Step 3: Reuse & Refuse

What are you Reusing? What have you been able to say "No, thanks!" to? Tell us all about it here. We'd love your Reuse tips and tricks and Buy Nothing alternatives that help you Refuse new purchases. This is also the perfect place to ask for help with those things you're struggling to Refuse or can't figure out how to Reuse.

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5 Comments

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nchungausad

Apr 14, 2020

Mine is a small reuse - I wash and save glass jars with metal lids (which can stand the heat of preserving) and donate them to a local cafe, which holds various classes in jam making, preserving, etc. It saves them buying new jars for their workshops, and saves my jars from being a one-use item.

clarkliesl

Apr 18, 2020

Replying to

Love this! Imagine how silly it would be for them to buy new glass jars and lids, when there's so many in abundance being thrown away each day.

clarkliesl

Mar 05, 2020

I'll start with reuse: I've been making dryer balls to reduce our dryer time and also as a natural fabric softener. I found some old wool sweaters, some socks, and wool yarn and made these for our dryer! They're making a difference. No need to buy them, so "No thanks, I've made my own." I don't ever need to use fabric softener again, no more waste from it. And making the dryer balls was fun. (We have a tutorial for how to make 'em in the book.) With regards to what I'm struggling with, back on the laundry list...I often make laundry soap, and we have a great basic recipe in the book. It calls for soap, like fels naptha, as part of the recipe. Has anyone just used regular bar soap for laundry (along with ingredients like borax and washing soda, etc?) Can regular soap all shredded up be used? Would love to know if you've tried that, as well as get your best hacks for making laundry soap with what's at home!

Savanna

Mar 06, 2020

Replying to

Yes, bar soap absolutely can be used as a contributing ingredient in laundry detergent. I tried this because I had many used, small pieces of soaps left, plus samples and hotel bars. Newly wrapped, clean mini-bars I donate to shelters and such, but used ones or ones with no wrappers? Nope. You still need washing soda, baking soda and borax, at least per the recipe I used. The drawback is that if you do not get the soap into small enough bits, especially with harder soaps, they may not dissolve all the way and then may stick to your clothes. I know some use a food processor to get them finer but I didn't have one. The other part of that is that soap can stick and gum up on itself, so you have to be careful using a food processor for it. I got around it with a parmesan grater, after my first failure with a regular cheese grater! You may also be able to use one of those foot-smoothers, like the Ped-Egg, since it also uses about the right size grater (and will collect it for you!) After realizing the problem was the size of the gratings depending on the hardness of the soap and amending that with a smaller grater, it worked just fine! I would recommend sticking to light colored soaps (ivory, white, very light blue, very light yellow,) since especially with handmade soaps, darker colors often mean food dye and food dye LOVES to cling to clothing. Also, glycerin-bar soap based detergent seemed to leave an odd slip to my laundry. It did mostly go away after drying, but I think there's a potential for build-up there. It's oddly clingy but slippery! You can try it with 2 parts washing soda, 2 parts borax, 1 part ground/grated bar soap and 1/2 tsp baking soda, up to 1 teaspoon. 🤗

clarkliesl

Mar 06, 2020

Replying to

@Savanna These are such great directions and with such detail! I find the same problem with the gumming up in my vitamix, so next time I'll try grating whatever soap I use with a cheese grater on the very fine side. Exercise for the wrist and arms. Great advice about the colored soaps! I have access to a lot of used soaps too, so I want to try to use them up as laundry soap. I'd love to see a photo of just how fine the laundry soap is that you make, if you ever have time to share one. Many many thanks!