Good Garbage Gab, October 19, 2012

Welcome to the first edition of Good Garbage Gab, where we offer useful tips and crafts for re-purposing items that you may normally just throw away (or hopefully recycle), or save not knowing what you can do with them. We may  also showcase local reuse artists and give you links to articles we think you might find interesting. We are doing this to get your motor running and thinking about the various ways you can reuse everyday items to keep them out of our waste streams.

     In order to keep from scaring off those new to repurposing, I thought it would be nice to start slow and easy. So I'm offering up a simple tip and a simple craft.

 2-Liter Bottle Canisters

You can use these for tons of items: Coffee, tea bags, sugar, crayons, markers, cotton balls, q-tips, change, and a host of other things. I like them because you can see what is in them so easily and when something is on the top shelf, with me being so short, that comes in quite handy. No guessing...

    What you need: Two 2-liter Bottles, washed, dried and any labels removed, Sharp knife such as an X-acto knife and a sharp pair of scissors.  

    Using the knife, cut the two bottles to look like the pictures here. Using the scissors, trim the bottles neatly.

Place the shorter one on top of the taller one and there you have it... a lidded, clear canister.

Another option is to paint them like these and use them as piggy banks, or whatever you can dream up! Both designs were painted with Rust-Oleum 2X satin spray paint and then details added with acrylic craft paint. 

Be sure to recycle the left over plastic!

And if you thought that was easy... Here's something even easier. No craft skills involved.......Button Earring Holder

You know all those extra buttons you get on a new shirt? Or the ones you take off a shirt before you reuse it as a rag or for other re-purposed items? Use them to keep your matched earrings together in your jewelry box or when taking  a trip in your jewelry bag. 

Did you go DUH?!?! Why didn't I think of that? Yeah, me too. 

Hope you enjoyed this new feature of our blog and can put to use the ideas we share. If you have something you've done and would like to share, please let us know by emailing or commenting here. Share our blog and Facebook page with all your friends and let's all work towards a better Community!