Today and tomorrow are Repair/Reuse/Recycle Days at my house.

Reusable shopping bags don’t stay this clean, but they can be washed. (Photo credit: Tanacollins)

Repair:

• Ran my reusable shopping bags through the wash (cool gentle wash, air dry cycle, finish drying in room air). First time I’ve tried this (don’t want to think about how yucky they were) — worked like a charm.
• Got out the duct tape and fixed the tears and cracks in said shopping bags and their liners.

Day care providers turn these into everything from steamrollers to binoculars. (Photo credit: Luigi Chiesa)

Reuse:

• Delivering craftable odds and ends (like my world-class collection of empty toilet paper cores) to a local day care center.
• Delivering shirts and jackets that no longer fit my husband (he’s lost thirty pounds) to the Salvation Army Thrift Store (map).

The Humane Society finds veterinary uses for many kinds of medical supplies. (Photo credit: Animagus)

• Delivering surplus medical supplies (oxygen tubing, small containers) to the Lake Humane Society in Mentor (map).

Recycle:

• 

  The Mentor Fire Department drop-off boxes collect aluminum cans for burned children. (Photo credit: Sepp Vei)

  Delivering aluminum cans to the fire station’s Aluminum Cans for Burned Children collection bin.

• Delivering this week’s newspapers to the Paper Retriever at the library (map).

Shop recycle:

• Visiting the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (map) (open Fridays and Saturdays) to shop for an end table.

Little by little, I’m finding order in my chaos!

Repair, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Keep It Out of the Landfill