creative recycling–a nifty recycled peg basket

Living frugally often means tapping into our creativity to find ways to meet our needs and solve problems without spending money.

It involves using the resources we have readily available and recycling or refashioning them into useable alternatives.

A few years ago I needed a new way to store my clothes pegs. Up until that time, they had been stored in a plastic shopping bag and pegged to the clothes horse.

This had worked out fine for years, but as we had finally moved out of our apartment and into a place that had an actual clothes line.

I wanted something more durable and user friendly. After letting it stew for a while this is what I came up with.

The empty cordial bottle is the perfect size to fit my pegs. The plastic is very sturdy, especially the handle. I cut the handle so that it would hang on the line, and punched holes in the bottom so that rain will drain out.

The first peg bucket lasted two years before the plastic broke down and it fell apart. If I stored it inside and out of the weather rather than leaving it in the rain, it would have lasted a lot longer (not to mention the pegs).

It’s a little plain and boring, but I don’t mind that. If you wanted to, a bit of paint or coloured paper or fabric would jazz the peg bucket up (you would then have to store it inside).

The great thing about this solution is that it’s free. It cost me nothing to create a functional peg basket to last me years, and it only took a few minutes to cut the bottle into the shape that I needed with a pair of kitchen scissors.

Better yet, that is one less container to end up into landfill (or be recycled, rather), and I haven’t purchased more plastic in the form of a commercial peg basket, that would also one day end up in landfill.

What creative recycling have you done?

Have you read these posts?

1. creative recycling: repurposing junk
2. 24 Creative Ways to Recycle Cardboard Milk Cartons
3. tip tuesday – recycled mini cookie cutter
4. creative recycling with baby formula tins
5. tip tuesday – wash your plastic bags