Reusing Things: 100 Ideas of How to Reuse Commonly Thrown Away Items

Image Gallery Before you throw away those used cans, or anything else for that matter, check to see if you can reuse it somehow.  This article gives 100 tips on how to reuse commonly thrown away goods. PHOTO: FOTOLIA/ITESTRO

Back in the 50's, a gal named Joan Ranson Shortney wrote a book, How to Live on Nothing, that sums up more of what eventually became MOTHER's use-it-up-wear-it-out-make-it-do-or-do-without philosophy than anything else I've ever seen. Needless to say, I was one of the first purchasers of that book and I used my copy as a reference for years before founding MOTHER. Here's a live-better-for-less selection from Joan's book.—JS. 

How incredibly wealthy our country is, even in times of economic recession and depression! Every day mountains of paper and wood are burned as waste. The countryside is littered with enough tin cans to circle the globe—tons of metal going to waste while they destroy the scenery's beauty.

In his admirably written Yankee Hobo in the Orient (originally published by Doubleday under the title Why Japan Was Strong; in revised edition, republished by the author, Frying Pan Creek, Florence, Oregon) John Patric tells of the Oriental use of what to us are waste materials. It will make all budgeteers feel rich to read Mr. Patric's account of how a cotton coat was sold over and over in its evolution from rough new coat to second-hand coat to shabby coat to padding rags for another shabby coat to patches for a junk sail to padding for quilting and finally to postage-stamp-size pieces of rotten cloth that made the basis of a hat.

Thus, when you use something ordinarily thrown away you can be extra proud — proud that you've avoided spending money you cannot spare and proud that you've done the national economy a service by reusing things and cutting down on our national vice — waste.

Below you will find a list of everyday objects that are usually discarded and some uses to which they can be put, either to make useful objects or to make life a bit easier. If you can add your own inventions in saving and using to this fist, award yourself a medal for Chief Saver in the League of Anti-Waste.

One Hundred Ways to Reuse

1. BABYS GATE or outgrown fold up playpen for garden trellis.

2. BAGS. Paper sacks have many uses besides their conventional ones. Fasten one on the back of your front automobile seat so that you can use it as a wastepaper basket and the children won't be tempted to be litterbugs. Fasten another to the side of a mattress if someone is sick in bed with a cold, etc., so that cleansing tissues can be thrown in and discarded without scattering germs. Use an extra-large paper bag to shake your cloth vacuum-cleaner bag into for easy, quick cleaning. After you've rolled a rug and covered it with paper, cover each end with a heavy paper bag to keep out the dust.

3. BLACKBOARD CHALK. Leftover ends of chalk will give metals a shine when rubbed on. Also, store these ends with costume jewelry to keep it from tarnishing.

4. BLACKBOARD CHALK to mend nail holes in plaster walls. Simply drive the piece into the hole and cut off flush with the wall.