Earth Friendly Ways To Reuse Your Garbage

♦ Use a gallon milk jug to water the roots of garden plants without standing there with a hose: Poke small holes in the bottom of the jug and bury it; fill with water for slow and steady irrigation.♦ Make a bird feeder out of a 2-liter plastic bottle.♦ Pour used bacon grease into a tuna or cat food can, chill until firm, and wire the can to a tree to give your feathered visitors some food. Bacon grease may be gross to some of us, but it attracts bluebirds, crows, jays, ravens, starlings, woodpeckers and Carolina wrens.

♦ Mound used coffee grounds in a ring around garden plants to keep ants and slugs away.

♦ Use paper egg cartons to start seedlings; since the paper will biodegrade, each cup with its seedling can be dropped right into the soil. Toilet paper tubes can be used in the same way.

Get Crafty

♦ Use old wine corks to create a floating key ring; never worry about your keys sinking while at the beach or lake again.

♦ Become a recycling master and transform old wine corks into masterpieces.

♦ Once it’s time to retire an old game, use the game board to make coasters.

♦ Use old game pieces – Monopoly movers, dice, Scrabble tiles – to make jewelry or to decorate wrapped packages.

♦ Yes, this may seem random, but here goes: don’t throw away your old garden rake! Remove the head and hang it on the wall for use as a necklace tree, a rustic tie holder, a scarf organizer, a belt holder … the possibilities are many.

 Home Remedies

♦ Spread out old newspaper beneath a tablecloth to provide further protection against spills.

♦ Don’t forget the old trick of using newspaper instead of paper towels to clean windows.

♦ Place an open jar or bowl of dried, used coffee grounds in your refrigerator or freezer to neutralize odors.

♦ Keep a jar of dried, used coffee grounds under the sink and use with dish soap as a scouring agent for cleaning caked-on stubborn food.

♦ Did your bike inner tube spring a leak? Lucky you! Now you can save the tube and cut it into strips for a bonanza of rubber bands in custom widths.

♦ You can also use a bike inner tube to fashion an industrial chic door draft stopper: Cut a length of tube a little longer that the door’s width, fill with sand and seal both ends; block drafts and stay cozy.

♦ We are a people of rampant toilet paper use and thus, we are all left with a lot of toilet paper tubes. You can turn those tubes into playthings and nesting materials for your small furry pets.

♦ Torn and crumbled toilet paper tubes also make fine packing material.

♦ Put old, stained T-shirts to use; cut them up and use them for messy spills around the house and in the garage.

♦ Old sailors know this one: use banana peels to shine your shoes. Rub the inside of the peel on shoes, then buff with a soft cloth.

♦ Use juiced citrus halves sprinkled with salt to clean stainless steel and other metal fixtures.

Body and Soul

♦ Keep used tea bags in the refrigerator; in the morning, dampen if needed and put one on each eye to relieve puffiness and refresh sleepy peepers.

♦ Dampen cool, used tea bags and place them on insect bites and minor burns; it’s said that the tannins help soothe and reduce inflammation.

♦ Pack old newspaper sleeve bags in your purse or backpack for use as emergency galoshes.

♦ If you hate the feeling of rubber gloves against your skin, use newspaper sleeve bags to protect your hands while washing dishes.

♦ Pill containers can hold a stash of Band-Aids in your purse for when blisters and paper cuts strike.

♦ Another way to use soap slivers is to wrap a group of them in a washcloth and tie it into a bundle; presto, you have a self-sudsing scrubber.