Fun Ideas for Reuse!

Buying items secondhand like bicycles, clothing, books and games is a great way to reuse stuff. Here are other fun ideas to prolong the life of our things:

Sew colorful patches onto a pair of jeans, a jacket or a backpack that has a hole in it.
Hold a clothes-swapping party. Invite friends to come over with clothes they no longer wear. Put all the clothes in the middle of the room and start swapping! Donate unwanted items to charity.
Decorate cloth napkins for each member of the family. Get a set of plain, white, cotton napkins or tea towels (if you can find these secondhand, all the better, or else cut out squares from old, cotton tee-shirts!) and decorate each napkin with permanent markers, buttons and patches you can make from old fabrics. Make one for each member of the family and have this be the napkin they use at home during meals.
Make presents with reused items. Decorate frames with buttons, knick-knacks and used ribbon; make stuffed animals out of old socks; sew a wallet or bag using a worn out pair of jeans. Be sure to wrap your present using the comic pages from the newspaper or large, old pieces of sheets and fabrics!
Make a colorful notebook using cereal boxes and re-used paper! Cut and make covers out of cereal boxes and decorate with collage and markers. Gather equal-sized office, school or computer paper that’s only been used on one side. Stack evenly with the blank sides facing up. Hole-punch the notebook and tie it all together with ribbon or string. Use it for drawing, math problems, notes or writing.
Here are more ideas for re-use projects!