Organizing & Frugality Go Hand in Hand with Recycling

[Foggy]

I love yard sales and thrift stores because they help me obtain my frugal goals.

Thriftiness doesn’t stop there because I like to re-purpose items in organizing throughout my home.

Here are a few of the things I do that re-purposes items as well as finding good use for items bought at a yard sale or thrift store.

This is my homemade clothes pin bag. It’s just a piece of material I found in the freebie boxes at a thrift store, that I have sewn up and inserted a wire hanger into the top. It easily slides along my outdoor clothes line when I’m line drying clothes.


The next item is more of an organizing one. I am a home canner, so I need lots of canning jar rings and seals. I took a wire hanger (rec’d at a yard sale when I bought a couple of shirts for dh) and untwisted the hanger at the top, slipped on the rings, and twisted the top back together. Now I can easily hang them up instead of having them jumbled up in a box or basket. I put wide mouth on one and regular another.

Actually, I think I have about three with regular rings on them.


If you pantyhose, inevitably you end up with a run or a snag. Instead of tossing the hosiery out, reuse them to tie up your onions.

To use: Cut the legs off the hosiery, slip an onion in one leg, tie a knot, slip another onion in, tie another knot. Keep doing this until you can no longer fit onions in and then hang in a cool, dry, dark or semi-dark place.

When you need an onion, just snip below the knot under where an onion is to get one out.

I admit that I pick up any panty hose I see in the freebie boxes at the thrift store for exactly this purpose because I don’t wear panty hose. I do wash them as soon as they come home and toss the panty part in the trash.



I love baskets and when I found this divided basket at thrift store for .10 I snagged it up. It’s actually made for picnic tableware such as forks, spoons, and paper plates I think but it works great as a desk organizer. Notice the empty toilet paper tubes in the slots holding ink pens and markers? I love to reuse stuff like this for organizing as well as in children’s crafts.

I recently found a smaller basket like this that I am using in our school room/ dining room to hold the colored pencils, markers, scissors, rulers, etc. Since it has a handle, it’s easily moved to the table then put back when done with.


Another one of my guilty pleasures is glass jars… any size, any shape, any kind. I love them!!

I use them for storing dry goods, spices, etc.

Below is the built in spice rack that my sweet hubby made for me several years. On the shelves are 2 rows deep of spices and seasonings… some store bought, some homemade mixes, some homegrown then dried and bottled up. Majority of the jars on this shelf are canning jars but a few are old glass mayo jars as well as a few others.



I recently had hubby build me this tall shelf in our kitchen near the entrance of our pantry and utility room area. In the first picture you can see some of the shelves hubby built for me shortly after we moved here that holds my homecanned items with our bulk items in buckets beneath it.

The majority of the jars on this shelf are spring hinged jars that I found at thrift stores, some canning jars, and a misc. other jars from mayo, etc. I can see what’s in the jars easily and they are readily available when I am cooking.

In the jars are dried goods such as beans, homemade rice mixes, nuts, baking powder, baking soda, salt, organic sugar, and many other items.



I love how the jars lend to a country feel in my kitchen as well as being pretty to look at and functional.

I want to rid myself of as many plastic containers as I can so going to glass is a given for me. Apparently I have an addiction to baskets, glass jars, and scrapbooking items according to hubby. But I wouldn’t know that for sure. lol

[purplemoon2008]

Wow! Gorgeous stuff ~ I wanna come to your house to shop! Your pantry looks so bright and colorful! Not to mention wicked organized!!

I LOVE the clothespin bag! I need a new one and was thinking of making one from an old shirt...remember those? cut and sew the sleeves (unless it's a sleeveless blouse/shirt) and cut and sew the bottom together! Yours looks like it's a much sturdier material though.

Thanks for sharing...I love seeing stuff like that!

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by purplemoon2008

Wow! Gorgeous stuff ~ I wanna come to your house to shop! Your pantry looks so bright and colorful! Not to mention wicked organized!!

I LOVE the clothespin bag! I need a new one and was thinking of making one from an old shirt...remember those? cut and sew the sleeves (unless it's a sleeveless blouse/shirt) and cut and sew the bottom together! Yours looks like it's a much sturdier material though.

Thanks for sharing...I love seeing stuff like that!

Thanks!! yeah, I remember those clothespins bags.

I've also seen clothespins bags made from infant/toddler dresses. Really cute. If this one wears out (which won't be anytime soon as it is some thick material), I'm going to make one of out of a dress like that.

[purplemoon2008]

That would be cute! How old is your youngest? I was right....that's thick material on that bag! I have a really <ahem> bad habit of leaving my bag out on the line...through rain, sun, wind...I've gotten better; but I'm sure it would last even longer if I brought it in consistently with the last batch of dried clothes! lol!

[wyo-helpmeet]

Fabulous pictures! I LOVELOVELOVE thrifting, and repurposing & all things vintage! :D

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by purplemoon2008

That would be cute! How old is your youngest? I was right....that's thick material on that bag! I have a really <ahem> bad habit of leaving my bag out on the line...through rain, sun, wind...I've gotten better; but I'm sure it would last even longer if I brought it in consistently with the last batch of dried clothes! lol!

My youngest is a 2 yo boy (turns 3 in Oct.). I also have a 10 yo ds, 9 yo ds (as of today), 6yo dd (turns 7 this month), 5 yo dd, and 3 yo ds (turns 4 this mo) and of course, my oldest dd is 21.

Originally Posted by wyo-helpmeet

Fabulous pictures! I LOVELOVELOVE thrifting, and repurposing & all things vintage! :D

Thanks! I love all those things too! When my siblings and I got together back in March of last year to go through my parents things as the house had to be torn down (Dad passed in '03 and Mom's in nursing home), my brothers and sister gave me all kinds of useful old vintage things... cast iron skillet, canning jars, baking dishes, a big tea kettle just like one I was drooling over in the Lehman's catalog, Mom's piano, and a few other things.

[IFALLSMICHELLE]

Thank you for sharing!!!

[wyo-helpmeet]

Originally Posted by Foggy

My youngest is a 2 yo boy (turns 3 in Oct.). I also have a 10 yo ds, 9 yo ds (as of today), 6yo dd (turns 7 this month), 5 yo dd, and 3 yo ds (turns 4 this mo) and of course, my oldest dd is 21.



Thanks! I love all those things too! When my siblings and I got together back in March of last year to go through my parents things as the house had to be torn down (Dad passed in '03 and Mom's in nursing home), my brothers and sister gave me all kinds of useful old vintage things... cast iron skillet, canning jars, baking dishes, a big tea kettle just like one I was drooling over in the Lehman's catalog, Mom's piano, and a few other things.

AW!!! What wonderful things to have! I have 2 pieces of furniture that were my Grandmother's & I cherish them like no other furniture in my home <3

[OHeather]

Thanks for sharing. DH is getting annoyed with my glass hording self lately. Sometimes I just have to let some of them go :(. Once we get to a bigger place, hopefully I can have a nice big pantry.