Tip #1: Repurposing Everday Items

There are things in your home that are much more useful than you or I ever imagined!

So here's a funny little question a great professor asked me once: How many things can you do with a brick?

First, you'll probably say that you can build something with it, like a house. Or, you can smash something with it, like a window. But what else? For starters, you can use it as a step. You could also use it as a make-shift hammer. Or, use it as a weight when you make cheese, corned beef, or sauerkraut. You can put it in the tank of your toilet so it displaces water and reduces how much you use to flush. If you have many bricks, you can make an herb spiral. What else can you do with a brick?

I think you're getting the gist here: We look at items everyday, we give them names, but often we restrict their functions to the ones that are most ordinary.

When it comes to living a sustainable life, we have to go MacGuyver! We have to look at our possessions with greedy eyes, rubbing our hands eagerly as we wonder how many functions we can squeeze out of every item we see.


REPURPOSED ITEM #1: THE BACKPACK
Repurpose: Carrying other items, like groceries
Replaces: getting new plastic bags, forgetting your reusable bag

Let's start basic, people. You have a backpack, or a messenger bag, or this kind of thing. You probably put books in it, maybe an emergency banana snack once in a while. Or maybe you have one, but you graduated and it's collecting dust in some closet.

Get the backpack out and look at it. Open it up. There's so much SPACE in there! And when you put things in, they're heavy, but you can carry it on your back! SO much better than trudging down streets with an awkward shopping bag in each hand. You'll have your hands free for your hands-free!

Next time you go to buy groceries, or school supplies, or office stuff, or computer parts, PUT IT IN YOUR BACKPACK!

You can also put OTHER BAGS folded up inside your backpack, and have even more carrying capacity!

Try it today. The backpack.