What have you recycled today?

[flinnie]

plastic shoping bags to line my trash cans,soda cans,food triming put into coupost pile.

[Amorphous02]

There you go Flinnie! I new that there was a way to reduce the expenditure of trash disposal!!
Two birds with one "bag":
*no trash bags to buy and
*we are recycling.

[Pollyanna]

Thank you for the good wishes, Amorphous! No, I'm not on a coupon train; I rarely use them; but thank you for asking. I caught store brand butter on sale for $2/lb and bought 40#, so I am set for butter for the year. I'm not sure how to post photos here yet - I spend all my available time reading the posts. I'm enjoying the thriftyfun.com site, but am still feeling my way around there.

GoodBuyGirl, I'm up for any project that you have to eat a candy bar to start!

Today, my sock drawer got cleaned out. Did you know that you can cut socks into strips about an inch wide and when you stretch them, they look a lot like the loops little kids use to make potholders? Wonder where my daughter's old loom went...

If you cut pantyhose into the same type of loops, they are great for tying up tomato plants.

I recycled my old, raggedy, stained dishcloths into pads for the Swiffer I resued from an apartment that someone moved out of. They are the type of dishcloth that has netting on one side for scrubbing. I folded it in half with the net side out, then stitched the open sides shut. Works great for scrubbing the floors! I keep them, and other rags in a small trashcan that is fastened to the inside of my kitchen sink cabinet door - handy to grab to clean up spills!

My daughter asked me to pick her up a couple of packages of dark green dye for a project her cheerleaders were doing (tie-dying shorts). They only used one package, so I used the other package to dye a stack of worn out white tee shirts. I keep a couple of the shirts in a bag in the car, and one in my tote bag, so that when I am stuck waiting somewhere, I can spend the time cutting them into strips and winding them into balls. When I get enough cut, I will crochet them into throw rugs for my kitchen and downstairs bath, where the color will match the decor. These have a rough surface to catch dirt, and they can just be tossed in the washer to clean.

This isn't something that I recycled today, but many years back, when I was terribly poor, when cold weather hit, my daughter had outgrown most of her last year's winter clothes. I had $5 I could spend, so I took it to the Sr. Citizens thrift shop bag sale where I purchased a pair of ladies large size black corduroy pants, a pair of ladies large size blue corduroy pants, a mans large size red flannel shirt, a red sweatshirt in her size with a stain on the front, a white turtle neck shirt in her size, and a ladies blue and black paisley print blouse. I was able to sew her several outfits: black slacks, blue slacks, blue skirt, red plaid jumper with black bodice, red plaid vest, paisley vest, appliqued a black corduroy scotty dog with a red plaid bow over the stain on the red sweatshirt, and several scrunchies and hairbows. I was able to recycle the elastic from the pants into her outfits, and had thread and other notions on hand. I used patterns that my Mama had used to make me outfits, modifying them a bit for fashions sake. When you put your mind to it, there are all sorts of things you can do!

[GoodBuyGirl]

I wish I had better sewing skills. About all I can do is curtains and pillow cases and easy stuff. When it comes to sewing clothes I'm lost.

[Amorphous02]

At least you are doing that Goodbuy. I know so much and I havent done anything lately.
It hurts to know that i can be more productive..

[getforfree]

I recycled grocery bags as trush bags like always, then I washed sourcream container and will use as a bowl for my kitty.

[buddy72192]

my paper

[mom-from-missouri]

Washed out baggies (yes, I have done this for years and can say I do 5-7 lunches a day & only use about 1-2 boxes of baggies per school year!), saved and washed out the big foil roasters & some heavy duty foil--the foil we reuse when my husband smokes/BBQ meat (which is often 1-3 times a week). Cleaned out a closet and found 2 sweaters my girls have outgrown that are too stained to pass on. I threw them into the sewing basket to cut into mittens or make into winter scarves or slippers. I also save the plastic & paper grocery bags. I reuse them for trash bags, or if I get to many I give some to the food or clothes pantry as they are usually hurting for them. I also have a bag of socks without mates that I am going to take into school one day next week for my kids to make sock puppets out of. (I do the after school care program for 2 hours every afternoon). I have now learned some thrifty lessons to avoid some recycling---I now buy all socks and gloves for the kids the same, so its no big deal if a mate gets lost. I also try to reuse containers for school lunches so I don't have to buy the baggies and such. I also recycled some old washclothes today into swifter pads. They are so thin, that I stitched 2 of them together so there would be no holes.
And lastly, today I recycled my dryer lint!! I save it in a container on top of my dryer to use when I start a fire in the fireplace. It works better than newspaper, is free, and doesn't coat the chiminey the way they say newspaper does over time. (During the summer, my lint goes into the compost pile-after all, its your organic fabrics that make lint, not your synthetic ones)

[PRICEPLUS]

A Paper Mate Pen that has been in my desk for years. I was going to toss it but instead went to Staples and got refills. It is a rather handsome, if old, pen! Not really recycling per se unless you count the fact it did not end up in the dump!

[Amorphous02]

I am thiking of getting my neighbors to plant something in her yard. we dont have much of a yard. We can reuse kitty litter pails. Any thoughts on how they can be used to plant tomatoes?

[LuxLiving]

Yesterday's coffee reheated in the microwave.

[Amorphous02]

the best one!
I buy Carnation coffee creamers to jumpstart stale cofee, Luxliving!

[PrincessPerky]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

(During the summer, my lint goes into the compost pile-after all, its your organic fabrics that make lint, not your synthetic ones)

huh cool, I didn't know that.

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

During the summer, my lint goes into the compost pile-after all, its your organic fabrics that make lint, not your synthetic ones

while it's true that only 'natural' fabrics are likely to lint, the chances that the dye in the fabirc, your detergent, and your dryer sheets are also organic are probably pretty slim.