swedluv:

do you think that plastic milk jugs cut in half can be used as beginning planters?

I don't see why not. Be sure to poke holes in the bottoms for drainage.  

mikasha:

Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do with a bunch of tiny glass jars I got for Christmas. They were little jam samplers and they're so cute I don't want to recycle them. I thought I could reuse them as bath salt containers for gift baskets or to mix my paints in so I can have a few pre-mixed colours. Anyone have any other ideas for them?

     If you take breakfast or lunches to work, they're great for holding things like salad dressing, butter, jelly and the like.

    I keep one in the bathroom and fill it with alcohol or peroxide to soak my toothbrush in when I have a cold or a cold sore.

  I use the cat litter  buckets to hold rainwater.

  Any padded envelopes or bubble wrap that come in the house are kept and reused for mailing.

 Margarine and yougurt tubs are used for storing leftovers (I'm trying to remember to label them to reduce confusion!); I also store cat food in them - keeps it fresher. I store batteries in a whipped topping container.

    The plastic coffee containers make good planters, watering cans and scoops.  I've used metal coffee cans as planters, but they tend to rust.

 I have been saving the 2 1/2 dozen egg crates to use to start seeds.  You just cut them apart and plant right in the garden where the cardboard will break down in the soil.

I reuse sour cream, cottage cheese, whipped topping, etc containers for storing leftovers and other things.

Newspapers are used under messy projects, for cleaning, packing fragile items, and more.

An ice cream bucket is my sugar canister and I also use those for gardening, as a cleaning bucket, and more.  I save garden scraps in one during the summer and take it out to compost (at least I will this year, last year, I just saved it and threw the scraps on the brush pile) I love those and need to buy more ice cream just to get the buckets!

Old t-shirts, towels, or flannel sheets are cut into rags for dusting and cleaning.

allie:

An ice cream bucket is my sugar canister and I also use those for gardening, as a cleaning bucket, and more. 

I use an ice cream bucket for my clothespins.  It's handy to carry outside and has a lid so they don't spill when stored.

Fruit cups or yogurt cups or similar are good for starting seeds.  My mom liked the rounded ones b/c a soup spoon fit in easily to scoop out the seedling when it was time to plant.

I've been saving plastic bags for a year now so that when we move I'll have lots of filler.  I want to buy bubble wrap only for DH's wine glasses that are family heirlooms.  It's amazing how many plastic bags I've gotten while still mostly using my reusable bags!

I, too, save butter containers, etc.  My favorite is cool whip containers b/c you can use sharpie on the lid and it holds up well in the freezer, but then will wash off for easy relabeling.  Those are great for holding 2 cups of cooked beans.  Reusing these containers also makes it easy to give away extra food and not worry about if you get the container back.

I also reuse plastic bags and sheets of aluminum foil as often as possible.  I don't save the plastic bags if they held meat.  Otherwise I turn them inside out and wash when I have to do other hand-washed dishes.  I have a magnetic clip on the fridge to hold these, so they stay accessible.

 The padded envelopes mentioned earlier can also be used for hot pads if you don't have any.  I grabbed one the other day that was waiting for the shredder when I wanted to put a hot plate on a wood TV tray. I didn't want to go back to the kitchen to get a real hot pad and this envelope was handy.  It worked like a charm.  Edey

Thank you to everyone who gave me ideas for reusing the little jam/jelly jars. I might just have to ask for another set of them for Christmas this year just to get more jars. 

we save spaghetti sauce jars for DH to brew his iced tea.  Then he has a nice glass jar with a lid to take to work!

  Another use for the jelly jars:  they're good for holding the last bits of lotion, toothpaste, etc, if you're like me and cut open the containers, LOL!