Frugal Living - Creative Uses for Household Items

What Can You Do With...

By Alison Proteau

I am an admitted packrat. I am not sure it's possible to be attempting a more frugal lifestyle without picking up some stuff along the way. Part of living more frugally is trying to make do with what you have in hand rather than running out to purchase items. Sometimes it takes some imagination and, sure, it takes a couple of extra seconds to decide between trashing something or reusing it creatively but, on the whole, making that effort is usually worthwhile.

Milk cartons are my current "must save" item as I am attempting to make enough building blocks for my son to build a little fort in the living room this winter. You rinse them out and air dry them and then slip one carton inside another to create this marvelous little toy. Blocks are a developmental must have as the parent of young children, and since you bought the milk anyway, you may as well get something else out of it too, right? Milk cartons are not just blocks waiting to happen. Perish the thought! Look at that carton and think...maybe squint a bit..Now what do you see that carton becoming? I see seed starting flats. Rather than buying the plastic cell packs or any other gimmicky little tool from the garden center, I cut a milk carton lengthwise to create a shallow rectangular flat. A few small holes punched along the sides, about a centimeter from the bottom, will provide adequate drainage for your seedling's comfort. Another use for the cartons is as a transplant pot. Cut the top off a carton as far down as you see fit and use the remainder as a pot for larger transplants that the garden isn't ready for yet. I do this almost every year with tomato plants. Provide drainage holes about a centimeter from the bottom so that your excess water will drain out ,but leave your potting soil in the container unlike holes punched in the very bottom of a container. When finished with your blocks or planting containers, your milk cartons can go into the recycling.

What about uses for other items in your home? Old pantyhose can become deer repellent sachets for your fruit trees, a soap holder hanging out by the hose in summer for quick cleanups, even a jelly bag. Soap scraps from your soapdishes by the sink and in the shower can find new life. Try using them as homemade liquid handsoap, or put a scrap in a jar of warm water with a facecloth for car trips instead of wasting wipes cleaning up sticky hands and faces. Toilet paper and paper towel tubes can become craft materials (what CAN'T become craft materials??) or extension cord organizers , fire starter logs for the woodstove, even napkin ring bases.

Today the frost on the inside of my windshield was horrendous. I ran the car for quite a while to warm it up since it was a very chilly day and still the frost would not clear completely. Muttering curses I waited until there was enough windshield cleared for me to see well enough to drive. Since I had to stop for bread and milk at the store on my way home I vowed I would get one of those little windshield scrapers and of course, being me , I forgot. Thank goodness I did because hours later it dawned on me that I could have used any one of the cards in my wallet (hospital card, credit cards, bank cards etc) as a makeshift scraper and it wouldn't have cost me a cent! That's using what you have, provided your memory is better than mine.

How many times have you said that you need to get a pet carrier to take Fluffy to the vet in your car ? In the book The Tightwad Gazette II, there is a tip to use 2 laundry baskets, one atop the other, to serve as a makeshift pet carrier. Duct tape, string, or twist ties hold the baskets together and confine your small pet quite well for any car trip.

Creatively reusing stuff around the house may not come easily to the newly frugal. Nothing really does come easily right away when you are trying to change your outlook on any lifestyle, but its not an impossibility if you are willing to try. Don't give up! There are a lot of resources out there to help out the novice and the expert. I highly recommend all of the Tightwad Gazette anthologies. There is an entire section in Practical Problem Solving , by Readers Digest, devoted to the creative use of everyday materials . Check these titles and others at the local library and make the move toward a more creatively frugal lifestyle today.