Posted by Snow in 
lumber wood re-use
Ever seen a great tip or do it yourself project and noticed that a lot of the materials incorporated into the project were things you had thrown away? Even if you have no immediate use for some of the spare materials and scraps from your home garden remodeling and landscaping projects, someone else does!
Every glass tile, spoonful of caulk, gallon of compost or fistful of colored cement mix has a value. Even melamine board or old baby food jars can be re-used for shop projects in almost every do it yourselfer’s home. Even worn out rulers or yardsticks can serve as leveling shims when performing shop projects on flush surfaces.
Keep an eye on your tossable junk for recycling. That used up scrubber brush can work sanding off impression detritus from the cooled surface of a poured concrete form. That unwanted length of PVC pipe can get rid of those high up dust spiders and cobwebs when attached to the business end of a vacuum hose.
Yard projects can take their lead from what misses the trash bin and goes into the project pile. Spare timbers can be used for pathway borders or stepping levels in a dangerous or eroding steep area in the backyard.
Be on the lookout for what other people think is junk. They may not have time to Freecycle it. Even a brown paper bag’s worth of leftover gravel from a closing construction site can fill a pot or finish a eroded pathway.
Leftover plastic containers from things like normal household laundry detergent make excellent dispensers for touch up paint, baking powder paste, vinegar wash solution or other everyday green materials. Even one dismantled piece of furniture (minus the ruined parts) can yield enough project wood for a window planter or concrete form.
Perhaps the home is already at super sustainable strength green living mode. But shop uses abound for recycled plastic containers. Transfer the contents of poor sealing paint cans or metal solvent containers to a sturdy plastic container with better grip and pouring/storage control. “Dead” pens can contribute another life as paint stirrers or lid looseners.
Make a “review” stack next to the trash for things that might be reused. Make sure everyone in the family gets a crack at it. Even a used soap dispenser with a hand pump can be transferred to the shop or garage, where an extra dab of compost material during planting or potting does its best work.
Cotton sheets can get another life reused as landscaping cloth. Damaged plastic buckets can serve as underground separators for hard driving plants that need to be barrier blocked from other greenery. A scrap of carpet can transfer a bare wood closet floor from a dust trap to an easy cleaning sustainable surface.
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