The Arm & Hammer Switch & Save Challenge is coming to an end with this post and giveaway. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda is my longtime favorite product for cleaning (and cookies!), but I had never really tried Arm & Hammer’s other products. I’ve been so impressed how they’ve matched up both in price and quality with the products I’ve used in the past.
Since the last product I received to review was the Arm & Hammer Spinbrush ProClean Toothbrush, I thought I’d share how our family makes it do by reusing an old toothbrush.
It’s a trick I learned from my mom. She’s famous in our family for her cleaning prowess and it’s a family joke that she is such a careful cleaner that she cleans with a toothbrush.
It’s no joke though. An old toothbrush is an invaluable cleaning tool.
My mom scrubs the grout in her showers, the hard to reach spots behind the faucet on a sink, and in the corners of just about everywhere with an old toothbrush.
Nothing beats a toothbrush for getting into crevices and crannies that can’t be reached with a cloth or a sponge.
I even use an old toothbrush and gentle toothpaste to clean my wedding ring.
So next time you are ready for a new toothbrush, be sure to save the old one for the cleaning bucket. You’ll be glad you did.
And here’s one quick tip. I like to mark a cleaning toothbrush with a sharpie pen. That way the kid’s don’t accidentally try to use the one that was used to scrub the tub!
Now for a $25 Visa Gift Card Giveaway:
To enter simply leave a comment on this post answering the question:
“What’s your favorite item to reuse?”
By the way, I loved reading all the ways you keep your families healthy. There are some great tips in there that I can’t to try… and many others I said AMEN to.
The Rules:
- Contest closes on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 10:00 MDT
- Only one comment per person please.
- Random winner will be announced on Friday, October 14th
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This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc, the maker of ARM & HAMMER branded products, who is compensating me to try different products. Get a $4.00 coupon for ARM & HAMMER Spinbrush then head over to The Switch & Save Challenge where you can enter to win $25,000.
I take old clothes (that are too far gone to donate to the thrift store) and cut them up for rags. They are great to have around.
I like to reuse dryer sheets. They make great dust rags and the anti-static stuff they leave behind helps keep the dust off longer.
I take old sheets, tablecloths and curtains I find at yard sales and thrift stores and turn them into just about everything from changing table covers to quilt squares. I think I love this particular kind of re-purposing because it saves me tons of money and turns into a fun scavenger hunt for me and my kiddos.
I reuse Peanut Butter containers. They are a handy size for crayons, hair elastics, kids’ art stuff, etc. etc.
I reused a milk jug for one of my son’s school art projects.
Jelly jars – for storing/sorting buttons, ribbon scraps, and other sewing things. I try to buy “pretty jelly” if I know I’m going to need a jar. I use peanut butter jars for the kids’ perler/melt beads, potholder loops, etc. And one PB jar for hot wheels to go in my purse when we are going to be waiting somewhere.
Mason jars. They’re all over my house: in the bathroom for Q-tips & small hair barettes, in the craft room for little parts, in the pantry for the traditional uses and to store pasta, rice, & dry beans. Oh, and in the garage for loose pieces there.
I like to reuse plastic bags from the grocery store.
Pillow cases
1. Cut a hole in the end to slip the round part of a hangar through and you have a dust cover for costumes or coats or out of season clothes.
2.Cut off the closed end and cut a bit from the sides for arm holes; fold over the edges and hem; attach lace strips for ties. These are great for sending overseas since they weigh hardly anything.
I love to reuse everything – jars are washed and used for storing items (getting harder and harder to find glass jars), bags are reused for thrash, old clothing is recycled into rags and/or craft projects and stale bread is made into croutons or used as crumb topping on casseroles. I believe in the slogan of waste not, want not!!
Wine corks! I have so many adorable crafts I want to make with them.
When my son was little he had a favorite shirt. In fact, several of his friends also had favorite shirts- they were sometimes t-shirts, sometimes flannel button-up types… anyway.. as they were all healthy boys the shirts became tattered pretty fast. But these little five and six year olds STILL loved them. So I cut out the arms and made a rectangle or square (depending on the shirt and the reason for it needing to be replaced), buttoned up the flannel shirts; added some neutral coloured cloth to the neck opening; sewed some denin (from old jeans) onto the back and turned them into pillows. When my son left for law school recently he actually took his shirt-pillow with him. Said it made him smile. Which of course made me cry.
Paper towel rolls. Just reused some yesterday for slides in my kids’ art project. There are so many art uses for those things!
I use old toothbrushes for cleaning my jewlery and detailing my car!
I love to save glass jars and use them for organizing beads and craft supplies, or to put flowers in. I also save tin cans for projects (like your telephones!) and I use them for vases too. I am also weird about wasting paper towels…if I use one to dry my hands, I also have to use it to wipe up something on the floor or cupboard before I will throw it away.
Thanks for all your ideas on saving money, your blog is a daily must-read to me!
I like to sheets to make my sons clothes. I also use my husband old clothes into my sons clothes..
I totally reuse toothbrushes too. At one point, the stash got a little out of hand, because I’m pretty serious about replacing toothbrushes.
I also like to reuse toilet paper rolls, dryer lint, and broken crayons or burned out candles to make fire starters. It takes some real throw away materials and makes them good again.
I use the empty Crystal Light containers to hold pens and pencils. I have also covered them with patterned papers, tied ribbons around them and given them as gift pen holders!
I use mason jars for everything! We bought some and were gifted some which we used for our wedding and now they are all over our house. In the pantry to store flours, beans, grains, spices, nuts in the fridge and homemade broth in the freezer. In the sewing room for odds and ends. In the bathrooms as candle holders. On the dining room table as decorations. I love being able to use them over and over again!
My favorite organizer is old Velveeta cheese boxes. They fit perfect in the egg/butter part of the fridge to hold all the random soy/dipping sauces you accumulate from restaurants. They are also great for pens/pencils/crayons. Also I use old socks for everything. I use them as one time dusters,I’ve used them to stain wood and they make great interior car cleaners with a spray of armor all.
I love to use my old clothes and make cute new clothes for my baby girl. I also use a sheets in making quilts. I just found your blog about a week ago and I love it. Just wanted to say thanks for the work you put into it.
I use the margarine containers to storage leftovers in refrigerator. I also like to use jars and decorate them for christmas. They can be painted, and filled with flowers, candy, etc. The coffee containers are algo good to decorate for any holiday season.
When the leaves start falling, mow over them and scatter them all around your gardens, several inches thick. Will protect your flowers, vines, and bushes from winter kill + nutrition for your soil. Nana Dana
I reuse Mason jars to make Love Jars…so many good feelings and love go into making one for that special someone, and even more love felt when received.
Here’s a link in case you’re interested…
http://www.ehow.com/how_2335279_make-love-jar.html
I like to reuse old curtains, especially old lace curtains.They can be used for tablecloths, place mats & even pillows.
I reuse toothbrushes all the time. But I also reuse socks. Before tossing them (actually in the recycling bin), I use socks for dusting and other cleaning duty. A sock goes over your hand like a mitten and easily wipes away any dust and dirt. Socks may require one more wash before recycling.
I reuse old clothing as rags. We also have a compost pile in our yard.
There are so many, but my favorite is fabric. I use all kinds for crafts- especially the fabric that look hideous at first blush, but seen as a fabric flower or funny soft toy, is a great find. I also love to get vintage sheets and use for quilting.
Last year I cut up some plain white pillow cases that we never used. I used the pillow case fabric for some quilt blocks.
I take old jeans that have a bunch of holes in them and use them to put patches on new jeans that have little holes in them.
I reuse anything made of fabric! Curtains, sheets, clothing, tablecloths, etc. Sometimes I also like to swap curtains from room to room–it gives a whole new look for no $$$!
We reuse plastic shopping bags at garbage bags for our smaller cans. When I have too many, I donate them to our local thrift store.
I reuse dryer lint – I save it for campfires and such. It makes a super fast fire starter.
Awesome idea! I’d never thought of that but it makes so much sense! I’m going to start saving my dryer lint for fires in our fireplace this winter.
I love to use the fabric from old torn or stained clothes for crafts and sewing projects.
I like to reuse water. If I can I like to dump it on plants or the grass outside, rather than down the drain, but I do drain the bathtub :) I also reuse jars of all kinds.
I reuse dryer sheets to dust around the house. I reuse carboard boxes for crafts, storage, shipping, drop-cloth coverage, etc. I reuse as much as possible!
I use grocery bags as lunch bags! The small bags from Whole Foods are great.
I reuse plastic bags from the grocery store to wash the litter box and also dryer sheets that I use 3 times in the dryer before reusing it to dust in the house and remove pet hair on the carpet..
Tall cylindrical cookie tins (that we get around Christmas time as gifts) make great containers for dried spaghetti and pasta. I also reuse the plastic tubs that salad greens come in for craft supplied and organizing my freezer!
Shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls. Great for crafts and organizing!
We use grocery bags and plastic zipper bags in our house. I hate to throw them away unless they are really dirty/gross!
demureprincess7(at)gmail(dot)com
I reuse my canning jars…year after year!
I love to reuse my fabric scraps for craft projects (toilet paper rolls and egg cartons too).
I reuse gift wrap/bags…great way to save $$.
I reuse jars as well, but especially baby food jars. My husband is a saddlemaker and silversmith so he uses them for dye, and hardware and we use them to store all our nuts, bolts, etc. in the garage. I love that they are clear and you can see exactly what is in them.
I like the challenge of reusing as much as I can. We reuse our kitchen scraps to make compost. My sister, mom and I share magazine subscriptions. I use old or single socks as dust cloths. When my kids grew out of the baby washcloths I used them for everyday cloth napkins. We melt down our broken crayons into molds to make new crayons. We save all of the paper that is printed on one side that comes into our home. It goes back out to my daughter’s school so the kids can color on the back of it. I have loved finding new ideas to reuse in this post…
We use old toothbrushes for all kinds of cleaning
If you ask my hubby what I reuse, he would tell you twisty ties off of the bread. Yeah, so funny, but so true!
I too like to reuse whatever I can – makes me feel more earth friendly, creative and all that good stuff. I reuse bags for the garbage tins in my bathroom, #10 cans for oh – everything in my craft room – but the cutest thing so far is that I took a brown ribbon from something and an orange leaf from something else and glued them (with a glue gun)on a plain cream jar candle – voila! a too-cute fall candle for the window pane in my kitchen!
Okay – so above I meant window sill – not pane.
Woo! October 13th is my birthday.
I reuse the Crystal Lite tube containers, and put cookies in them, to mail overseas to my daughter who is in the Peace Corps. Hardly any cookies get broken!
Love it!
yogawithgaileee at gmail dottith com
I reuse as much as I can although I keep it simple. Old sock turn into dust rags. Coffee cans & glass jars turn into grease recepticles. I use plastic bags from the stor as garbage bags and to wrap fragile items when moving.
We use wool dryer balls and reuse those instead of dryer sheets!
soluckyducky at gmail dot com
I reuse the sour cream and yogurt containers for oatmeal dishes on the go in the morning. I try my best to bring them home and wash but don’t get upset if I don’t and need to throw them in the recycle bin.
I reuse the Arm & Hammer baking soda that absorbs odors in my fridge. When its time to switch boxes, the old box gets used as a simple quick cleanser for my sink with some vinegar.
We try to re-use everything that is practical before tossing. Including those already mentioned plastic bags, jars, old toothbrushes etc.
But this is my favorite place to find re-use deals (you can’t beat free). Go to The Freecycle Network http://www.freecycle.org/. It is all about reuse and keeping stuff out of landfills. Need a piano, kitchen sink or how about a coffee table. Check it out.
cardboard boxes- i even cut them up to make art with!
I re-use all my vegetable matter, unbleached paper and cardbd, dryer lint and such into my compost.
Cardboard boxes can be reused for lots of things, small ones organize in the freezer, bigger ones keep toys organized and the big ones make good forts!!
I love reusing store jars and finding creative uses for them. Of course I clear them out well but then we all decorate them and make them pencil holders, plant pots, sugar jars :)
This is way too cheap/frugal/embarrassing to even post, but why not, this is a giveaway! LOL! I take the small white cardboard inserts in Little Debbie cakes and use them to write on as memo pads. My family just shakes their head at me…as in…don’t we have 99 cents to just buy a tablet?!!!
My favorite is using the cardboard rectangle off the top of a facial tissue box for a list or note. It’s much stronger than paper and already the perfect size.
I also reuse anything and everything like toothbrushes for cleaning, grocery bags for trash and T-shirts for cleaning rags. ‘Once is not enough’, is my motto.
I use stockings beyond repair to store onions in my pantry. (If i run a leg in pantyhose I cut it off and just wear another “pair” that has had a leg removed). For the onions, I put one in the toe and then make a knot above it before I slip in another onion. I leave enough at the top to make a loop to tie to a shelf. When you want an onion you just cut below the knot.
I’ve been a long time re-user of old toothbrushes for cleaning. Grocery bags are reused or recycled. Old tattered clothes go to the rag pile. Butter tubs and the like have been put to use when painting. A number of plastic food containers have been well cleaned and saved for my young niece who loves to play house and grocery shopping, she was so excited to have “real” items to put in her shopping cart.
I use old toothbrushes to scrub stains out of clothes before they go in the wash. I also like to cut up old wool sweaters and knit them into kitchen and bath rugs.
I use plastic egg cartons as a paint palate when my daughter is inspired to make some beautiful work of art!
I like to use the plastic grocery bags as garbage bags.
I feel so at home with this group! Just about all the stuff above has been or could be found in my home.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is those sturdy plastic cat litter bins. I pick them out of the curbside recycling bins. I use them for holding compost in the kitchen before taking it out to the pile. The air-tight lid keeps the smell (what little there is) contained and even keeps out the fruit flies in summer. There is another bin holding the soiled guinea pig bedding before that goes out, and 2 more under the sink for sorting recycling.
I have a bunch more in the basement for whenever I need to haul around messy stuff, like plants dug up from the garden. Or water from the dehumidifier. One of my kids likes to make waterworks in the driveway, and it kills me to run the hose for that kind of stuff, so I give her a bucket or two of water that would otherwise have gone down the drain.
My fun re-use item is blown-out egg shells. Tape up the end and fill with stiff Jello. Peel off the egg shell and you’ve got Jello Easter eggs.
My favorite items to re-use is glass jars. Canning jars of course I use over and over again (I still can in jars my grandma canned in) but also when I occasionally buy something in(or have a present that comes in) a glass jar I reuse it to save honey from our bees or put in dried beans, pasta or grains. We live in an OLD house and that keeps the occasional mouse from chewing through cardboard packaging!
I like to save scraps of scrapbook/cardstock paper. I can’t bring myself to throw away any little piece of paper that is a scrap. You never know when you will need it to make a creative statement!
I have to agree I keep my old tooth brushes for many uses!!
I reuse glass jars for storage containers and plastic grocery bags for small can liners.
What’s your favorite item to reuse?
I love to reuse Starbucks Frappuccino glass bottles as little vases around the house.
I like to reuse old t-shirts, the ones full of holes, and turn them into sleepy time shirts by cutting off the sleeves and the collar so I feel less restricted when sleeping in them :)
I reuse jars and containers of all kinds..even McDonald’s coffee cups!
I reuse old toothbrushes for cleaning, plastic grocery bags for small trash cans (I use cloths bags but occasionally I forget them and then I get stocked up again), I use the produce bags in my juicer to catch the peelings/seeds so I don’t have to wash that part, glass jars, baby food jars make a great little bacon grease jar and it fits in the fridge so easily, and paper towel/tp rolls for my sons crafts.
Old t-shirts. I cut them up for cute rosettes to put on hair pins and headbands.
I reuse mason jars, plastic bags, and old toothbrushes (disinfect them and they are great to help me clean in tough corners and edges)eg. aroung the bathroom sinks.
I rarely have to buy napkins or plastic bags. Most fast food restaurants put WAY more napkins in your sack than you would need, and I suspect many just get thrown away by customers. Well, I take them home to use. For my kitchen and bathroom wastebaskets, I always use the plastic bags from my store purchases.
i like to reuse glass jars as little pots for flowers!!
I love reusing cardstock, newspaper, and magazines for scrapbooking projects :)
definitely jars
I guess I reuse ziploc bags the most. Rinse them out and hang to dry. I also have mason jars, old antique jars and vases that I put various items in to store. Makeup brushes, qtips etc.
I use old candles to make pinecone fire starters.
I loved using my cute little jam jars to make another yummy batch of raspberry peach jam this year! I have really enjoyed making jam and carefully store my jars so they are ready to go!