I've been drinking sugar-free drink mixes for the past year or so. Crystal Light is a tad expensive (like twice the cost!), so I've been looking at various house brands. HEB, Kroger, and Target all have different flavors, some of which are quite tasty, and other of which are more forgettable. Aside from the taste, what I like about these mixes is the packaging.
The only pictures I could find (after a lot of googling) are from the Crystal Light web site, so I've borrowed this one to show the canister that I am now so fond of (sorry, Kraft people). The drink mixes come in a plastic cylinder that is 6.5 inches tall and 2.75 inches in diameter and capped with a plastic lid. Crystal Light tends to invest in colors for the lids; the house brands tend to be white, although I have seen some light pink cylinders now and then. Inside the canisters are 6 little plastic "tubs" filled with the powdered drink mix.
I recycle the little tubs, since I don't have a use for them currently. The canister, however, is a whole other thing. Peel the label off and you have the perfect storage container for odd bits and pieces and handy tools.
My first thought when I saw these containers was that they would be useful for storing beads. They have been quite handy for dumping in some (larger) beads that I normally store in little drawers so that I can take them with me when traveling. I can just pick out the beads I want for a project, put them in the canisters, take them with me, and then return the leftover beads to the drawers when I return.
I then discovered that the canisters were the perfect way to store the very unhandy shape of a marinade injector. I just put the pieces of the injector in one of the canisters and used a marker pen to label the outside to identify the contents. Now I have the injector in an easy-to-find location on the shelf and don't have to worry about pricking myself when hunting for it in a drawer.
My latest use is to store tubes of beads. I always worry about hanging them from a rack. Just one bit of carelessness will have beads strewn everywhere when that top comes off. The tubes don't stand up very well either. I can, however, slip several of them into one of these canisters and have no fear that the lids will pop off in transit. The canisters are not transparent, so I still have to dig through them to see where the bead that I am wanting might be, but it's a whole lot easier to store the tubes these days, thanks to the canisters.
While I've managed to come up with a few canisters on my own, Big Kid Cousin and her mom are particularly heavy drinkers of Market Pantry Raspberry Tea (one of my own favorites). BKS provides me with a steady stream of her leftover canisters, and I seem to be finding endless uses for them.
Recycling is good, yes, but repurposing is also a good use of resources since it saves the added cost of sending the item back through the manufacturing process. Could the best repurposing be to find recycled items that can be repurposed? Whatever. If you can, repurpose; if not, recycle.
I recycle the little tubs, since I don't have a use for them currently. The canister, however, is a whole other thing. Peel the label off and you have the perfect storage container for odd bits and pieces and handy tools.
My first thought when I saw these containers was that they would be useful for storing beads. They have been quite handy for dumping in some (larger) beads that I normally store in little drawers so that I can take them with me when traveling. I can just pick out the beads I want for a project, put them in the canisters, take them with me, and then return the leftover beads to the drawers when I return.
I then discovered that the canisters were the perfect way to store the very unhandy shape of a marinade injector. I just put the pieces of the injector in one of the canisters and used a marker pen to label the outside to identify the contents. Now I have the injector in an easy-to-find location on the shelf and don't have to worry about pricking myself when hunting for it in a drawer.
My latest use is to store tubes of beads. I always worry about hanging them from a rack. Just one bit of carelessness will have beads strewn everywhere when that top comes off. The tubes don't stand up very well either. I can, however, slip several of them into one of these canisters and have no fear that the lids will pop off in transit. The canisters are not transparent, so I still have to dig through them to see where the bead that I am wanting might be, but it's a whole lot easier to store the tubes these days, thanks to the canisters.
While I've managed to come up with a few canisters on my own, Big Kid Cousin and her mom are particularly heavy drinkers of Market Pantry Raspberry Tea (one of my own favorites). BKS provides me with a steady stream of her leftover canisters, and I seem to be finding endless uses for them.
Recycling is good, yes, but repurposing is also a good use of resources since it saves the added cost of sending the item back through the manufacturing process. Could the best repurposing be to find recycled items that can be repurposed? Whatever. If you can, repurpose; if not, recycle.
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