Double Duty for Common Items

Do you hate to throw things away but never know what to do with some of the things you save? Here are some tips on ways you can reuse items that you probably already have on hand.

• Wash out a laundry detergent scoop and use it to scoop your flour, sugar, or coffee.
• Make an emergency organic marinade brush from a green onion (spring onion) you already have in your refrigerator. Use the stem to brush on a marinade and just throw the onion into the compost bin. (Yes! Not the trash—you recycle everything!)
• Save the colored plastic tabs that hold bread sacks closed and let your kids tape or glue them to a piece of construction paper to make a picture. It's also fun to make pictures with different types of dry pasta.
• Do you sometimes peer into your freezer and wonder if it has defrosted and refrozen again? All you need to do is place a bag or container in your freezer that contains ice cubes. If the freezer defrosts, the ice will melt and form a solid block of ice when the freezer freezes again. Each time you go to your freezer, you'll know whether your it has stayed frozen.
• Cut up empty cardboard boxes (like those from cereal and crackers) and use the pieces as kindling for a fire or barbecue.
• Use regular butter stick boxes as lunch boxes. They're perfect for keeping a sandwich from getting smashed by the other food in your lunch bag. Wrap your sandwich in plastic, and then slide it into the box. Come lunchtime, your sandwich will be in as good a condition as when it was made.
• Want to cut down on the time and energy it takes to boil hot dogs and heat the buns? You can do both at the same time in a double boiler. Put the buns in the top where they will warm slowly and be ready at the same as the wieners.