In an effort to extend the usable life of her items, one mom recently showed how a common dinner ingredient — pasta sauce — can do double duty after the fact.
The scoop
In a TikTok video, mom and home hacks enthusiast Miranda Stewart (@mirandalynstewart) shows off her leakproof pasta sauce jar water bottle, which she drinks from while riding in a car.
@mirandalynstewart wild thought to reuse a pasta glass jar…I know 🫠 #reuserecycle #nontoxic ♬ Just A Girl - No Doubt
"Wild thought to reuse a pasta glass jar," she jokes, screwing on the lid and tossing it into her bag.
"I love this!" one commenter enthused.
Other TikTokers have demonstrated how they love to repurpose sauce jars into leakproof containers for their iced coffees, smoothies, and more.
How it's helping
This hack is particularly easy. A pasta sauce jar is ready to be repurposed as soon as it's been washed. But even for slightly more complicated items — like a used candle container — it's generally easy to remove any residue to then repurpose the vessel. Used candle containers can make great plant pots, bathroom storage jars, and more.
Repurposing items they already own is a great way to save money and time, especially for on-the-go parents. Other parents have shared similar hacks, like turning an empty tissue box into an interactive toy, converting dried-out markers into paints, and even reusing baby food jars as drinking cups.
Similarly, buying items secondhand — from toys to kids' clothing to furniture — is an excellent way to keep costs down. Considering that one-time purchases, like strollers and cribs, can add up to thousands of dollars, this can mean some major savings.
Many parents also contribute to local circular economies, where they give and exchange childcare items on platforms like Nextdoor, Facebook Marketplace, Buy Nothing groups, and other parenting communities. Not only does this offer parents a chance to declutter their own homes, but it also keeps items from going to landfills.
When an item ends up in the landfill, it may be out of sight, but that doesn't mean it's out of the environment. In fact, items that sit in these "garbage lasagnas" end up releasing contaminants, from microplastics to planet-warming gases like methane, into their surrounding area.
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Giving me money back 💰 Because of this, extending the usable lifetime of items — even pasta sauce jars — is a great way to reduce your environmental impact. Once an item has finally reached the end of its usable life, making sure to responsibly recycle it whenever possible can make a big difference.
What everyone's saying
Fellow commenters were eager to implement Miranda's tips.
"Idk how I haven't thought of this!" one said.
Others had already enjoyed the benefits of similar hacks. "I'm using jelly jars and I'm obsessed, they're so cute," one person shared.
"I am always reusing something," another echoed.
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