Random Reuses: Bread Tabs, Paper Bags, and Other Miscellaneous Items

As I've said many times before on this blog, I'm always looking for creative ways to reuse something, even if it's just once, before throwing it into the trash. Here are a few reuses around my house...

Old bread tab = less time spent fiddling around the roll of tape trying to find the end.

It's been a while since I mentioned a site I love -- PaperBackSwap.  Do you have books you've read and/or books you don't want anymore? Swap them for ones you do want for free! It's awesome -- for more info about it you can read my post all about it here. You can print wrappers off the site, but they don't always fit the dimensions of the books I'm sending. After a while, I just started buying special shipping envelopes for all the books I mailed. Not anymore!  Now I just wrap them in paper grocery bags (whenever I forget my reusable bags, I always opt for paper).  They work so well since the paper is fairly heavy and durable. In fact, I got a message from the recipient of the book pictured above telling me how well packaged the book was!

Plus, who doesn't like getting a "brown paper package" in the mail, especially if it is a free book?

Are you a crazy person like me who washes and reuses plastic zipper bags?  I don't do it all the time (I don't reuse bags that have held meat or other wet/sticky/gooey substances), but if I've stored dry items in them, like pancakes, waffles, bread, etc., I always rinse them out and reuse them. And since I haven't used paper towels in years, I use my old paper towel rack as my plastic bag drying rack. Hey, I'm not the only one who has a space devoted to drying plastic bags, so I can't be that weird.

Maybe you've seen this reuse on Pinterest, too. Who knew that the lids from grated Parmesan cheese fit perfectly on Mason jars? In the picture above, I've created a cinnamon-sugar shaker with it. Next lid I have is going on a jar filled with baking soda to use for cleaning. I love this reuse!

For the last few weeks, I've been collecting our empty milk and vinegar (we go through a lot of vinegar in our house) jugs in the shed for -- get this -- making miniature greenhouses. Apparently, you can use empty gallon-sized jugs to house seedlings in the late winter and early spring months. I've always shied away from starting seeds because of the need for special lighting and seed-starting kits. I don't have the room in my house for that kind of operation! With these miniature greenhouses, you can keep your seedlings outside even when the temperatures are freezing. AMAZING! I haven't done any winter-sowing yet, but I'm going to start next month by planting tons of tomato seeds. If this works (and the author of the post about it swears it does), it will save me a lot of money. It's bordering on silly how excited I am about this.

Then again, I always get a little too excited about a good Random Reuse...

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.