3 Rs: Reuse, reuse, reuse!

What's better than recycling? Reduction. What else is better than recycling? Reuse!

Here are three recent instances of reuse in my life, which netted me 2 wonderful solutions and 1 awesome new item.

1. At the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, they have a TerraCycle recycling station for chip bags, juice pouches and cookie, granola bar and candy wrappers, but people are always putting in things like crouton bags, cat food bags and other foily packaging that TerraCycle doesn't accept. So we wanted to put up a sign, but there wasn't a good way to hang it or post it. I dug around in the scrap-metal dumpster and found these two white aluminum pieces, screwed them together, then attached them to the metal cart. I'm not very handy, so using the power screwdriver to do this little project was an accomplishment! And the set-up does the trick for this situation.

2. Our plastic soap pump, left, broke after many years of use, so I looked for a replacement, which was only a couple of bucks, but would've required me to make a special trip to Michaels or Jo-Ann Fabrics. So, since I'm lazy, I just waited for something to come along. And lo and behold, I soon came across this plastic pump from a bottle of hand sanitizer, which works well as a replacement.

3. And lastly, I visited ARC's Value Village because I had a coupon, and got this gorgeous orange Pyrex casserole. Isn't it sunny and cheerful?!