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Reusing household items, college style



People are always thinking up new ways to make use of old things, and when you're living in a dorm room with limited space, you're probably finding a handy side you never knew you had. Chris Connel shows us some tips for reusing in the home, and many can be translated to campus life.

Her first item is a great, stackable way to save your plastic bags for reuse. Of course, you might want to consider simply buying the reusable shopping bags, which are especially useful to carry books home from the bookstore at the beginning of the semester.

The second item is a method to liven up champagne bottles that have been open for a time. Hmmm, I wonder if it would work for beer?


As for her plant fertilizer, it would definitely be handy for those dorm-window pots of cheer, but I'm not sure how many college students would actually have Epsom salts on their shelves.

Her water wings tip is the most interesting to me. Raid your parents' boxes of stuff from when you or your siblings were water wing-age, or hit up a yard sale. With the amount of packing and moving around you do while in college, this is a great way to protect your stuff while sparing the landfills of water wing plastic.

The last two items could also be useful. If you're a home-sewer or you would rather patch up your clothes than throw them away, a little hairspray might not be such a bad idea. Although, you could probably get away with dipping your finger into a pot of hair molding putty for the same effect, and spare the air. Last but not least, everyone hoards wrapping supplies do we not? Any method of reviving them for reuse is great in my books.

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