You have emptied out the last drop of your pasta sauce from its bottle. Now, what do you do with the thick glass jar?

Good news! You can turn it into a drinking glass or, if you accumulate enough jars, you can make a set of drinking glasses too. It is a less conventional option but mason jars can work just like a regular drinking glass for your juices and water. Just add a (reusable) straw for thicker beverages like smoothies and milkshakes.

You can also use them to store baked goodies, home-made bath salts or even convert into a tealight holder to set a romantic or cosy mood at home. The list of things you can do with mason jars goes on!

Before you toss out your toothbrush and replace it with a new one every three to four months, consider that they make really good cleaners that get into hard-to-reach areas. They do more than just giving your teeth a scrub, for sure.

Old toothbrushes are great to get into all the nooks and crannies around the home, such as around faucets and sinks, along windowsills, and in between tiles.

They are small enough to get in-between all the knobs of a computer keyboard and monitor. They also work themselves easily into the crevices of jewellery.

Just make sure that you label these discarded toothbrushes correctly so that you wouldn’t mistakenly use them to clean your teeth.

You broke your dishes but fret not, they can be easily turned into art, if you find ways to repurpose them. Pick up the broken pieces (carefully, of course) and place them in a container.

The broken china pieces can be used to re-tile outdoor tables, flower pots or paths. Before you do that, use an abrasive material such as sandpaper to smooth the edges so that they won’t cut your skin. After you have done so, you can use super glue to stick the pieces onto a plain surface, creating a pretty mosaic pattern as your creativity leads. It’ll make for a fun DIY home activity for the weekend.

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Instead of chucking shoe boxes next time you buy a pair of sneakers or heels, consider keeping them as storage solutions for things around the house. Of course, you can use them as they’re intended – to store shoes you may not wear so often – but they also make great organisation tools for keeping everything from toys to craft materials in one place.

You can also dress them in gift wrapping paper to beautify them and make them into cute-looking boxes for your knick-knacks.

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We hear this a lot but your old T-shirts have so much more life to them, if you re-purpose them well.

Give them a second lease on life by cutting them up and turning them into washing rags. They soak up liquids and dirt pretty well and you can toss them out after they get really dirty. Or if you are feeling creative, you can even combine the cut-up fabrics into a beautiful, braided rug.

You’ve just polished off a container of yogurt but now, what do you do with the empties? Don’t throw them away because they are actually quite useful for seedling starter pots – a great way to teach the kids about plants and patience.

Simply poke a few holes in the bottom so that excess water can seep out. After that, add soil and a scatter a few seeds on top of the soil and cover them with more soil. Place the lid underneath the container to collect water.

To clean off the printing on the container, use acetone-based nail polish remover and a cloth to rub it off.

If you are feeling a bit more creative, tape the exterior of the container with colourful duct tape or spray-paint the exterior over stencils to create patterns.

Before you throw away your favourite coffee mug because it’s all stained or even chipped, consider upcycling them into stylish pots to grow herbs or succulents. If you can, drill a few drainage holes in the bottom for excess water to seep through (so that the roots would not rot, causing the plant to die). Coffee mugs aren’t as big as other planters, but they are great for small succulents or other small plants.

If drilling holes is too dangerous, you can also double up your old mugs as cutlery holders or stationery holders. They work equally well both ways.

You can do the same with empty beauty product containers too!

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If you are a wine lover, chances are, you would be able to accumulate a stash of wine corks. With wine corks, you can DIY a wine cork board to pin your notes, reminders or pictures of your little ones in the kitchen or office.

Firstly, get a piece of plywood to stick the wine corks onto. Secondly, go ahead and cut the corks in half length-wise. That will make them easier to glue (with white glue) onto the board. After you are done, frame it up and then you can start pinning items onto it with push pins.

Some electrical outlets are located at a low position on the wall, making it difficult to find a place to put your cell phone when it’s charging. You don’t want to leave an expensive phone on the floor where it might get stepped on or scratched, though.

Here’s a solution to keep your phone off the ground without placing it on a table or chair next to the charging outlet: convert an empty shampoo bottle into a handphone charging holder.

Firstly, find an empty, thoroughly cleaned bottle around your house. Find one that has a flat shape rather than a round one.  The flattened shape will keep the bottle closer to the wall. Secondly, measure your mobile phone against the bottle to be sure that the size is not too small. You want a size that you can fit your mobile phone into. Lastly, draw an outline of the shape of the phone holder and cut along the lines. Watch this Youtube tutorial to find out exactly how to do it.

Larger candle jars make great holders for makeup brushes while smaller ones can hold cotton buds and cotton pads.

Keep your bobby pins, lipsticks, makeup pencils and other beauty essentials in one place, or use them to organise all your stationery like pens and pencils.

Here’s how to remove all of that extra wax at the bottom of the jar after you have finished burning the candle:

Freeze the container in the fridge overnight and the wax hardens, making it easier to break the wax apart with a knife in the morning. After that, thoroughly clean it out and voila, you can start using your empty candle jar.

So before you swiftly bin these 10 items in the trash or recycling bin, think of creative ways to reuse them — which your wallet and Mother Earth would thank you for.

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Text: Sheila Chiang