Ways to Recycle Household Items

Earth Day is Sunday. I decided it would be kind of cool to make a list of things you have around your house that you can recycle and offer some ideas on what you can do with them.  

Glass bottles – spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce jars are great for holding art supplies or making gifts. Embellish the tops and it makes it look fun and special.

Newspaper – make hats, modge podge and wrap presents.

Yogurt containers – Planting Seeds with Kids, use for dipping sauces and painting. 

Toilet paper rolls – Little People, binoculars, musical instruments and planters.

Paper towel rolls – musical instruments, kaleidoscopes and rocket ship.

Baby food containers - good for storage of nails, push pins, stickers, beads and other little things.

Formula cans – pencil holders, cookie containers for gifts, banks, storage and drums.

Milk and Water jugs – candleholders for Halloween, bird houses and robots.

2 Liter Bottles – bowling pins and science experiments.

Cans – pencil holders, storage, candleholder and luminaries.

Cereal boxes – book holders and folders. 

 T-shirts – scarves, purses and bracelets.

Spray bottles – tie-dye art, water fun and painting.

Magazines – Silly faces, collages, art work, educational crafts for kids to discover animals, letters, numbers, shapes, body parts and food.

Chip cans – Bank for kids and good for spaghetti noodle storage.  

You can also recycle clothing, toys, books, video games and electronics. There are places online and around neighborhoods that make swapping and trading fun and easy. Plus you might be able to make a little money too.

Here are some websites I’ve used to make trades and get new things for my family. This is a great way to get new items for free or cheap.

Listia – Is an online auction site that allows you to put things up for auction and people use credits to bid on it. Sometimes you can get free shipping on items and other times there is a shipping fee. There is everything available electronics, books, video games, toys and tons of other things. It’s free and you get 500 credits when you first sign up. 

Swap – An online swapping place that you can find video games, books, movies, clothing, gift cards and other things. You list what you have available and than someone else offers you a trade or barters. Make trades online or meet up with people around your area. Free to sign up and check out. 

ThredUp – A great place for parents to get clothing their children. Request a bag and fill it up with your gently used clothes and receive credit to get a bag of clothing too. 

Freecycle and Craigslist are also good places to look for items that people no longer want. Sometimes they are free or just cost a small fee. The great thing about this site it’s all local to your area.   

Check your local neighborhood for Game Stop, Half-PricedBooks or Vintage Stock. These places offer new and used items and buy your used items.