse something you already buy anyway? They do not weather the dishwasher well. Fortunately, they usually don't come with any hard to clean substance in them, so handwashing isn't too bad. I did try to use one for compost, but they are a little too frail for the weight that can become, so I use the container from the dishwasher soap "Action Packs" for compost in the kitchen. Those are just the right size for daily use, they close tightly, and do well in the dishwasher too.

What do YOU do with all that clear plastic?

Buckets

We have had indoor cats for a long time now, and their litter has always been a pain. I used to choose the brand based on price, then on scent, and finally on the impact the chemicals have on the environment and the packaging. The litter, though, is not the biggest issue. What do you do with the packaging? If it's the paper bag or the cardboard box, it's easy- recycle them. But the buckets, hmm. We put them to multiple uses; garbage cans, weed buckets, watering buckets car-washing buckets- anything you'd use a regular bucket for. But cats live a long time and there are only so many uses for buckets as buckets. So, I've got a few more ways to use them and not send them to the landfill or just collect stacks of them around the house. Having three growing boys, we go through a lot of food. Because of that, it's not just more healthy to cook whole foods, but it's economical, and I buy many things in bulk. Large quantities of food can be challenging to store, so I paired the food storage issue with the bucket storage issue, and now have cleaned cat litter buckets for rice, oatmeal, flour, beans, popcorn, etc.

Another fantastic way to use cat litter buckets is for hikers. If you've ever been hiking in the rain, you know how important it is to keep your gear dry. I used to put a large garbage bag in the pack as a liner, but those tear, and have no structure. Our Boy Scout troop began using the cat litter buckets as liners for their packs. WOW! Awesome use! We now share our cat litter buckets with the many boys of our troop, and no longer have the stacks of them around avoiding the landfill. If you don't care about the lids, they make great Frisbee/chew toys for dogs.

I want to emphasize that the choices I make when I make purchases consider packaging. I found a use for the buckets, so I can justify that purchase more than litter in a bag.

What do YOU do with cat littler buckets?

I'm new to the blogosphere, and would appreciate any constructive commentary! My intention for this space is to share repurposing ideas for 'stuff'. It bothers me to throw things away. Some would call that being a packrat, maybe so. But more important to me than the keeping of the 'stuff', is what happens to it when it's thrown out, so I try to find other uses for 'stuff'. I recently was given an amazing book -"The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard, and reading it only cemented my already strong conviction to REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE. I'll post things I try repurposing, with my opionion of the results. Also, I'd love contributions, so if you have any repurposing ideas for nearly anything, please post. If you have questions about what to do with 'stuff', or if I do, we'll put it out there and see what folks have tried. The repurpose can be purely practical or out there artistic. It doesn't matter, the focus is keeping 'stuff' out of the landfills, and giving 'stuff' new life.

I would also like to point out that being conscious of what we purchase, including packaging, is as important in reducing the 'stuff' in the landfills, as looking for another use for it.

Here goes.

Socks. I never know what to do with old socks. I have three boys, who are all nearly grown, and they have put holes in massive numbers of socks. When they are through with them, the socks no longer would keep other feet warm, so what to do with them? Some I cut the toes out of and put over cords to keep them together. Others can be used as stuffing for pillows or put them on your hand as a duster(instead of spending money on those commercial dusters made out of "I don't know what"). Of course, the classic if you have small children in your life, sock puppets. If you're inclined to a more tedious process, the socks can be cut up and made into rag rugs. Haven't tried that one yet- I need more lessons in patience. Wait, maybe that would provide those lessons? : ) And my final idea is the classic for all trashed fabric stuff- rags.

Given the amount of socks we've been through, these uses only touch the tip of the sock-iceburg. What else? What do YOU do with old socks?