If you’re a busy mum who likes doing her bit for the planet, then, like me, I’m sure you’re always on the lookout for cool and interesting ways you can recycle and repurpose all those bits and bobs around the house that usually end up in the bin.

The UK has started to catch up with the rest of Europe when it comes to recycling, with everything from glass and metal recycling to nappy recycling services made easily available to most families. But recycling shouldn’t just be about chucking everything into colour-coded boxes and then letting someone else deal with it; to embrace the true spirit of recycling you need to find your own ways to put some of those seemingly redundant items to another use.

In this article, I share some of my favourite tips and tricks for recycling around the house.
Add Some Natural Fragrance to Your Home

A simple but brilliant idea – just fill an old bottle with some natural essential oils and stick in some thin plant branches from your garden. These will naturally diffuse the scent of the oil, creating a calming, welcoming ambience in any room in your house.

Store Your Stationery in Old Plastic Milk Bottles

Another stroke of genius – cutting the bottom half of the front section of a plastic milk bottle away to create a versatile storage unit, perfect for stationery and other craft supplies. Ideal for a playroom or similar area.

Create a Beautiful Basket with Old Newspaper

By weaving strips of old newspaper together, you can create a fabulous-looking basket, which you can use used to store whatever you want (in our house, we use it to store…our newspapers!) You could even use this technique to create a bed for your pet cat or dog to sleep in.

Give Those Stray Utensils a Home

If you need some more storage for your kitchen utensils, then the solution is just a portion of beans on toast away! Save your empty tin cans to use for storing utensils or draining cutlery after washing up. They’ll also come in handy for crafts projects with the kids.
Put Old Wallpaper to Good Use

There are all kinds of things you can do with old wallpaper. Some of my favourites include customising one or more of the doors in your house, decorating some of those tin cans I love to save for storage, and covering the filing folders I use for keeping track of all the household bills.

Once you get into the recycling rhythm, you’ll probably start looking for recycling opportunities everywhere, and you’ll stop simply throwing things away without asking “what could I use this for?”