The best way to help the environment by recycling is by reusing. I love to reuse packaging containers for the items I buy around my house. I recently bought my toddler all new character underwear from Hanes. Between her growing so quickly and me giving in when she begs for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse panties, I end up with a lot of those little plastic snap envelopes. These envelopes are made of sturdy plastic with a strong snap at the top. The best thing about them is that they already come equipped to hang either by a small piece of cord or by a plastic hook. This small attribute makes them better than Ziploc bags for some uses. I also like to save the bags that curtains, pillowcases, sheets and comforters arrive in because of the heavy duty plastic and the zipper function on a lot of them.

Here are a few ways we have found to reuse these bags around our house. Let us know if you think of any other great uses!

The small underwear/pillowcase pouches:

• My daughter’s hair accessories. Ribbons in one, ponytail holders in another and barrettes in another. I then hang the pouches from a hook in her closet (Fig 1, right).
• Use them to hang tights or socks that match a particular outfit. Sometimes I do buy accessories to only go with one outfit, I can’t help it, sometimes it is just too cute to pass up. So to actually have the accessories worn with the outfit, I put them in the plastic bag and hang them from the hanger. This also helps my husband when he goes to dress our daughter. He hates to get the “I can’t believe you put that outfit together” look in the mornings and this saves him from that. Another slight variation to this is to hang dance shoes with dance outfits. I use it to hold ballet shoes and hang the bag on the hook with the ballet outfit. (Fig 1, left)
• My husband uses them to hold his usb cables or other wires. He hangs them in his supply closet with a label if necessary.
• Use them to corral small parts on your pegboard in the garage such as nails, screws, pieces of twine, or small screwdrivers. (Fig 2)
• Doorknob message center. We stick small notes to each other inside one of the bags that we hang on the door to the garage. We also pout receipts we will need, gift cards to use or notes from our daughter’s daycare in there. It’s great for the little things you really don’t want to forget as you leave (Fig 3)