Reusing and Repurposing

The mama is a professional reuser and repurposer, and she doesn't even know it.  See the photo of different types of containers. I picked all those things up from behind her seat at the kitchen table the other day so I could mop the floor. That box is not empty. It's loaded with empty peanut butter jars. I'm sure I could find at least a dozen boxes full of empty jars stashed in the garage and the tool shed. Maybe one of these days, I'll take some of the boxes down to the recycling center.

For as long as I can remember, the mama has saved jars, worn out clothing, boxes, paper bags, bread ties, containers and trays that food come on, tree branches, wood, linoleum tiles, and so on and so forth. She turns them all into functional things such as dust rags, garbage bags, seed containers, and plant saucers. The mama has a lot of soft kitchen towels that she made out of rice bags when rice was sold in white cotton sacks. As for tree branches, she keeps the sturdy tall ones that she prunes so that she can use them to hold up branches full of apricots, in the summer, and persimmons, in the fall.

Over the years, I've become like the mama.  My cache of stuff is full of fabric, old clothing, buttons, jewelry, yarn, and such that I want to one day turn into purses, bags, jewelry, curtains, and other fun, but useful, things.

How do you reuse or repurpose things? Need some ideas? Here are a few sites to check out:

• Creative Reuse Ideas for Everyday Household Items
• Frugal Life Recycle/Reuse Topics
• Gaiam Life: 50 Ways to Reuse Your Yoga or Fitness Mat
• Greenwala: What Can I Turn This Into? A Recycling and Crafting Idea Center
• EcoCheckOut.com