Comments on: Ask DSM Readers: Do You Reuse Food Containers?

By: Jessica-MomForHim

Jessica-MomForHim — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 15:59:29 +0000

I use diaper wipe containers to corral plastic bags from stores--you can shove a lot of them in there and it keeps them neat!

By: Ruth Ann

Ruth Ann — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:33:08 +0000

At my house growing up, we too had a lot of old cardboard ice cream container waste baskets. I had forgotten about that until you mentioned it.

By: Ruth Ann

Ruth Ann — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:31:41 +0000

Most of my drinking glasses originally held either peanut butter (Smuckers natural) or salsa (Mrs Renfros...Fort Worth, TX local brand). They're the perfect size for beverages and I've never had one break.

By: Kayla

Kayla — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:54:13 +0000

I save the plastic Crystal Light containers. I pull the wrapper off and you have a tall see through container that you can store anything in. Right now I have one for box tops, one for candy corn, and one for bubble gum. They are also great to take snacks in the car.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:50:16 +0000

Local community centers, preschools, libraries, schools, churches and the such are often looking for these types of items. I save all of our cardboard tubes, butter containers, Pringles cans and egg cartons for that. My favorite repurposed item, however, are the little plastic stoppers that the Target pharmacy puts in their bottles for children's prescriptions. It takes a little doing getting them out (I usually stick the tip of the dispenser into the hole and pull at an angle until it lifts.) but they fit into most over the counter medicine containers as well. I'm such a fan of using the syringe to dispense medicine I just had to pass this along.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:32:37 +0000

I wonder if that would work for Chuck E. Cheese tokens too. I'm always trying to figure out a way for my five kids to carry them around more easily. Thanks!

By: Krista

Krista — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:25:35 +0000

I do this, too!! Any containers like sour cream or cottage cheese are great too to take for lunch and then just toss.

By: vicky

vicky — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:04:27 +0000

Awesome tips. I love the picture!

By: Falguni Rahul

Falguni Rahul — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:23:19 +0000

I use the glass jars from coffee and pasta sauces to store my sugar, tea, lentils and beans. I also use them to freeze extra soup, and curies. The plastic containers from cheese I use to store hardware like nails and screws and extra stuff, tins from soups and tomatoes are used to put my pencils and pens and lastly the yogurt or cheese cups are used to keep leftovers, and the big size ones I collect all my organic trash in to then throw it into my composting bin.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:51:47 +0000

My kids made a robot for their dad on Father's Day out of these types of things (plastic juice concentrate legs, paper towel tube arms, egg carton head with 12 eyes....). I also use baby wipes tubs for lego sets. The boxes never stay together, but all the pieces from each indvidual set go in their own tub. This way we are able to keep our sets intact and use the mixed bunch for imaginative building.

By: Nilufer

Nilufer — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:48:38 +0000

I used empty ziplock bag boxes to organize my "junk drawer" in the kitchen. One for rubberbands, one for batteries, one for pens and pencils.... so I always have a pen handy when I need to write something or a binderclip when I need to close a bag of chips. When I empty a new box of ziplock bags, its time to re-organize my drawer.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:07:18 +0000

I reuse sour cream and cottage cheese containers for lunch. Make a pot of crock pot soup, fill the containers with soup and freeze them. In the morning I just grab one for my lunch in the office. Don't worry if something happens to the container, and saves money on meals.

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:13:54 +0000

Its funny u ask that my husbands family reuses butter containers or anything that comes in plastic and i thought that was so weird cause id never seen that my mom was such a tupperware queen and my grandparents used pyrex, but no i dont reuse if my husband had it his way we would.

By: Kyla

Kyla — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:33:39 +0000

We have a collection of fruit jars (DelMonte, I believe) that we use as drinking glasses. They keep things colder than thin glass and don't break as easily. Good luck on finishing your collection! :)

By: Jackie

Jackie — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:20:00 +0000

I reuse the Simply juice bottles at the office. Instead of keeping a carton of orange juice, apple juice or lemonade (which can be expensive!) in the fridge at wok I buy cheap frozen juice concentrate, mix it up at home and transfer to the Simply juice container and take it to the office. That way I can keep our Rubbermaid pitchers at home where they are safe :)

By: Jenna

Jenna — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:48:37 +0000

I save the big Yoplait yogurt containers for leftovers. My favorite to save are the Classico Pasta Sauce jars. I wash them and reuse them when I make meals for others--fancier soup containers than plastic containers. Love them!

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:45:05 +0000

I am an art teacher, so I am always using and saving containers. My favorites are baby wipes container for markers, pencils, and crayons. But, I also do a lot of paper mache projects with yogurt cups as the base. If you make a ball out of newspaper, stick it in the top of the container and add wings and feet, it makes for an excellent penguin. :)

By: rebecca

rebecca — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:36:50 +0000

When I was a kid, we used to go to the ice cream shop (usually Baskin Robbins) and ask for the empty cardboard tins. We then wrapped it with papers and made cool garbage cans for our bedrooms. :D

By: rebecca

rebecca — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:35:52 +0000

I laughed when I saw this since my daughter and I just finished making little alien creatures by turning the Aquapod bottles (FL's big deal the other week) into one eyed monsters with acrylic paint and pipe cleaners coming out of their "head" tops, lol. :D

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:23:05 +0000

I filled one of the big ones with quarters for my niece as part of her going to college gift. I know they don't need to use pay phones anymore but she said it was great for vending machines and laundry! It took $13.75 to fill the tall one up!