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Friday Favorite: Repurposing

November 29th, 2013

I love being to reuse, repurpose or compost items that come into my home. There’s nothing I hate more than producing waste, we try to avoid products with excess packaging and focus on buying products with compostable packaging or no packaging.
Feed Bags 1
The whole grains I buy from the local mill for the animals around here comes in big brown paper bags. These are 100% paper, no plastic layer nested in between the paper like most feed bags. What I love about these is that they’re the exact width of my garden pathways.
Feed Bags 2
They lay perfectly down in the walkways and act as a mulch, keeping weeds at bay and keeping my shoes a little less muddy. The worms also love them, as do the snakes. Right now I’m saving them up in the garage for using next spring. I love it when I can use something I have on hand in the garden.

Have you found ways to compost/reuse/repurpose items that make their way into your home?

8 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Repurposing”
  1. Kay on November 29, 2013 at 6:42 am

    Oh yes, I reuse/recycle all the time. Many of our grain bags are used as our trash bags. LOL

    Reply to Kay's comment

  2. Karla on November 29, 2013 at 6:43 am

    The reason I started worm composting after considering it for a while was to find something to do with exams (mostly finals) students didn’t pick up rather than just shred them and put them in the recycling bin. Now, if I’ve had them a year, they’re shredded and become worm bedding/food.

    Reply to Karla's comment

  3. Nebraska Dave on November 29, 2013 at 9:31 am

    Susy, those bags in your picture are very similar to yard waste bags. I lay those yard waste bags down on the ground before I pour out the mulch on top of the bag. Next spring a hand held edger will be used to slice through the mulch and rotted bag to allow planting into the soil beneath. I wish I’d thought of it last year as well.

    For my garden paths I start with old carpet torn out of apartment buildings. It’s an abundant source and since all cheap apartment carpet is synthetic today it does not rot. After being in the garden paths for two years it’s still in good shape. I expect that I’m the only one in town with carpet paths in the garden. :-)

    I hope your Thanksgiving was a memory builder as was mine. As usual I ate too much and had wonderful conversations with all the friends gathered there.

    Have a great Black Friday. Will you be shopping today? Cyber Monday is not far away Brian.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

    • Susy on November 29, 2013 at 4:03 pm

      No shopping today, we’re actually celebrating one Thanksgiving with family today.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  4. Annie on November 29, 2013 at 11:28 am

    The snakes??? lol!

    Reply to Annie's comment

    • Nebraska Dave on November 29, 2013 at 11:40 am

      Annie, yeah, I tolerate snakes but don’t really like them much. I know they are an integral part of gardening but I just don’t want to see them.

      Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  5. daisy on November 29, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    Yeah, we make a concerted effort to buy stuff with less packaging and use our own bags when we do go shopping. We have our spare room packed with boxes from neighbors who moved into the neighborhood who passed them on to us for when we make our big move. Then they’ll be repurposed in the garden for lasagna gardening. It’s a win-win-win!
    Looking forward to your spring garden posts.

    Reply to daisy's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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