Welcome to our Tuesday Garbage Day feature. I haven’t done this in a while. Every Tuesday is my garbage day, so every Tuesday I try to really evaluate what we are throwing in the trash and try to eliminate waste. Whether it’s perfectly good food that just spoiled before we ate it, or perfectly good toys or clothing….throwing out items is like throwing out money, and none of us wants to do that, right? Normally I talk about eating garbage (just kidding) and today it’s about letting my kids play with garbage (again, just kidding, mostly).
My little guy with his tackle box in his “trunk” all ready to go fishing.
Today’s item is a little unusual and at the same time, very ordinary. The other day I posted a deal on Rapala Lures that my husband found. Of course he ordered some and they arrived over the weekend. He sat down with our guys and their tackle boxes and began opening the new lures and re-evaluating the older lures. Several of them had rusty hooks and other faults that meant they could no longer be used. Of course we could just throw them in the trash, right?
No! Instead, my husband got out a pair of wire cutters and cut the hooks off of them, just leaving the body part of the lure. They are now in the boys’ tackle box, and they think they have real lures, just like Daddy!
That got me to thinking….what other typical household items do we just throw out or throw in the recycling bin, when they could possibly be used by kids?
Food & Grocery items: Clean up the packages still in good conditions, and let the kids play house/kitchen/store with them. A “real” cereal box is better than a play one any day.
Shampoo & dish soap bottles: Clean them out and these will make great squirt bottles for the pool or beach.
Tea & china sets: I had a few random tea cups made from real bone china. Yes, they are breakable and yes they have to be used under adult supervision, but these make for a very special tea party for my niece. Much better than the plastic stuff.
Plastic scoops that come with either powdered drink mixes or laundry detergent: We use these for playing in the sand.
Next time you’re throwing an ordinary item away….stop and think? Does it have any other possible uses for your kids for play/pretend? It just might! And what I like, the boys feel like they’ve gotten a new toy and I haven’t spent any money.
