Best Recyclable and Reusable Packaging For the Home

Look around your house. There's likely a few products which could see another light of day being recycled into reuse. We're always refilling our Method Foaming Soap dispenser with watered down Ivory hand soap we purchase in bulk (about 2 parts water to one part soap). Or reusing maple syrup bottles for our shampoo and conditioners. There's plenty of other products than can be reused, especially for storage uses...

POM glasses can both be used as candle holders, drink glasses, and spare coin jars. We like to keep pins and X-acto blades inside Republic of Tea tins, and Spega yogurt jars for our sewing supplies. Trader Joe's pink lemonade bottles are always refilled with filtered water and mixed drinks, while Target brand crystal kitty litter packaging is cleaned out and reused as dry cat food dispenser.

We try to mostly stick with items easily washable and with as little branding on it as possible, because who wants a home filled with items with logos all over it? How about you? Any packaging favourites you like to keep and reuse?

Originally posted by Gregory on AT:LA.

Comments (6)

we reuse every possible glass container that makes its way into our home. bonne maman jam jars - the ones with the cute red/white checked lids - are favorites. they almost always hold pantry items and on-the-fly salad dressings. baby food jars do double-duty for packed-lunch salad dressings and sewing supplies. italian nectar juice bottles become vessels for homemade pasta sauce. and the list goes on ....

we've been taking the labels off of wine bottles and reusing them as chic water "carafes" for dinner.

I reuse any 8-20oz (and up) size glass jars that I end up with for grains, nuts, cookies, etc. I print out a sheet of the Small Object Flying Floating labels on plain paper and label them accordingly:

http://thesmallobject.com/stenopad/wordpress/?page_id=58

i have found that a lot of plastic water/juice bottles hold up in the dishwasher (i'm kind of a nut about sanitizing that stuff). i refill them with filtered water, put them in the fridge, and use them again and again.

jesse, thanks for the link to The Small Object. Just took a look at their free printouts, and they look great.

I use a POM glass at work (admittedly, after I saw a coworker using one). It can be hard to clean because it's so narrow, but I only use mine for water so I manage to get away with just rinsing it out occasionally.

I also like to get the brand of spaghetti sauce that comes in a Mason jar, with the measurements on the side. They work well for transporting liquids to work (e.g., milk for tea, dressing for salad, juice).

I love using POM glasses for whatever I can but above all I love using it to make vinaigrettes or salad dressings so that I can toss on the lid and shake it up and then toss it in the fridge and it's one less gadget I need to buy at the store.