Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - What do you re-use or re-purpose?

genuinegirly · 11-19-2010, 03:07 PM

Plastic grocery bags. I meticulously fold unbroken grocery store plastic bags into small squares and bind stacks of them with rubber bands. I used to wad them and keep them in compressed bags, but I found that the resulting wrinkles bothered me, and stuck-together bags were infuriating. I reuse the bags for everything from distributing garden produce to lining waste paper baskets.
String & Rope. You never know when it will come in handy.
Wood shavings After my parents had someone come through and pull out their junipers, their stump grinders left behind some sweet-smelling wood shavings. I have small critters for pets. It makes good bedding and helps out in the garden.
Aluminum foil Not around the house, but in the lab. We'll autoclave it after one use, then use it again. We had one guy who would collect even the ripped and otherwise unusable foil, which he would compress with a vice or something and make into some pretty sturdy, lightweight balls for his kids to play with.
Shirt pins Seems like my husband's new shirts always come with at least 20 pins. The nicer the shirt, the better the pins. I usually save them in a pin cushion to use for sewing.
Jars and plastic food containers I don't buy food-sized rubbermaid or tupperware - instead I reuse jars and other containers. Jar tops often lose their seals after a few uses, but they're still handy for a while. The red stains on the seals of pasta sauce can be removed by soaking them in a little bleach. Plastic yogurt cups and others that lose their lids make great manipulatives for our rabbit - she loves the small edges and tosses them around her cage.
O-rings ok, honestly I've only intentionally saved these when they were part of some hardware that flew on the shuttle.

We live in a college town so we periodically find usable discarded stuff on the side of the road: floor lamp, coffee maker, toaster...

11-19-2010, 03:07 PM	#5 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Plastic grocery bags. I meticulously fold unbroken grocery store plastic bags into small squares and bind stacks of them with rubber bands. I used to wad them and keep them in compressed bags, but I found that the resulting wrinkles bothered me, and stuck-together bags were infuriating. I reuse the bags for everything from distributing garden produce to lining waste paper baskets. String & Rope. You never know when it will come in handy. Wood shavings After my parents had someone come through and pull out their junipers, their stump grinders left behind some sweet-smelling wood shavings. I have small critters for pets. It makes good bedding and helps out in the garden. Aluminum foil Not around the house, but in the lab. We'll autoclave it after one use, then use it again. We had one guy who would collect even the ripped and otherwise unusable foil, which he would compress with a vice or something and make into some pretty sturdy, lightweight balls for his kids to play with. Shirt pins Seems like my husband's new shirts always come with at least 20 pins. The nicer the shirt, the better the pins. I usually save them in a pin cushion to use for sewing. Jars and plastic food containers I don't buy food-sized rubbermaid or tupperware - instead I reuse jars and other containers. Jar tops often lose their seals after a few uses, but they're still handy for a while. The red stains on the seals of pasta sauce can be removed by soaking them in a little bleach. Plastic yogurt cups and others that lose their lids make great manipulatives for our rabbit - she loves the small edges and tosses them around her cage. O-rings ok, honestly I've only intentionally saved these when they were part of some hardware that flew on the shuttle. We live in a college town so we periodically find usable discarded stuff on the side of the road: floor lamp, coffee maker, toaster... __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy Last edited by genuinegirly; 11-19-2010 at 03:11 PM..