Hi, my name is A and I use things as many times as I can.
{Hello, A}
When it comes to reusing something around the house, I will as long as possible. I hold onto fabric scraps – which have come in handy. I hold onto paper scraps (only of real useable size). I keep whatever buttons I can from shirts/shorts that are ready to move on (so I do throw away some things!). I have made slipcovers for ugly pillows that we received for our wedding. I use shoe boxes to store items (some other than the shoes that originally came with them). But the kitchen is where I want to share what I reuse and have found very helpful.
Ice cream buckets, you know the ones – large and plastic.
*Store small paper plates (dessert plates – that are leftovers from parties)
*Store all my cookie cutters
*Three that store all the kids treats (halloween candy, candy from birthday parties, easter, christmas…basically any time they get candy, it goes in their “treat bucket”)
Because they are plastic, it is easy to take a permanent marker and write the contents/name on it.
Potato/Macaroni Salad Containers, again – plastic
*Snacks – I have labeled a few for pretzels, animal crackers, goldfish, whatever is in it. This way I don’t have several bags/boxes that get destroyed or left open in the pantry.
Milk boxes from Costco
*They are handy for storing small bags of snacks (will explain more later)
*Conveniently great for holding papers (8x11 fit perfectly)
*When I did preschool, I used several to hold different craft items/file folder games, you name it, I put it in there.
I cut off the top flaps, and wa-la, you’ve got a useable box.
Mason jars – or any cool glass jar
* I have labeled three – knives, spoons, and forks. I have my big boxes of theses up and out of the way, but I keep a few handy in these jars (actually, the knife one is empty, they don’t fit with the lids on). These are great for parties, I can just pull out the jar, unscrew the lid, and there they are. I was lucky to have some with old metal miracle whip lids, so I spray painted them silver, you could still do this with the lid/band type too.
* Any glass jar that I buy is held on to. With pinterest, there are so many great ways to use them for decorations, or storage.
One other thing I reuse, but didn’t put in the picture. Lay’s Stax containers. We buy these to take on road trips (fits better than bags of potato chips). I save them, wash them, and then they come again on our next trip. This time I put knives, forks, and spoons for meals in them (we tend to do a lot of bbq on our small portable bbq rather than eating out – coincidentally, this is also why I have a few potato salad containers sitting around.)
Now about the snacks…
I buy those little snack bags from the grocery store ( a friend a told me about this) and fill them with snacks! Revolutionary!! I put in about a serving size of crackers, pretzels, marshmallows (my kids love ‘em), whatever snacks we happen to have around. Then I put them in the Costco milk box happily labeled “Yummy snacks”and put it in the pantry. The kids then grab the snacks to put in their lunch in place of a treat or chips. Or we use them when we are on a little outing to the zoo, the park, soccer/baseball games, etc. Here is the reuseable part – I save the snack bags. Yes, I know that can sound weird, like I am one of our grandmothers who held onto everything (which I do have a few of those!), but I do. I do wash and dry them before they are used again. They get a few uses out of them (if they make it back home). All of these things help our family to save a little money. I don’t always need to go shopping at the container store to get fancy boxes or containers to hold items. I would much rather use what I have got first.
