zero waste around the house
kitchen
- Reuse zippered plastic bags.
- Food packaging often comes in resealable bags. As long the emptied bag is free of crumbs or anything sticky, these can be reused again. Be sure to only use food-safe bags for food!
- Reuse bread bags/produce bags as:
- Makeshift gloves for cleaning messes. (Save your good gloves for serious messes!)
- Mini trash bags for cooking waste (peels and ends of vegetables, egg shells, pits and seeds, etc.)
- Use rags, dishcloths, and paper towels according to different needs and levels of mess. I use rags and dishcloths most of the time and only buy paper towels once a year!
- Freeze stock scraps, ginger, green onions, and herbs. Bones can be saved for soup stock, and chicken skin and fat can be saved to make schmaltz.
- Reuse glass jars and bottles.
- I love these for food storage, especially for dry goods like rice, crackers, and beans.
- You can also use them in the freezer! Just be sure to leave enough room between the top of the contents and the top of the jar (about 1-2 inches) and freeze it without the lid. Once the contents are fully frozen, put on the lid. (This reduces the risk of the jar breaking if the frozen contents expand.)
- Pages from old magazines and catalogs can be folded into small origami boxes for peels, seeds, and shells (like orange peels or sunflower seed shells). Tutorial here.
common areas
- Just about anything can be repurposed as a flower vase or trinket dish.
closet
- Save and reuse boxes, polymailers, and packing material.
- Save and reuse gift bags and tissue paper.
bathroom
- Reuse glass yogurt jars for medicine cabinet storage. I use them for cotton swabs, flossers, and toothpicks.
garden
- Old newspapers can be folded into mini, compostable pots for starting seeds.
- Plastic produce containers often have holes, making them great for use as temporary planter pots.
- Glass jars and clean plastic trays also work well for sprouting seeds for microgreens.