I love to reuse thing much to my husbands dismay, particularly when I say "don't throw this out". I know this probably makes his insides twist, but I know I will use it. He will admit too that something that he thinks will never amount to anything someday takes center stage. I eat that up by the way. I love when he shakes his head and says you managed to turn garbage into something desirable. LOVE THAT! I want to point out here that you do not need to call the people from Hoarders, I am neither living under trash nor do I advocate for it. I am selective, with my garbage. Particularly if I have a project in mind for a long period of time. For instance I once saw an article on how to make reusable grocery bags out of plastic grocery bags. You would do this by ironing multiple grocery bags together between sheets of parchment (so not to burn your iron). Then you sew the pieces together, fun cute but it gave me a better idea. I began collecting the bags inside the cereal boxes. Boy was my husband annoyed, but my idea was similar fuse two sheets of this together and get the perfect material to build a cold frame. Now I have created something I want out of something I have all the while saving something form the landfill. There is nothing more satisfying than using up something you have. I separate my paper from my garbage to not only recycle but also too keep it clean in the event that I need it before the garbage comes.
I sometimes even will change cloths into cloths for dolls or pillows or covering a lamp shade.
I have used cereal boxes to make halloween costumes and Sheets to make curtains.
The way I reuse the most efficiently is I consider what I need and look around for what I have. If I figure that I will obtain the material I need I simply wait until it finds it's way in the house. And I always consider making things before I buy them. For instance, what ever happened to shrinky dinks? these things were so much fun but they rarely sell them and if you try to buy them they are high priced now. They are fun for kids and make cool crafts, you can even use them as a part of other things for example a flower pot pin cushion. Cute to make the flower part that you would stick the pins through. Why do I mention these crafts in reuse, well shrinking paper is actually plastic #6 you simply look inside the recycle triangle for that number and there you go. Get out those colored pencils and markers and get ready for the magic. Here is where I get selective and hubby rolls his eyes, the conversation goes Gina: "but honey, its plastic number 6". Husband: " Gina, its trash". Gina- "Believe me, I need it". Husband {eyes roll, head shakes}. Two months later Kids: "Daddy look what we made!!!".
