25 Simple Creative Ways To Reuse Household Trash
September 16, 2011 By: Amruta Kshemkalyani

When I think about the ‘zero waste lifestyle, I dream of a balanced ecosystem. Lush green landscape in place of garbage areas near each community. Fresher air and close-to-nature living! However, every day as some new products hit the market, we all get overpowered by the marketing tactics and end up buying stuff that we don’t need – electronics, fashion clothing, cosmetics or home interior items, etc. So instead, we keep on increasing our waste – sometimes we give to charity, sometimes we recycle, and at most times we throw unwanted things, thus ending up in the landfill. Wouldn’t a public park be a more appropriate land use than a mountain of waste?

So in the first place, if we shop less, waste will be less. But suppose people suddenly stop buying unnecessary things, which will surely affect the market, employment, and the economy. Moreover, if the old items we need to discard are damaged, they may not be useful for charity. Also, recycling every item is still not available in many places. So the ideal solution is reusing those unwanted items creatively at our home. The added benefit is you save money & can own a unique, personalized home organizing or interior item, which will be the talk of your guests for sure! So I recommend reusing items even for those people who regularly recycle. Because through reusing, we extend the lifecycle of produced items before we recycle them in the end.

To check what can be reused and for what purpose, we need to look at our garbage and our shopping list. Maybe we can remove some items on our shopping list by reusing items we will discard. I did that & believe me; it was fun! However, before we start looking at a big list of items that we can reuse, it’s better to understand in this article what upcycling is and what repurposing is.

The items found in routine garbage from our home are generally these, Plastic/glass jars, containers, bottles, packaging boxes small or large of paper/cardboard, bottles, boxes, toiletry, chemical containers, tin boxes, containers, jars, chipped or broken crockery or ceramic or china wear, takeaway food containers, old clothes, bags, wooden/metal/plastic furniture & accessories.

REUSING TRASH ITEMS:

Here are some of my personal favorites & some experiments of reusing things that may be otherwise trash.

1. Plastic & Glass Jars

Many plastic & glass jars with proper lids can be used to store groceries & arranged in your kitchen cabinets. Ex. Rice, pasta, milk drinks, etc., which are packed in bottle or plastic jar, can be bought next time; we can buy the same item packed in a bag & refill the jar.

If you can reuse jars & boxes that come as a package to store all your groceries like pulses, flour, beans, etc., you would never have to buy separate jars for the same purpose. The plastic jars of ice cream and yogurt are also good storage containers once cleaned.

Most of my grocery is stored in such jars. For example, rice is stored in a yogurt jar; urad pulses are stored in a Horlicks jar an & ice-cream box is used to store bird-feeding rice.

2. Soap, shampoo, toiletries bottles

Just like jars, hand wash bottles, dishwashing liquids, shower gels can be bought a second time in a loose refill package & can be refilled in the previous bottle; if you use the same brand, you don’t even have to clean the bottles.

You can actually carry these empty bottles while shopping and refill them in the shop; this is a great practice in zero waste shopping.

3. Jams, preserves & Baby food Jars

So many packaging glass and plastic jars come with herbs, spice, ketchup, jams, and baby food. We can use the same bottles for using the same items or other appropriate items. However, it is better to wash these bottles once in a while, especially if we use them for a prolonged time. Read here a great way of reusing baby food jars as a return favor for your kid’s birthday.

DIY party favors from baby food jars

4. Tin boxes

The tin boxes of coffee/biscuits etc. can store the same items. Alternatively, planting small plants in these tins is also a good idea; only remember to make some holes at the bottom for draining water. Tins can be used to organize like a pen holder or a coin box or keep small stationary or hardware items. For example, the empty tin boxes of my son’s formula milk. They look amazing once the label is removed. Or we can also collect coins in these boxes.

5. Takeaway Containers

Some food boxes are good quality, which we can use to store food items in the fridge. Another use could be to pack food for the office or outdoors. Generally, I use these boxes to store cut vegetables in the fridge.

I also save the takeaway container to give a water bath to plants when I am away on travel. You can read here my techniques of self-watering plants.

Water bath using take away containers

6. Plastic food packaging boxes

Packaging boxes of yogurt, ice cream, and chocolates can store small items like stationery/medicines/hardware items or groceries. Chocolate boxes can also be decorated & used as gift boxes. For example, I have assigned this empty Ferrero Rocher chocolate box to store sachets of sugar, coffee, etc.

If you buy in bulk containers, those are even more useful. For example, read here how I re-used a 1 kg yogurt plastic container as a DIY composter.

7. Cold drink/ wine bottles

These glass bottles are of good use to store drinking water. Also, we can store some homemade juice, homemade stock, or lemonade in this & keep it in the fridge. I also used one beautiful wine bottle to grow a money plant. Another great use of bottles is to create a self-watering planter.

8. Chipped or unwanted mugs/vases/flower pots.

These can be used for s

toring pens, brushes, spoons, etc., on the study table, dressing table, etc. For example, one of the mugs I received as a gift but don’t like for drinking coffee is kept on a bookshelf, which stored pens. Another chipped mug is used in the washroom to hold items.

9. Broken ceramic plates

Broken ceramic plates or china wear can be used as a color pallet if you do the painting. From my experience, it is better than any other newly bought pallet, especially for oil paints.

10. Cardboard boxes

Cardboard boxes, like shoe boxes, can store collectibles, small home decor things, cards, documents, write-ups, etc. The clean & hard shoe boxes are my favorite home organizer items. I have kept all shoe boxes; some store home decor items, some hold collectibles. One box is dedicated to stationery items. This box in the photo contains a stock of cleaning accessories.

The cardboard boxes are handy to create some eco-crafts for kids like dollhouses, ice cream shops, etc. Read more about such cardboard craft ideas here.

11. Packing boxes

The packaging boxes come with gifts, tough material, watch boxes, cosmetics boxes, and skincare set boxes that can store miscellaneous items like stationery items, jewelry, hardware items like screws, nails, buttons, coins, etc. These boxes can be used as a gift box as well.
I have made a body shop box with a transparent window as our collectible box on top. Al our natural collectibles, like dried flowers, leaves, shells, etc., along with some memorable photos & postcards, are stored in this box.

12. Washing powder/ cereal Boxes

Big empty boxes of cereals, washing powder, tissue boxes can store carry bags. One opening could be cut in the box, from where we can pull the carry bag out. It is good to reuse also a nice idea for organizing those otherwise voluminous carry bags, which filled up space in a cabinet below our kitchen sink.

After cutting the top side of the box, these boxes can be used as magazine holders or for holding excess wires, assorted things in a storeroom.

13. Use as Planters

Many items like broken earthen/ceramic/glass wear, shoes, tin/plastic containers, paint or chemical containers, ceramic pipes, coconut shells can be used for planting small plants in your garden. Actually, if you grow a plant in anything which can hold the soil & can have a hole or two facilitate excess water to flow, then any waste item in your home can become a beautiful planter. In this photo, old tyers are used as a planter. Read here some great ideas for the creative reuse of household items as planters.

14. Clothes

Old napkins can be used for housecleaning or a bathroom mat. Old clothes can be used to stitch rugs, mats, decorative wall hangings, covers for pillow/chair/cushion, curtain, handbags, pouches, wall hanging organizers, cloth files in patchwork, or other creative techniques. A 9-yard sari, a traditional garment for women, is reused for many other purposes in India. The blanket stitched from my grandma’s soft cotton saree was my favorite in my childhood & is the best example of reuse of clothes. Read here a simple but beautiful DIY exercise to reuse old denim.

15. Bags, Purses

I never throw old bags, purses, pouches. However, they are damaged a bit. I always dedicate those bags for things according to an application. One of the old bags is where we store all the tools. A small old purse is where all sorts of small locks are stored.

16. Old containers/ tiffin boxes

Some old containers, tiffin boxes with a broken handle, or locks can be used for keeping water and seeds for birds in your window.

17. Jar Lids

Lids of jars can be used as coasters or kept below a bottle of oil to avoid any oiliness to the kitchen platform.

18. Paper Cards

Partition cards in teabag boxes can be used as bookmarks. I painted some of these cards, laminated them & now these bookmarks are kept on the bookshelf add not only good use but beauty as well.

19. Medicine & Candy Boxes

Small boxes of candies like Tic-tac or menthol or medicine boxes can be used for storing nails, screws, or any assorted tiny items for your home toolbox. I have stored nails in a tic-tac box. Some toothpicks are stored in one of the empty calcium tablet containers used during travel or outdoor trips.

20. Plastic trays

Plastic in chocolate boxes to hold chocolates can store tiny jewelry items in jewelry boxes or pins in a stationary box or nails/buttons etc.

21. CDs

Old CDs can be used as coasters or for decoration purposes.

22. Plastic measuring spoons

Plastic spoons and measuring cups coming with the medicines, cough syrups, milk powder, ice-creams can be cleaned & kept in containers of spice powders, grains, or even washing powders, etc. For example, I have kept those ice-cream spoons in containers of turmeric, chili powder, cocoa powder, etc.

23. Old furniture accessories

Extra or old furniture accessories like racks, hooks, wall cabinets can be reused for another purpose. For example, I used some old hooks for curtain rods to hang clothes instead of throwing them on beds or tables. These small hooks made our bedroom clothes-free, where one could find clothes all over before.

24. Unwanted furniture pieces

There could be many creative ways to use the old furniture piece for new applications. I never did it, but I always like the idea of using the old trunk as a side table; it could add an antique touch to the interior. These are some of the photos from other people who reused their old furniture & the result is these amazing art pieces.

25. Silica Gel Packets

Throw some old silica gel packets in the cabinet of important documents, personal papers, or in the box where you store photos and photo albums to reduce moisture content.

Hopefully, after reading this article, some of you have developed an interest in reusing old items, or have you started looking for them in your storeroom or garbage bin already? Let me know how it goes!

Meanwhile, I recommend reading our popular guide to beat plastic pollution, with simple lifestyle changes.

Enjoy Creative reuse and join our tribe to get many such creative ideas.

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