Alternate Uses For Everyday Products

I cant totally relate because we also use laundry clamps to seal not just leftover chips or junk food, but also left over sliced bread, milk, chocolate powder and powdered juice. We never buy a Christmas tree too. Instead, we decorate this medium-sized pine tree outside of our house, wrap it with colored lights and place candy cane and Santa Claus toys on its branches. I don't have a number of tips but if you can go organic and make the most out of your available resources, then so much the better. You'll cut back on your household expenses.

 

I do not know if finding an alternative use of products will reduce household expenses but I usually use product not in a way which is designed for its purpose. The place where I live is very hot and sunny in summer. I usually use my umbrella to shelter me from the bright sunlight. When my skin got itchy, I use the lavender flower water to my skin cool. I use my mobile phone to substitute my time watch.

 

Clothespins work well for chip clips. Those big binder clips can also work nicely for hanging photos or for keeping wires in place (like near the computer) so they don't get all tangled. Baking soda can be used for many things like cleaning stuff or brushing your teeth. Vinegar can be used for cleaning as well. I love finding new uses for things, so thanks for this. Here's one that might be helpful sometime soon: using kitty litter for traction in the snow.

 

I use a lot of inexpensive multi-purpose products. My go-to cleaning products for example are distilled vinegar, borax, dish soap, and baking soda. These are very cheap, non-toxic but also very effective cleaners. Vinegar can be used to clean almost any surface of general dirt. Dish soap is great if there is any grease or stickiness. Borax cuts soap scum safely from any bathroom surface, cleans grout really well, cuts grease off the hood in the kitchen really effectively even if it gets neglected for a while. Baking soda is exceptionally gentle, so it can be used on surfaces that are easily scratched by harsher products. It polishes silver and other things really well.

Most of my food storage containers are recycled yogurt container.

 

My mother in law is a canner, and she typically keeps us well stocked in canned goods through the winter. With the abundance of mason jars, I've found myself using the things for all sorts of things, from storage in the bathroom, to decoration, to housing flowers (dried and fresh), to candles.

I also use clothes pins for anything I need sealed temporarily. Also use them to bundle receipts.

One sort of weird alternative purpose I've employed is using those individual pipe-cleaner-type tooth pickers to clean my bottles of expressed breast milk. They have all these teeny tiny nooks and crannies that get gunked up, and I found that the little flosser things are the best for getting in there and actually cleaning them. I don't actually even use them as flossers or tooth picks.

 

I use my blackhead extractor to clean my ears. My ear wax is dry, and it really scrapes it off completely from my ear as compared to cotton buds. You can feel the skin inside your ears being "thin" and smooth afterwards as compared to before you cleaned it where it felt "thick".

 

Baking soda and apple vinegar for cleaning my hamster's stuff -- and my hair, actually, too. Any kind of jar for any kind of purpose. Coconut oil for a lot of things -- from moisturizer to lip balm to sun"cream" to well anything.

 

I use ice cube trays to make coffee cubes so my iced coffee doesn't get watered down. On the occasions that I go out to eat, I use the fast food coffee cups to start seeds and plant cuttings in. I cut the clips off of pants hangers and use them as bag clips. Pinterest has a lot of good ideas.

 

I also use clothes pegs to hold down an open bag of crisps and other things to avoid spillages and maintain their freshness.

Toothpaste is also very good for spots, and works well in drying up the nasty little buggers faster. I also use it to clean my discoloured silver jewellery. It has a gentle abrasive element to it and it works like magic to restore silver back to its gleaming state My sister gave me that tip a long time ago, not sure where she got it!

 

I use an over-the-door shoe organizer to store cleaning supplies and have it hanging on the back of my laundry room door. I used to keep everything under the sink but this makes it so much easier to access whatever I need. My husband's grandmother taught me to use denture tablets to clean my wedding rings; the effervescence really breaks down the dirt and crud that sometimes builds up in the hard to get areas.

 

I like to save the butter and yogurt containers for leftovers in the refridge. I use the glass bottles to hold rice and pasta in the cabinet. It is interesting how many items we purchase to do one thing can be used for some else it not only saves us money but it cuts down on waste.

 

This is one of favorite things in the world to do!! For example: toothpaste (mint) on your nose until it drys and then clean it off. Blackheads comets gone. I may take it a little far, though. I'll make sure I have the substitute before I worry about having the original.

 

As first aid, when I run out of soap, I use shampoo as soap. And if I run out of shampoo, I use soap to clean my hair.

Laundry clips sure do make good sealers in chips, bags of coffee or milk, and bread.

We use those big safety pins to pull out the flesh out of shells when we eat.

Ice cream containers are good for storing food if you have less food containers. One ice cream container that we have is used to gather all organic wastes such as fruit and veggie skins before we throw them down our compost pit.

And oh, I use a comb to scratch my back.

 

Yep, Pinterest has tons of good ideas, and I like your ideas too. Those are all good ones. I never thought of using the pants hangers for clips. I do the coffee ice cubes sometimes, especially if I have a bit of leftover coffee. Instead of wasting it, just pop it in the freezer, and save it for iced coffee. I've heard of people doing this for tea as well, to keep their iced tea from getting watery.

I use yogurt cups for seedlings too. These are also great for mixing paint or cleaning paintbrushes. I save margarine tubs and similar to use as food storage containers as well.

 

You guys have some way better ideas than me. I have a collection of different clips to hold bags closed. Only one of is a "chip clip". But I never thought to use the pants hanger. Plastic containers from sour cream, cool whip, margerine spread, and so on take up more space in my cabinets than Tupperware. And coffee cans never get thrown away. We use them to pour grease into out of the skillet, store cat food, a scoop to feed animals, and so on. The metal coffee cans I use to store food like beans and nuts, tea bags, powdered and brown sugar... Anything we don't want a rodent to be able to get to if one gets in the house. And believe me, out here in the country you'll get than all the time. That's actually why we have a cat.

 

Something else that works really well is using things in different ways to create home decor. I turned an old spice rack upside down and used it in the bathroom to display candles on top (which was the bottom when it was a spice rack). The little bar that used to hold the spices in place was perfect for hanging small hand towels. There are lots of cool things that you can do to use things in different ways. It's called upcycling, and it's fun to do as well as being good for the planet.

 

And best of all, upcycling can also save you money. You can just spend a little for upgrading the look (or none at all), but that's it. You do not have to spend just to buy a rack for the bathroom. I think your idea of putting an old spice rack as a multipurpose rack in the bathroom is just great.

 

I went through a phase a while back where I wanted to use homemade shampoo, conditioner, fac scrub, dish soap, laundry soap, fabric softener/dryer sheets, and the list goes on and on. The coconut oil I still use for everything, and once a week I use the vinegar for my hair. The rest I decided I'm just not gonna stick with.

 

Well, the vinegar smells a lot haha. Mostly I just can't be bothered to buy conditioner and all this stuff so much -- I have long and thick hair, and that gets expensive for the quantity I'd need!