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Good morning! Yesterday I shared with you Part 1 of this 2-part series.

Let’s dive right into the ideas!

Don’t Toss: The Last Bit of Blush

Use to Make: Lipgloss

When you have a tiny bit of blush or pink/neutral eyeshadow left, don’t toss the broken little bits! Take the powder and mix thoroughly with a little dab of coconut oil to make a lightly tinted lip gloss. You already know the shade looks good on you, because you’re using it elsewhere on your face. You can even add a bit of flavoring like a drop of peppermint oil. Mix it well and pour into an empty lip gloss pot.

Don’t Toss: Bar Soap Scraps

Use to Make: Lots of Things!

There’s tons of stuff you can make with those little leftover scraps of bar soap. You can simply wet the new bar of soap, and stick the sliver of old soap right to the bottom. You can also save the scraps (if you’re really dedicated) and melt them down to make a new bar of soap, or blend of soaps. You can also fill a washcloth with soap bits and make a self-foaming sponge. Mother Nature Network has all sorts of ideas for using the last bits of your bar soap, and every single one is awesome!

Don’t Toss: Empty Jars

Use to Make: Painted Vases

The next time you buy pasta sauce in the jar, don’t recycle it! Simply rinse and remove the label and you have yourself a mason jar. There’s literally millions of ways to use mason jars on Pinterest, and rather than buy expensive mason jars, you can re-use your sauce jars. You’re not limited to painted vases, you can make just about any mason jar craft from a pasta sauce jar.

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Don’t Toss: Produce Seeds

Use to Make: A Garden

If you’re thinking about planting a garden, you can replant seeds from your organic produce that you’ve purchased from the grocery store or farmer’s market. You can also plant seeds from this year’s harvest next year, rather than repurchasing seeds or starter plants every year. This makes your garden much more budget friendly, and you’re not tossing seeds!

Don’t Toss: Dried Markers

Use to Make: Watercolor Paints

This trick is especially useful for moms, teachers and daycare providers. Save your worn out markers. When you have several of a color, simply fill a baby food jar with water, and put all of the same color marker tip-down in the water. Let soak overnight. The remaining dye makes a great watercolor paint! You can get more details of how to do this by checking out the post over at Finding My Marbles. She gives you a great breakdown and a simple tutorial. It’s really easy and a great money-saver. You could do the same with highlighters for florescent paint!

What do you think of these ideas? What other things can you think of to use the last bit of life out of something? The next time you talk to your grandparents or great-grandparents, ask them if there was anything they or their parents did in leaner times to stretch the life of items, or get more use out of things. You might learn some interesting life hacks!

What’s your favorite way to use leftover things?

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