Recycled Goods

 One of the ways I like to save money is by finding new purposes for old objects or "junk" we would normally throw away. I am certainly not claiming all of these ideas as my own but I want to share with you some of the ways I have repurposed containers and such in our home and I hope you'll share some of your ideas too!

This one is pretty obvious but I always save glass jars, bottles, etc. All the different sizes can make beautiful vases to put around your house or to give as a gift :) I especially love the fun shapes the olive oils and different types of vinegars come in. A good friend of mine keeps me well stocked with dried hydrangeas and I love these simple bottles in my window. It makes washing dishes so much more fun when I get to look up and see these:

I also save all of the canisters from baking powder, bread crumbs, instant breakfast mix and so on. I covered mine in leftover fabric but you could use scrapbook paper and some Mod Podge.

I love this fabric and I use this one to hold all my pens and pencils on my desk.

And you can also use them for bookends...that secretly hide clutter like mine do!

I also use glass jars for gifts and for little knick knacks like these buttons. Baby food jars are also the perfect size for votive holders. I love those little jars! If you want to cover the lid, Design Sponge has a great tutorial here. My example didn't turn out so well because I used the thick paper that my delicious Tazo tea bags come in but thinner paper is a lot easier to work with! 

So those are my "cute" projects and here is to the more practical: 

I save these canisters and put plastic bags in them to keep them a little more organized under the kitchen sink, in the bathrooms, etc. The small crystal light containers are nice because you can pull the labels off. I put the small, clear produce bags from Walmart in these and keep them in the bathroom cabinet to quickly change out the trashcan liners. We also keep a canister in each of the cars - with a toddler, we've learned to be more prepared for the unexpected!

I've also been saving the metal disks from our frozen orange juice concentrate so that I can make this fun memory game for Ellie that I found on Smashed Peas and Carrots. I think we still need to drink 7 more pitchers of orange juice before I have enough game pieces :) I'm also starting to save the caps off our plastic milk jugs to use for this books of the Bible game I found on Blessings for Bible School Teachers' blog. I was thinking I could also put alphabet letters on them and help Ellie put them in order. Now I'm not quite sure what to do with all these clear plastic cups I've been saving from our Crystal Light containers. I'm sure there is some fun project Ellie and I could do but for now I'm just saving them. They would be great for putting different color paints in but besides that, I don't have any other ideas. What do you think? 

Linking up with: