How to reuse things you might have hanging around the house

We all know that we should be reducing, reusing and recycling a lot of the items in our lives, but what about re-purposing?Star of the YouTube channel Clean My Space, Melissa Maker, has some of her smart solutions on how upcycling can help us de-clutter and live a more eco-friendly life.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

You can really use any sort of odd and ends around your home and repurpose them!It’s important to think about how we use objects. When you’re at the store making those initial purchases, ask yourself if there something that you can use at home and repurpose. You don’t need to spend extra money if you don’t have to – learn how to upcycle what you already have at home!The only the downside to this is that it can become easy to hold on to things that you will never actually need. Be mindful and purposeful and don’t keep every single thing to hang on to: that only creates more clutter. What you want to do here is upcycle and declutter. For example, instead of keeping every single perfume bottle you own, keep 2- 3 to upcycle and then recycle the rest.Here’s some great multi-use items:

• Perfume bottles can be used as vases or reed diffuser bottles
• Bobby pins can be used as bookmarks
• A piece of spaghetti can be used as a match to light candles, and they’re especially handy for lighting a candle in a deep holder.
• Old tissue box can be used as plastic bag dispenser

ICE CUBE TRAY

Ice cube trays (or similar items like muffin tins) have so many uses we don’t normally think of. For example, you can use them to display dessert toppings like ice cream embellishments, such as sprinkles, cherries, and chopped nuts. The same idea works at a BBQ, where you can use them to hold condiments or toppings.Ice cube trays are also super useful for organization for people with kids. They can be used for paints for little kids during craft time, and silicone ice cube trays can be used as snack trays or plates. You can even create your own multicolored crayons for kids by melting down some of their broken crayons. Put them into the trays and then once they cool you can pop them out and they’re a great size and easy to use!There’s no rules for what type of ice cube tray to use. Silicone ones work best for kids, and ones in fun shapes and colours that look cute are also appealing to kids!

GLASSES AND MINT CONTAINERS

If you’ve collected a few old glasses cases over the years, they can be great for storing stuff on the go, like your phone charger and earbuds when travelling. They’re also a good for storing staple make up items.If you don’t have glasses cases at home, another great option is mint tin boxes! An Altoids tin can be used as crayon box for travel or toddler backpack, or for keeping stickers organized for kids.Either of these cases are also great options for keeping smaller pieces of jewellery, like earrings, safe when you’re travelling.

WINE BOXES

If you have a surplus of old wine bottle boxes left around your house from entertaining during the holidays, there’s a couple of hacks you can do to give them new life. For example, you can turn an old wine box into off-season shoe storage. Use rice and baking soda sachet to keep them dry and odour free during the off season. An old wine box is also a great gift wrap organizer, stand up the rolls on end so you always know what you have to choose from.Wine crates can also be used for storing their original cargo – wine bottles. Simply turn them on their side, slip the wine bottles in, and you have a do-it-yourself wine rack![video_embed id= '6109289990001']MORE MELISSA MAKER: DIY hacks to make your house smell amazing[/video_embed]

WINE CORKS

Now that you have all these wine bottles, the corks can also be used in all sorts of new ways. An especially handy use is to stop scratches from happening. Slice wine corks into disks and glue them to the bottoms of furniture or heavy pottery to protect delicate floors. You won’t have to buy floor protector stickers ever again!

PILLOWCASE

Ever in need of a garment bag, but don’t have one? You can repurpose an old pillowcase! They‘re a great way to protect party dresses: all you have to do is slit a hole in the top of a pillowcase and slide it over a hanger for a durable slipcover. This is great for protection against a piece of clothing that’s really delicate, or with sequins that could rub up against your other clothes and make pulls.Another way to utilize your old cases is to help make your lettuce last longer. After shaking off excess water from just-washed greens, place them in a clean cotton pillowcase. Pat dry and put the whole thing (both the lettuce and the pillowcase) in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. The moist cotton will keep the lettuce fresh longer than a plastic bag alone!

DENTAL FLOSS

If you’re looking for other ways to use your dental floss, it’s actually a great tool to use for cutting soft food items if you’re in a pinch. This is especially true for foods like cake or soft cheeses.[video_embed id= '6129207461001']BEFORE YOU GO: Jason Momoa had the best Super Bowl commercial in 2020[/video_embed]