So, we finally ordered a compost bin from Amazon, as not one single store here in town had any left! Seems composting has taken on a life of it’s own here, as they cannot keep any in stock for more than a day or two. Sure, I could just start a pile in the backyard, but since we are only renting our house I decided that would not be a good idea. The woman at the local nursery told me to just buy one online, as it would be weeks before they got any more in. Ok then! So I placed the order online and am waiting for it to arrive. But in the meantime we have been storing our compost in large yogurt containers in our freezer:

For the past 2 weeks, we have been saving our food scraps and coffee grounds in these containers but we are running out of space. There is only so much yogurt one can eat every week! I do hope the composter shows up soon, so I can empty these out and use them just as interim storage for our scraps until we can bring them outside. I will say, though, that saving all of our food scraps have made quite a difference in the amount of trash leaving our house every Wednesday.

I just took out the trash today and guess what? Only 1 half-full bag of trash is being picked up today by the garbage guy. That’s for one week, and is the smallest amount of trash we have ever taken out for 7 days. Whoo-hoo! The bag weighed about 2 pounds and looks so lonely inside the big black bin out front. Since all food scraps go in composting, any glass, aluminum and paper get recycled, and we did not buy anything packaged in plastic this week, there was barely anything to throw away. What a nice feeling. I wonder if we can get it down to one trash bag every 2 weeks?

In other trashy news, we have been working hard on reducing our plastic consumption (due to the recycling issue in town), but it is proving somewhat difficult for some products. Yogurt, for instance, is hard to find in anything but plastic bins. But we have found some use for those containers in the short-term at least. I will be writing more about this experience next week, and in the mean time will be reading through Fake Plastic Fish in an effort to discover even more ways to reduce the incoming stream of plastic into our house!

With the economy the way it is and the growing concern about the environment, people are looking for more ways to save money and reduce the amount of trash they throw away. Well, if you look hard enough, there are a ton of things that come into our houses that we can reuse for multiple purposes! Here are 25 that I came up with; what would you add to the list?

Milk jugs (gallon or 1/2 gallon plastic) - Clothespin holder after you cut the top off and hang from your clothesline.

Plastic soda or water bottles - Can be used as kids banks after a nice paint job; a cold pack to be stored in the freezer; with some small holes in it, fill with bird seed and you have a nice bird feeder.

Spaghetti jars - small planters for around the home.

Film canister - Cut a slit in the side and you have a holder for a roll of stamps.

Beer bottle caps - You could pick up some small magnets and some glue at a craft store and make custom refrigerator magnets.

Glass bottles - pick up a light bulb fixture and you have a new lamp; can be used for vases, decorative grass holders.

Old t-shirts - rags for cleaning up around the house; sew a couple of your favorites into a pillow.

Shoe and delivery boxes - storage containers, file boxes, etc - no need to waste money on plastic containers from the container store. Every box in my closet is a reused cardboard one!

Toilet paper roll - extension cord organizer; stuff with paper and some alcohol to make a fire starter.

Sunday comics - wrapping paper. You would never have to buy wrapping paper again if you saved this all year!

An old garden hose - make a soaker hose - poke holes throughout, seal off other end, lay in garden; bucket handle,

Baby jars - votive candle holders; storing spices or seeds.

Toothbrushes - bathroom scrubbers; clothing stain scrubbers.

Mailing tubes - cut several of them to the same length, assemble into a wine rack.

Wine corks - soaked in alcohol, they make a good fire-starter.

CD’s - one-of-a-kind drink coasters (paint, cover with paper, etc).

Altoids tins - These tins are the perfect size to make small emergency kits for camping or to keep in your car; basic sewing kits for college kids.

Shredded paper - Makes great packing material for shipping gifts; also makes good packing material for when you are moving.

Old jeans - cut up and sew into squares full of padding to make pot holders.

Tires - build an earthship! Or, maybe just a tire swing.

Old shoes - send to Nike so the rubber can be turned into new playgrounds.

Bath mat - folded just right, can be used as a new floor mop!

Shower curtain - drop cloth for painting; cover the air conditioner during winter?

Mason canning jars - canning, obviously, but they also make great drinking glasses.

Paper - Be sure to use both sides of paper in the house. Just cut up “once used” paper and make notepads with the blank sides!

So what would you add?