18 Reasons I Love Trash!

“I love trash! Anything dirty or dingy or dusty, anything ragged or rotten or rusty! Yes, I love trash!”

-Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch

One of the lessons I’ve learned from Sesame Street sticks in my head because of this song: Happiness is not found in the object but in the perception of the object. An old telephone can bring joy to a child who uses it to play house!

At the beginning of the year, I made a little list for myself of things I wanted to learn how to do. One of the big ones was to “upcycle”—that is, use things I would normally throw away for crafts and gifts, especially for and with the kids. I’ve tried very hard over the year to make all gifts (a post for the end of the year so I can share Christmas gifts, too). I’ve also tried to stick to the rule that when I see a toy that I want to buy for Bean or Bird, I instead try to figure out how to make something similar for them at home.

There really is a thrill to upcycling! Reusing something you would have normally thrown away opens up so many possibilities. Suddenly you’ll find there’s very little you want to still recycle because now you have a plan for a way to use it for a craft or gift. It has also significantly brought down the amount of money I spend each month on craft supplies.

Some of my favorite projects (and some great ideas for Christmas presents!) thus far include:

Magnetic Play: Collect the tops off baby food jars and place them in old tins. Grab a magnet and let the kids go crazy!
Paint Jars: When you make your own paint, save it for another day in old baby food jars (ones with lids 😉 ).
Toy Storage: You could fancify those old containers, but I haven’t taken the time to do that with mine. The kids really don’t seem to mind…
Terrariums: Collect plastic baby food containers. Glue stick cotton balls to the top, and torn green paper to the bottom. Place tiny animals (Dollar Store!) inside! (We actually did this one for Children’s Church as part of a Creation lesson. The kids loved it!)
Art Hangers: Wrap yarn around pant hangers and use them to hang kids’ art around the house.
Tissue Boxes and Old Ties: Babies love anything they can pull out. Rather than pulling out all the tissues, give them an empty tissue box filled with old (read: hideous) ties. Keeps them busy for minutes if not longer!
Bowling Game: For these I didn’t even have to decorate because I saved already cute containers of baby puffs to be knocked down with our sparkly ball!
Play Food: Why spend money on play food when the kids are just as happy if not happier to play with recognizable containers that have been emptied and cleaned! Take them outside for an outdoor grocery!
Tea Storage: Of course, I’ll admit to buying my kids play food on special occasions, and when I did I bought Melissa and Doug brand which came in these beautiful wooden containers. They’re not strong enough to hold heavier things but tea seems to work great!
Dress-Ups: The kids’ favorite dress-up clothes are the ones that used to be Mommy and Daddy’s. Save old dresses and shirts and ties and scarves and hats and purses and shoes and you’ll find your dress-up closet will be overflowing in no time at all!
Make Your Own Bear Clothes: Just save the baby clothes you can’t bear 😉 to get rid of and use them to dress up all those stuffies! (We’ve found a variety of sizes from 3-9 mo. clothes fit best depending on the critter.)
Pooh Bear as Donald Duck
Big Bird as The Doctor and Puffs the Polar Bear as Amy
Miss Piggy as Kermit
Reuse Old Baby Clothes: Don’t throw out those favorite baby clothes! Save them and use the fabric for future projects. So many ideas for this on Pinterest if you’re looking for something outside the quilt idea.
Not-so-Random Loose Blocks: Hot glue them together to spell out decorations for baby rooms or just for fun!
T-shirt Decor: Use old t-shirts stapled to cork boards for bedroom decoration.
Utensil Holder: This actually used to be a shoe rack I took apart, turned upside down, and hung on the wall! Works pretty well!
Wrap Center: This was a tie rack I commandeered for all my foil, plastic wrap, wax paper, and chip clips.
What To Eat: The last page of this notepad was not going to be wasted. I framed it so now I can use it over and over again as a dry-erase board! I even laminated a couple other pages and gifted them with baskets of other goodies on Mother’s Day to others who could use them!
Grow Green Onions: I guess this counts as “upcycle”… I learned you could re-grow green onions if you plant the bottoms you cut off anyway. I now keep a pot of green onions going year-round so I always have them on-hand!