I have mentioned before that we usually use handkerchiefs (I actually cut up soft pieces of flannel for my toddler; it is so much gentler on his little nose than even the softest paper tissue, but I digress). I do, however, keep Kleenex on hand for company so I occasionally have leftover boxes. Before I recycle an item, I like to see if I can repurpose it. Below are a few ways that I have found to reuse tissue boxes:
Cut off the tops and use the tissue boxes to hold colored pencils, markers, and other craft supplies. It is easier for young children to access the items and put them away:
Put an empty tissue box in the laundry room to hold the dryer lint. When the box is full, I put the lint out for the birds to use or add it to my compost pile.
The most creative use for a tissue box that I have seen is in this month’s edition of Family Fun. They used a tissue box to make a Marshmallow Catapult:
Some other uses for tissue boxes:
Use a tissue box to store plastic grocery bags.
Some of the images on tissue boxes are so pretty that they can be used to make gift tags and book marks. Cut out the image, glue a piece of colored paper to the unfinished side, use a hole punch to punch a hole in the top, and insert a ribbon to attach to gift.
You can use a tissue box and paper towel roll to make this tissue box guitar.
Next time I have two empty tissue boxes, I am going to make this tissue box traffic light with Rew.
And of course, you can always just remove the plastic, break them down, and recycle tissue boxes, but that is not nearly as fun as making a Marshmallow Catapult! Do you reuse your tissue boxes? Do you reuse other containers or boxes instead of tossing or recycling them?
More Frugal Fun for Kids:
Frugal Fun Fall Art Projects for Kids
Gena says
As a follow up to my previous question above, when I click on the link for Marshmallow Catapult, it takes me to the Disney crafts website but when I search for Marshmallow Catapult, it doesn’t have one on that site?? Thanks for your help!
Gena says
Hi – do you have written directions for the catapult? My daughter is trying to make it but we can’t see what is going on with the bottom rubber band that looks like it’s attached to one of the pencils and maybe just taped to the other side of the box??? Very hard to tell from the picture. Thanks so much!
vijaya lakshmi says
And again This catapult project is a fun and great idea for my daughter’s monthly recycling projects in her school.
Thank you !
vijaya lakshmi says
My God ! you even reuse lint!Good recycling. I never thought of reusing it and simply through it away ! Now I get ideas on it. The first one I am going to do it is to make a bird’s nest for my daughter’s school project combining it with coconut coir (one more thing which I often throw when ever I break coconuts as an offering to The God in our prayers ) But I often recycle many card board boxes, cereal boxes etc.
Michelle says
Great ideas! I just wrote a post not too long ago about repurposing a tissue box to hold grocery sacks to keep in my car. I’m taking your idea of using one to keep dryer lint…so much easier than taking my trash can upstairs to empty!
Glenda says
A friend gave me a holiday box of Kleenex–one of those square ones with the pretty decorations and a ‘hologram’ (can’t remember the technical term for it}. It was so nice but well, it was a tissue box and I had to justify keeping it. So, I used it to hold the plastic cutlery at our next holiday party and got raves on it (had to put a plastic grocery bag in the bottom of it because it was too deep but that just made positioning the cutlery easier.
Laurie says
I use all of our leftover boxes on my cricut. Typically I am covering both sides of the project with pretty paper anyway, and love to know that I am reusing.
Anonymous says
Very enlightening and beneficial to someone whose been out of the circuit for a long time.
– Kris
RobbieKay says
You made sense. No, no blog, at this time, just a Google account. 🙂
I actually noticed when I was washing my hair with Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile liquid soap this morning amidst everything else on the bottle it did say that it was safe to use on silk and wool. I may give it a try as I am getting tired of grating soap to make detergent (I don't have a food processor). If we can't endure the scent, we can always use it for washing rags, I suppose.
Alea says
RobbieKay- Not sure if that last comment made sense (cold medicne makes me really loopy), but even though I don't use the Peppermint Dr. Bronner's on our clothes, I do use it to wash animal blankets, sleeping bags etc. I also use it as an organic insecticide in my garden by using 1 T. Dr. Bronner's to 1 quart of water.
BTW, Do you have a blog? I clicked on your profile and it didn't list one, but sometimes bloggers forget to add it. If you do leave me a link, I'd love to visit.
Alea says
Thanks for the tip on cleaning brushes and combs. You can use the peppermint Dr. Bronner's in laundry soap, (I usually use Fels Naptha when making my laundry detergent), however even diluted it leaves your clothes with a minty scent which we don't really care for. I had just used it to wash saddle pads. I use 1/4 cup of Dr. Bronners and 1/4 washing soda when I wash them and they come out very clean which always amazes me.
RobbieKay says
I have a question from looking at your picture. That looks like the peppermint Dr. Bronner's. Do you use that in your laundry? I was going to try a new detergent recipe using castile soap, but then realized that all I had was the peppermint Dr. Bronner's and worried that the oils in it would end up staining my clothes. (BTW, it's the best thing I've found for cleaning brushes and combs!)