Tired of cloudy ice cubes?
One of the ways that patriots remain independent and self-sufficient is something that we don’t talk a lot about. It has nothing to do with solar panels or wind turbines or stockpiling food and water. But it is about saving money.
It’s called re-purposing, which of course is using an item for a purpose that it was not intended. This saves you from having to spend money on a totally separate item to accomplish the intended task.
Over the course of the next several weeks, I’m going to be writing blogs that will give you quite a few re-purposing ideas that you can use with common, ordinary household items, as well as some basic tips and tricks you can use to make life easier at home. These tips will include suggestions that you can use in every room of your home, and I guarantee that you’ll save some money and time if you incorporate some of them.
So, here are the first 10:
• You know how brown sugar in a bag tends to get hard, requiring you to bang it a few times to break it up and make it usable? Well, you can avoid that by storing a couple of soft marshmallows in the bag.
• Install a regular coat rack just above the baseboard near the floor and use it to hang up shoes so that they don’t take up space on the floor.
• Deodorize sponges in your microwave oven. First, soak them in white vinegar or lemon juice, then place them in the microwave and put on full power for one minute. They’ll be very hot, so use tongs to remove them.
• Instead of throwing away your next Tic-Tac dispenser, use it to store very small, thin items, such as bobby pins.
• Next time you’re drilling a hole in the wall, attach a folded post-it note just below the hole to catch the resulting dust.
• Re-purpose an old picture frame as a serving tray for cupcakes or other food items.
• Instead of buying a watering can for your garden, rinse out a used plastic gallon of milk and puncture holes in the top.
• Use a squeegee to remove pet hair from furniture and carpets.
• When using a paint tray, cover it first with aluminum foil so that clean-up work is so much easier.
• To get clear ice cubes rather than cloudy ones, first boil the water, then let it cool, then pour it into your ice cube trays.
I’ll have plenty more of these re-purposing ideas to share with you over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, do you have any that have worked well for you? If so, I’m sure that our readers would love to know about them.
Also all plastic container with lids are kept for personal storage use but also as containers that can be used when sharing left overs or extra food items with family and friends and they don’t need to worry about returning the container.
The lids from OJ in the coolers are quite large and work great as floor savers under furniture legs, casters, etc.
Guess I’m a hoarder, I see everything should have a purpose if…and often things that can not be used in a practical purpose can be used in crafting. or in use when children are imaginative and have needs to fill in their play.
About the hard brown sugar… I put a fresh slice of white bread into the container. The moisture from the bread softens the sugar in a short time, leaving the bread very hard and dry. Don’t throw the bread away. Instead, break it into pieces and save them in a plastic bag, to use in your next bread pudding.
When putting holes in walls for pictures, criss-cross a couple strips of Scotch tape (or other tape,) where you want the nail. Place it in the center of the crossed tape, and it will prevent the plaster from cracking and chipping from the nail. (Landlords are very grateful for this. lol) And use toothpaste to patch small nail holes, because it hardens and will bare be noticed on white walls.
If your soap bar gets “gooey and soft” in the shower, unwrapping it a few days before you use the new bar and letting it sit, it will harden somewhat and you won’t have gooey soap.
Thanks for the great tips. I like to use candle jars with a lid that have no wick left for a grease jar (just be sure to let the grease cool first). They are easy to handle and have a much better smell with some candle still in the bottom of the jar.
If you play instruments with necks like the guitar, banjo, ukulele,, etc. cut a long piece of sponge the length of the neck. Cut the foam 2-3 inches wide and deep to fit under the neck. Cut off the foot of the sock, Cover the sponge with the top of the old black socks. For my ukulele, I cut out a heavy piece of cardboard the shape of the body of the instrument. Cover the cardboard body with another black sock (use any color of sock) Glue or sew the sock covered body shape to the sock covered neck sponge. Place in the bottom of the instrument’s carrying case. This gives support to the neck.
Enjoyed reading all the ways to use imagination and save money and have fun using your creative ideas. I have a few to add, but its late and better get some shut eye. Thanks , Frank.. You had a great idea. Good wishes,
Adrienne
This is really something that enjoy looking thru, I love the creative ideas people come up with, maybe I will add a few of my own later but right now I have brain fade lol
Save used dryer sheets. They make great cleaning cloths. They effectively scrub sinks, mirrors, windows, cupboards, etc. without scratching the surface. And they are free!
Dryer sheets are good for keeping fresh, nice smells in drawers, closets, gym bags, etc. You could even hang them in your car. I’m going to try putting them into my “space bags” and see how they work over long term….. but I’ve heard that the softener in the fresh sheets may stain the fabric.
I recycle plastic into cactus
I sell vintage and handmade items on eBay and etsy- like teacup and saucer sets. I have a lot of saucers where I broke the teacups. I glue a thumbtack in the middle of the sacer and stick a candle on it. I make a ceramic handle for each but you can super glue a drawer handle to them so they’re portable in case of power outage. I keep one in each room with a lighter on the plate
Add a few drops of Dawn dish soap to a bucket of water and pour onto icy decks or stairs. Problem solved. Ice is gone and no more slippery stairs or decks
Our Power ent off for two hours…I learned itt’s impossible to take a shower in a pitch black room! Very hard to make a sandwich in a totally darkened kitchen!!
Bought some of those “under cabinet” battery operated lights, they really do the trick!!
I live in the city but I have a 100 year old log cabin in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The cabin has a big ol’ Sears Roebuck wood burning stove with an oven and we have a nice little firepit outside. I collect lumber from building sites and pre cut it all to 16″ pieces that I haul to the cabin about once a month. I have over three full cords of free firewood that burns nicely and fits easily into the stove and firepit.
When collecting wood from construction sites, ge careful not to pick up any “treated” wood. Its wood “treated” with chemicals to keep insects and fungus from deteriorating it. Those chemicals can be hazardous to humans when burned especially in a interior setting. You can tell if its treated if it has a colored tint and/or roes of holes or slots where it has been injected with chemicals. Its sometimes called “mudsil”.
Use saran wrap to cover your keyboard.
it keeps it clean and prevents crumbs out.
Change every couple weeks.
To keep you chips fresh (any kind of chips, potato, doritos, sun chips, tortilla, you name it) roll up or clip the bag and put them in the refrigerator. They last longer and do not go stale. Fresh chips everytime!
great ideas tks.
Make a weatherproof label for trees and other plants out of thin aluminum from pull off lids. The name can be embossed with a ballpoint pen. The stuff cuts easily with a scissors and a long tab allows tying it to the stem.
Old pants hanger with the clips make good bag sealers by breaking off the clips. Also, banana peels are a very good way to polish your shoes for free, Rub the inside on your shoes, let dry and buff. Pickle juice is a good window cleaner. Toilet paper rolls when empty make good computer and other cord neat storage containers. Metal coat hangers are good to make your own H D antenna’s
These ideas are awesome! Thanks Frank & Friends for expanding the “Repurposing” ideas! Now this is something we can all use in a world of waste!
Keep these ideas flowing. I’m starting a journal of “Repurposing Ideas” to keep handy. ..something to refer to as we redo our home. My garden is always interesting because I use old teapots, boots, boiling kettles, mixing bowls, etc. to plant tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers. Also I turned an old wooden chest into a garden bench to hold garden utensils, fertilizer and to store seasonal items. It has one large drawer and two enclosed shelves below that. Paid $5.00 for chest because they were throwing it away. Keep your “Repurpose Cap” on where ever you go!
Ahh, speaking of gardening utensils…. if you store your cleaned shovels, trowels, grass sheers, etc., (anything with a blade) in a container of oily sand, they will stay rust-free and fairly sharp. But don’t go buy oil. Just get some used motor oil from someone who is changing their car’s oil, or a little bit from someone who has part of a fresh can/bottle to spare.
Do your bunge cords always get tangled, and hooked up on each other and everything else? I took a short pieces of pvc pipe, just long enough to keep them taut but not stretched. clip both ends to the ends of the pipe.
If you are growing your own herbs, save your old spice jars and make new labels.
Before throwing away all the batteries from a device because it quits working, buy an inexpensive battery tester (get two to get a second opinion). Most often, only one of the 3 or 4 is actually dead. The rest can be re-used.
Before throwing away your razor, learn to strop it.
I bought a tall (75″H x 9″W x 22″ deep with 6 shelves) wallpaper holder from the store where I worked for $5.00. I painted it white and use it in my bathroom for towels, sheet sets and other miscellaneous items. It works great and saves lots of space and it was practically free. They were going to throw it away anyway and it was perfectly sturdy and mostly clean. Had to dust it a little with cleaner and a damp rag and a little paint; looks great.
“tin” stainless steel with a good grade of silver solder(56%) & then braze weld the “tinned” area with all the bronze rod you desire. Build-up is easier and a whole lot cheaper & strong.
use old windows to make cold frames. I used old wood (left over project wood) for raised beds, old CDs & DVDs can be hung in trees or around the garden to deter birds, the old outside light fixtuers that hang from the old conduit pipe will be cleaned up , painted and used in the kitchen for lighting. the list goes on everything I find I look at carefully to see if there is a way to “repurpose” it
Keep an old microwave around to use as a Faraday cage. I hear that the old, clunky ones are best.
Do you have to cut the cord off of the old microwave oven to use as a Faraday Cage?
When using Round Up to kill tree shoots, thistles, etc use a rubber glove (double back a cuff, plus a cotton glove and pour roundup into cotton glove to soak and squeeze it (as if milking upwards) onto shoot or cut back thistle to kill the plants.
When you purchase salad greens in the plastic containers, insert a Stainless Steel utensil in the container and place in the refrigerator. (My wife uses a large fork or pie server.) This utensil will extend the life of the greens about twice as long as normal. Must be STAINLESS STEEL.
time for a little humor” i’m not saying i’m computer illititerate or anythn like that, But it took me about 6months to learn how to put the little circle around the little a,
i think i need a new computer, my screen is so covered w/white out i can hardly read these re-purpose ideas,
Just how did you do that?
How do you use the water compass
I too would like to know how the ‘water compass’ works. There are no instructions that I have been able to find anywhere.
OK there are lots of ways, but this is really easy.
Take a smallish sewing pin, actually the smaller the better but you’ll need to be able to handle it. Rub it back and forth on a bar magnet The direction of the pin goes with the direction of the magnet. Pick one orientation of pin to magnet and stay with it, don’t change. Take a minute or two doing this. Then use a twist tie or paperclip shaped into a “U” to ballance the pin and lower it very gently into a vessel of water. The pin should float on the surface tension of the water. TA DA. The pin will turn into a north-south direction. Which is which? Easy. In the northern hemisphere the sun is always toward the south during the day, east in the morning and west in the evening. Have fun.
If the needle is too large to float, take small leaf that will float, place the needle on the leaf and it will turn the leaf in the water.
I am going to recycle the long shutters I removed from my house into room dividers. I am connecting them together with piano hinges.
I am also going to recycle the shelves and drawers from my old refrigerator into a rolling cart for my solar oven.
An old book case was recycle into a storage cabinet in my bathroom.
My old bathroom vanity was recycle into a kitchen island
Bread works well for brown sugar also I have found that a vacuum bag sealer saves a lot of food from becoming old, like potato chips (just don’t use the vacuum) brown sugar or powdered sugar,even cereal, cheese, marshmallows or anything you open. I always use toilet paper roll tubes to store cords on the mixer, griddle, curling iron or just extension cords and power tool cords. For bigger cords a short piece left over pvc pipe is great. I also used to use mayo jars for canning, now I use them to store grease from frying foods and throw them in the trash.
Interesting and useful
To keep grass and dirt from getting in your boots when weed whacking or working in the garden. Use the tops of old socks as gators over your boots. Cut off the bottoms of the socks, put them on and pull them up before you put your boots on and pull them down over the tops of your boots to keep debris out .of your boots.
Good ideas
Want to keep your car battery like new past the warranty? Keep the top clean by washing the top with distilled water only. This keeps the dust and dirt particles from forming a conductive path between the two posts, and draining your battery between charges when you drive your car. The “draw down” this dirty conductive path causes the battery to sulphate more quickly, and puts more strain on the battery and your alternator to recharge the battery. Use simple petroleum jelly (Vaseline) on the battery posts to keep them from corroding. Just brush the posts and clamps with the Vaseline to coat them well before connecting the battery to the car’s system. Always use distilled water around your battery, never use tap water with all the dissolved impurities that will ruin the battery. Even “maintenance free” batteries have hidden caps that can be uncovered to let you fill the cell with distilled water to keep them from drying out and sulphating. These days, car batteries are very expensive, $100 or much more. A few minutes of maintenance each month will make that battery last much longer, and save you money over time. Not much effort, big savings.
DUSTING THE TERMINALS WITH BAKING SODA PREVENTS CORROSION FROM BATTERY ACID FUMES
I will be looking forward to this series of blog posts, because I love re-purposing.
I have heard that brown sugar can be also kept soft with an apple slice or two. Personally, I don’t buy brown sugar. If you read the package, brown sugar is made of white sugar and molasses, so I just buy white sugar and molasses separately, and combine them when a recipe calls for brown sugar. I don’t buy Tic-Tacs either, but I will use empty prescription bottles from friends or family members to store small non-food items, as well as empty spice bottles.
Some years ago, a couple of commercial brands of tomato sauce, mayonnaise, and other items were packaged in glass jars that fit standard home canning lids. By saving them, I was able to get quite a collection of canning jars for free. Now it is rare to find those, but I still look twice at my empty food containers before tossing them to see if they can be reused for something. Plastic containers with lids, such as those from yogurt, margarine, Cool-Whip, etc. are great for freezing leftovers.
For anyone who buys bottled water in those little one-serving bottles, consider buying it in gallon jugs, or better yet, filtering your own water, and refilling small, empty juice bottles, which are generally sturdier that water bottles anyway.
Debbie,
Please be careful using other jars for canning. Those jars are not meant for multiple use, like standard canning jars are. Eventually, they will thin out and break. Too much work put in to canning to have that happen. Instead, I do the reverse. I re-purpose my canning jars. A lot of lids will fit them, and they are excellent to freeze in. My household uses them for everything, from drinking glasses with lids (drill hole for your straw…keeps flies and bugs out when outside) ,to storing dried goods (got just a smidge left of cereal or rice?) to collecting coins, screws and nails,(we don’t reuse them afterwards) to temporary housing lightning bugs. I make my own ketchup, mayo and bbq sauce, so have no need of buying plastic or glass jars. Canning jars aren’t very expensive, and can often be found at yard sales. Just make sure they have the name “Ball” or “Kerr” or….what was that other name? …to make sure they are safe for boiling and freezing in. Hate to see you loose your produce after all that work.
One tip , only freeze food in WIDE MOUTH canning jars or the regular jars will break and ruin your frozen food. Take this tip from one with experience who lost a bunch of bone broth that I spent 3 days making..:))
I use large/tall prescription bottles to make mini survival kits for the kids to take camping or carry in the car for emergencies. I put aluminum foil, twist ties, rubber bands, Bic lighters, fish hooks with fishing line and snap-on floats, safety pins, ponytail holders, etc. You could make one a mini first-aid kit too.
Also the empty spice bottles with the shaker tops work great for glitter used on crafts
Instead of throwing away the bread ties, you can use them to wrap up unused extension cords, computer cables, game controllers, etc…
Take the tabs from hot dog and hamburg bun bags and use them as labels. You can write on them, they are great for labeling computer wires and all those wires behind the tv, vcr, dvd, stereos, etc.
Also, when your key ring gives you a hard time when you try to put a key on or off. Use a staple remover the even out the battle, you’ll win every time. Just make sure you don’t pinch yourself cause that really hurts.
Hint to make hard, stale cookies soft again:
Place a half slice of bread (or whole slice) in plastic bag containing cookies. Seal tightly.
I like to pile dried cookies in a cannister and place a quartedred apple between them, this makes the cookies taste soft and fresh after a couple of days.