MOST of the time, cardboard toilet roll tubes, cereal boxes, bread tags and empty tissue boxes are thrown out with the trash without a second thought.
To most of us, these things are junk.
However, the creative mind can find a thousand ways to reuse this ‘junk’ and turn it into nifty objects or lovely trinkets.
British television show Art Attack was a huge hit when it first aired in the 1990s and it featured many art-and-craft projects that made creative use of items normally thrown away.
Such ideas continue to flourish over the Internet and on social media, so we took the time to explore 10 particularly useful ideas for the office or house.
1 Stationery holder
Toilet roll tubes make great stationery holders for your desk.
Tape a few rolls together and attach them to a sturdy base using materials such as cardboard or plywood, as the tubes will not support too much weight on their own.
2 Cable holder
Toilet roll tubes are also surprisingly good at keeping cables together.
Most electronic cables fit quite snugly into the tubes and this can be ideal for travelling.
You can also pair them with a shoebox to keep a large quantity of cables from getting entangled.
3 Drawer organisers
Using a paper cutter, cut the tops and bottoms of cereal boxes to create organisers for your desk drawers.
Keep stationery and other small items from sliding around inside your drawers with a few of these.
4. File organisers
Too many documents on your desk? Cut cereal boxes diagonally to make file holders.
However, they do not stand on their own, so you may want to lean them against a sturdy object like a computer.
5 Clothes gift boxes
Cereal boxes are also the perfect size to use as gift boxes for clothes.
The box provides more protection for the clothes than just a sheet of wrapping paper by itself, which can easily be punctured or otherwise damaged.
6 Rubber-band holder
Rubber bands are useful and reusable, but keeping them in one place can get messy.
If you have some bread tags lying around, you can use them to hold a couple dozen of rubber bands each.
7 Tape roll marker
Everyone knows that feeling of having to squint and fumble around to feel for the end of a roll of adhesive tape, and then use their fingernail to peel it.
But instead of doing that, why not stick a bread tag on the end of the roll of tape to make things easier the next time?
8 Wire labels
Another situation we are familiar with is having to switch off a specific appliance but not knowing which of the many plugs in your multi-socket adapter is the right one.
You can write on bread tags with marker pen and attach themto all your plugs to help you identify them.
9 Plastic bag storage
It is bad to throw away plastic bags so most sensible people either recycle them or keep them for reuse.
It is a good idea to use an old tissue box to store old plastic bags in order to keep them in one place.
10 Temporary rubbish bin
Empty tissue boxes also make great temporary bins for the coffee table in your living room.
This can be used to discard small things such as sweet wrappers and used tissues.
It saves your guests the trouble of walking around to hunt for a wastepaper basket, and you can empty the box into the bin after your guests have left.
You can even beautify some of the above items by using wrapping paper, tape and a bit of imagination.
There are thousands of other interesting ideas on the Internet that may also pique your interest, so do give them a try and share these ideas with your friends.
