our family uses soy milk. one of the brands, 8th Continent, comes in square white plastic containers.. i was thinking about making luminarys for the sidewalk. but then thought about using them as extra planters, as it seems i am always running out. i also have MANY baby food containers saved. my family keeps trying to throw them away. but i get em back out and start some new plants in them. DOES ANYONE ELSE DO THE SAME??? REUSE CONTAINERS?? ANY OTHER IDEAS???

I recycle all I can too, dayseafefe!

For about 10 years our family has provided the local elementary school art teacher with any "interesting" recyclables we come across... as long as the item is clean and nontoxic she will use it in a project. If she doesn't use them in the art project itself, it gets used as supplies - washed detergent lids and yogurt cups become paint pots, that type of thing.

If I can recycle it at the recycling center (1's and 2's in plastic), I do it so she's not overwhelmed, but if not I send it to school for their projects.

Our soy milk (Silk) is in the waxy cardboard containers and I've just started saving those for planters (fall seed swap dramatically increased my need for starter pots).

I really like the idea of the plastic ones for luminaries.... I tried milk jugs to string Christmas lights through along my sidewalk one year but mine ended up looking really bad to be honest (I've seen some that looked nice, I just threw mine together and it showed).

I guess bottom line my idea is to find out if your local elementary art teacher is into recycled art... with budget cuts, it's kind of the "in" thing right now.

Good thread!

Hey dayseafefe welcome to the forum!!!

I am probable the worlds worse at keeping things to recycle. If I can figure out a use its going to the back porch or shed, I save things like peaches cans they work well to scoop potting soil, dog food, cat food, make shift planter...the possibilities are endless. I save almost all glass containers. I save those plastic..not Styrofoam meat containers and clean/sterilize them for seed starting flats, any pie tin that would normally go in the trash, I save...they work well to sort & clean seeds in and many more other things, even the small tins that a personal size pie comes in those work well as drain pans for small potted plants. Plastic butter tubs & cool whip tubs can both be used as water catchers for potted plants, seeds can be started in them, plus they can be used for storing items in, since they have lids. Ok..can you imagine what my back porch and sheds look like and there is tons more stuff I save for recycling?????

thanks everyone! new ideas!! this weekend my friend and i held a sleepover for about 13 young girls ages 12, to 15 mo..... crazy i know... i had to come home and take a nap!!!!!we made many projects together, some used up my stash of recycleables. i had planned on making soda bottle terrariums with them , but by then they were getting a little crazy themselves. so on Sunday i invited my 8yr old niece over to make them. but instead of soda bottles we used, 1 glass vase, 1 unused sugar jar, 2 old glass milk jugs[1ltr], 1 wine bottle, 1strange glass candleholder with a stand, 1big plastic ice tea pitcher.. i still have plants left, but ran out of rocks and charcoal, so next weekend [thanksgiving holiday] when they have a long weekend we will make more.. i still have a lot of recycleables to use..

Look at wintersown.org-one of the great ways to recycle containers for a gardener.I keep the big pots from trees and spray paint them terracotta,I've got a dollar type store here where I can get the paint for a 1.00 a can.I use laundry baskets as planters,just line them with the moss that grows on the trees here.I have to buy a yard+ of soilless compost every spring for all my big containers.

Comfreyyyyyyy, I KNEW THERE WAS A REASON I REALLY LIKED YOU.....

I use alot of stuff like that.
We get pudding cups or fruit cups from my families' lunches, and I use those for scoops, and seed holders and seed holders to feed the hamsters, and watering seedlings...

I save the hard plastic container from Smoked Porkchop containers.. *one's I can put in the dishwasher and they don't melt* and I use those for water trays under my seedlings in the greenhouse.. **I also only use the styro's from assorted veggies, like 5 cucumbers on the plate w/saran wrap..I use them for the same as above**

I save my Jam/Jelly jars and clean them up for my husbands' workshop.. he has un~finished walls
in there and takes the cross boards, and nails the lids to the exposed wood pieces' and then fills the jars with assorted nuts and bolts..
When he needs something that's in the jars, he just walks over to that wall, and unscrews the jar from the nailed lid, the lid stays and he can use it one handed...

And one lady on my mom's Meals~on~Wheels route saves here all of the containers they deliver, she washes them all up good and I use them for sorting and storing and all neat things..

I even use the paper boxes my sandwich bags come in, for seperating my seeds...
(which I would put out for paper recycling)
*cut the top a bit wider for using the entire base of the box, works nice and it's all uniform.

I save old cd's or one's that come in the mail to sign up for aol or something like that.. and hang them in the garden for light reflectors..

We shop at those large warehouse type stores, and come home with a type of box, that will have saran wrap over it.. like buying chips for lunches in bulk, or some juice boxes for kids lunch.. I save those boxes, with the saran wrapper on it, for take home boxes when friends come here and I share plants.. works GREAT.. cause if the dirt is muddy or just alot of dirt or moisture.. they can plop the wad of dirt and plants into the box.. it holds it all, but the saran wrapping is on the outside, so you can even water the plants if you wanted to for the ride home and won't mess up your car..

I save paper egg cartons for starting plants...

I save all cardboard boxes for starting the lasgna method for a new bed.. *and newspaper too*

And I love to save the ketch~up bottles and syrup bottles for the kids squirt bottles...
They're great, wash'em up, and fill a great big tub up with water, and they can have mom at the water tub, filling all the jugs up, while they squirt of them..

I save my clear large juice jugs, like Juicy Juice, and cut the very bottom off, and use the entire top as a greenhouse like on seeds that I plant in the garden.. those work wonderfully!!!

Well Weezie I am not sure how you missed this, but glad you found it.

A few days ago I emptied one of those chocolate covered cherries boxes and was looking at the plastic candy container... Hey I'm saving this, It could be used for starting seeds in and then thrown away, since it wouldn't hold up for more then one use. Those little applesauce,fruit & pudding cups are great for starting cuttings in and I also use them to water small plants with. I am even saving the plastic lids off my liquid laundry detergent and DH drills a few little drainage holes, they make great starter pots. I have a couple of friends that save certain kinds of containers for me also... As if I didn't save enough on my own Nothing goes into the trash if is usable for something else. If I died and someone came to clean out my house they would have to have several big dumpsters brought in just to get rid of all the stuff.

My husband's looks at me are....


I save the containers that cherry tomatoes
come in in the grocery stores..
(I keep them to pick cherry tomatoes when harvesting and delivering to neighbors..)
and I keep those green strawberry containers too for picking smaller veggies..

And I save paper towel or toilet paper rolls..
for my hamsters.. they love crawlin' thru them, and using them as escape tunnels.. and for a good chewin'..
but you can use them for baby seedlings and the cut worm.. slice up one side and cut off in small incraments.. and the cut worms can't get to the stem..
or you can keep cord rolled up in them and keeps them contained...

And you can take the old Clorox bottles.. and cut them in half or whichever length you want..
and use as scoops.. like for feeding animals scoops of corn or feed..

[QUOTE]Originally posted by weezie13:
[QB] My husband's looks at me are....


Those are the exact same looks that my mom gives me. She also add: "you already have too much junk in your room"

Kenny,
Mine too..
He's like, I'm not getting you anything
more for the garden, when you can't take care of the stuff in the house..
**I'm like, what fun is there in laundry and dishes???? **

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="3" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by weezie13:
**I'm like, what fun is there in laundry and dishes???? Whats a person to do throw all this "Stuff" away???? Tonight a friend ask if I had any use for some of the egg carton flat like cartons that hold 2 dozen eggs and is cardboard....I said yes bring them to me...There were 6 of these...Perfect seed starting containers and biodegradable

that wintersown site was cool thanks reba!
i have boxes full of pop bottles i reuse for starting seeds in

I have tons of pots on the front porch, anyone wanting to throw pots away around here always offers them to me, I can't throw them away, I might need it one day! I also use old pickle buckets & any other bucket I can find and old milk crates to plant veges in the Spring. I borrow the hubby's drill & put drain holes in the bottom, & they work a lot better than any pot from the store.

I have tons of flower pots and containers also, Same here, everyone always gives them to me or I will buy a whole box full at a yard sale for 50 cents or less. Only problem is when I want to plant something finding the right sized pot is a pain since mine are scattered around in 2 different sheds and the back porch and other places. It was suppose to be one of my winter projects..to round up all the pots and sort them out put them all in one place to make it easier to find the right size, but hasn't happened yet.

You could put them all on the front porch like I did! Will styrofoam cartons work if I poke little holes in the bottom? (I buy eggs from a farmer here & have tons of styrofoam egg cartons.)

I use all my Yogurt cups for transplanting plants when I take them out of the starter bed.

All clear plastic covers are mini green houses outside for my winter sow projects........
Popsicles sticks are used for markers in the seed beds........
Those free cds you get in the mail are excellent markers in the beds outside.......majic markers write real well on them......And in the sun, they have a nice shiny colorful look.

dodge

I use those cd's to hang by either fishing line
or something, and let them fly in the wind as suncatchers' that chase the birds away...

I start a lot of mine in the plastic ones, so I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work as well.

I use those mini side salad boxes with the clear lid from Wendy's and McDonalds to make my green houses for seed starting!

I use them for a wee~bit of water under
my seeds, when I need to keep water/moisture on the seed for the first couple of days to germinate..

hi all!! guess i am not the only saver. Recently a good friend came over and saw all of my containers in my laundry room. She just looked at me and said " you need to recycle these" lol...She offered her recylce bin.. they live in a city that has curbside pickup for this.. I do not .. But then i showed her that i already recycle, my way.. Then i gave her a plant to take home in one of the re used containers..

Yeah, this is one of the coolest topics I've seen yet! Thanks to everyone for such great ideas! I've tried to use as much as I can over too, but I totally missed the bus on some of the above mentioned.

I just picked up some of those drinkable
yogart jugs for kids *Dannon, I think it is*
and they are the sweetest little jugs..

and you can use those for flowers/vases....

Also, if you go to McDonalds' and get the Kids' Meals, they can come with chocolate milk if you ask for it instead of the pop...

Those jugs are so neat too...

We used them for a Cubscout project one time,
and took masking tape and just randonly ripped
pieces from the roll... covered the entire jug..
Then took brown shoe polish on a rag and ran it
acrossed the jug.. and some of the shoe polish
stays on/in the ends of the masking tape and
then there's a light covering of the brown color on the tape's top and it ends up looking like a really neat textured vase...

What fantastic ideas in here!!!

I'm well known for not throwing things away. (I might find a use for "that" some day!)... & my porch, garage, deck & garden shed proves it! I went on a ruthless cleaning binge a couple years ago & threw out all the plastic pots that plants come in from the store, but somehow I wound up with a whole mess of them again! While trying to get my garage cleaned out yesterday, I started gathering the pots up & there wasn't room in the garden shed for any more of them... but they're still good!!!

I still have several more pots & planters on the deck that I need to empty & rinse out, but as you can see, I'll have room for them. NOW TO STAY ORGANIZED!!!

Very nicely done Patty. And it , what, only took you 2-3 hours to write it?

It really is a good job, Wanna do mine?

She can do mine after Tina's!!!

If it weren't for all the distractions I had,

I wish the thermometer on the shed door would have shown up better! It had started cooling down when I took the pic... 63*!

Mine would be Mwhahahahahahah hahahahahha,
You have nooooooooooooo idea
what you'd be getting yourself into organizing mine...

Ahhhemmm... I don't have a problem throwing away other people's treasures!!
I could fix your mightmare in no time!

hehehehehee..

Yeah, but could you find your way to the other end of it, that's what I would be curious about...

'Especially when you throw it to the curb,
and I'm like "HEYYYYYY, LOOKIE~LOOKIE WHAT I JUST FOUND IN THE GARBAGE..." hahahhaa..
Vicious cycle it would be...

Too bad we can't find one of those 9 cubic yard dumpsters "just laying around", to put our good stuff in! We could spend all our time inside 1 of those, rediscovering! (I see those all the time, but they look like they'd be hard to move ...& impossible to hide, to avoid prosecution!)

Soooo... the secret is to consolidate all that stuff! Believe it or not, even with most of those pots & trays & buckets nested inside each other, they didn't all fit on top of the picnic table at once, but I got every one of them stacked neatly in a 2' X 2' X 6' space! (DON'T ask me how that works... must be a physics thing!)

It also cuts waaaayyy back on the comments & the "looks" from you-know-who!! I think I actually detected a smile, when he saw what I did!
(He didn't have to drive to the dump!)

according to one book I have... "Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs & More, 1,001 Ingenious ways to use common household items to Repair, Restore, Revive, or Replace just about everything in your life" you can use those styrofoam cartons, cut the tops off and put them under the egg carton to help catch water. Also suggest that drying egg shells and planting your seeds in them is usefull. When time for transplanting comes around plant your seedlings egg shell and all for the added calcium.

I've recently found that Heinz ketchup comes in a squeeze bottle with a mess proof lid that makes for a perfect watering can. It's more of a watering jet than can but it fills my smaller watering implements very quickly and it's nice for watering the larger stuff around the house. Once you are done squeezing the bottle the water stops instantly also, which is great if you want to be precise with it.

I got another, bigger (32 oz. vs. 64 oz.), bottle of ketchup a couple days ago, that didn't have the neat lid on it, I'm hoping that the lids are interchangable. They look to be the same size...

What a great idea....I hadnt thought of using and empty ketchup bottle like that before...and wouldnt you know it...i just threw out a squeeze bottle the other day

I use the Ketch~up containers as "Squirt~Guns"
for the kids..
***I reallyyyyyyyyyy dispise guns, and children pointing them at people without a care or thought to it, and I know I am wierd, or maybe anal about it, but it drives me nutzzz***

so, I get a big 60qt containers, fill with water, then get a bunch of those ketchup bottles, and let the boys, fill and squeeze away..
***I keep my pancake syrup bottles too***

and of course you need tons' of them, so someone can sit and fill while they alllllllll squirt...

Aighead,
I never thought about those as watering cans like,
but you gave me a great idea too,
just like I do above for the boys and squirt guns,
I could keep another tub in my greenhouse,
fill that with water and then just suck up the water with them
and do my seedlings' trays' ....

Thats a great idea for the kids too Weezie....again i wouldnt have thought of using them for that

The no mess cap is really the key, if you can find it, it's great! You could hold it upside down forever and it doesn't leak unless you squeeze it.

Hi everyone, I reuse baby food jars and any other type of jars. I like to keep the lids for them as well. I make snow globes from the jars with their lids. Buy some craft glitter from the dollar store. Take silicone glue and glue on a small figurine into the inside of the lid.(like the ones they have out at Christmas time at the dollar stores). Then sprinkle some sparkles into the jar and add water, screw back on the top after the glue has dried and voila and instant snow globe.
I also recycle my coffee cans buy using them outside for my husbands butts, because he is a smoker. The recycled coffee cans also hold grease drippings and I recently found they hold the tabs off of pop cans too. I collect pop can tabs because there's a program to donate these to some kind of place that takes them and people that are handicapped get a wheelchair. I also reuse my meat trays for underneath my seedling plants. Egg cartons are good for craft ideas for kids school projects. And cereal boxes are good for kids on a rainy day when they have nothing to do, they make village scenes with them. My husband used to work at our local paper mill, till it shut down, so he would bring home stub paper rolls. These are great for making banners for birthdays etc...
As for the plastic lids from the coffee cans, I keep those after they have been washed because they come in handy for reusing to cover other cans. Example, when I buy my groceries, I buy a large can (about the size of the coffee can), of pasta sauce, but when I open the pasta sauce with the can opener there's no lid so I grab a plastic coffee can lid that fits nicely on top and I store the unused pasta sauce in the fridge.
I could probally go on and on with the recycled items I use. My daughter and I really like to do a lot of crafts, so you can just imagine.

Those are great.
Thanks!!!!

Have you ever seen those Christmas Trees' with the baby food jars, they glue them together in the shape of a Christmas tree.... then stick in
a set of those 100 tiny (mini) Christmas tree lights you can get for a $1.00 at the Dollar Tree stores.. and stick them inside the jars,
and it looks like a lit up Christmas tree...
*you can also put a wooden board on the back of it and drill holes in it to keep it all stablized..

More fantastic ideas!!!!

I use the plastic dish soap bottles to water plants with...just about the same as using the Ketchup bottles.

OK. This is fun.
I used to warm up my seeds before I could afford a heat mat. I did this at my parents' house when I was younger. I had a desk with an underneath crossbar and our heat vents were in the floor. So... I would put my flats with the domes on them around the vent register with the desk over the top. Then I would arrange an old blanket over the crossbar with the edges folded tight to the flat edges so no heat would escape. My mom just shook her head like I was crazy. :rolleyes: It didn't generate enough heat to be a fire hazard or anything but it did raise the temp of the flats above the ambient air temp. about 10 degrees and give the seeds extra warmth to really get them going...

I haven't used recyclables for growing in a while, but it sounds like fun now that you mention it.
I always liked the idea of using strange hollow items that are aesthetically pleasing as outdoor pots: old boots, vases, buckets, a blender container you find beautiful... a lot of this stuff can originate from a garage sale.

Great idea!!!! I know that look of :rolleyes: I get it all the time from hubby and friends when I show them my newest project!

My daughter gave me a crazy look today when she found out I re-used the container my crossiants came in. I re-used it by making a portable greenhouse. The container was clear moulded plastic. Great with the lid closed for a greenhouse effect.

I use the containers' that the cherry tomatoes
come in.. I use a ton of them, for my husband's lunches.. he gets a salad every dayyyyyyyy...
*I go thru a boat load of them*

But I save them, and use them in the elementary classes to start seeds in...

***I also re~use them when I am picking my own
cherry tomatoes when they are ripening..
and the container is really great too when I'm delivering cherry tomatoes to the neighbors too..***