By Kat Diltz

Staff Writer

When juggling family, friends, classwork, jobs and other everyday activities, it is very easy to get lazy and leave old, used items lying around the house. Instead of gathering everything up and throwing it in the trash, turn everyday items into useful tools, decorations or even a fun gift.

Here are multiple ways to get you started:

• Reuse ketchup bottles for ready-to-use pancake mix. Clean out an empty ketchup bottle and fill it up with pancake batter for easy storage. Squeeze out the batter onto a heated skillet for a faster, no-mess breakfast.  
• Turn old credit cards into guitar picks. Using scissors or an XACTO-knife, cut a pick shape out of the plastic. Just be careful and be sure to do this on a flat surface so you don’t get hurt.
• Turn an empty tissue box into a bag dispenser. Instead of stuffing old grocery bags into a drawer that’ll take up space, store them in an old tissue box. Take one plastic bag and place the rest inside, then store them upside down inside the tissue box for easy access.
• Use an old cupcake tin as a jewelry organizer. Put earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets in each row or column. You could also decorate the tin with scrapbook paper to make it appear more presentable. Or, as a gift to a friend, decorate the tin with patterned paper and fill it with small knick-knacks and candy.
• Soundproof loud cabinets with felt and glue. If you have an early class and don’t want to wake your roommates with the sound of slamming cabinet doors, simply cut a small circle out of felt fabric and glue onto the corner of the inside of the door.
• Use old suitcases as storage spaces. Store kitchen placemats or linen in an old suitcase. Vintage suitcases can make fun, rustic decorations or table settings.
• Turn old calendar pages into wrapping paper. Personalize a birthday present by using an old calendar page of your friend’s birthday month, and circle their birthday on the wrapping.
• Turn a wooden ladder into a towel rack. Prop a wooden ladder (ladders made of wood can withstand humidity as opposed to metal ones) on the bathroom wall to store towels and other items.

With little to no work, you can turn trash into treasure. Have fun upcycling your old items into useful appliances.