Think before you toss! Here’s a quick list of ten things from upcoming The Buy Nothing Get Everything Plan to stop throwing away, reuse instead of toss and to help stretch your meals and groceries further and reduce your shopping bills:

1. Citrus Peels. We use them as ingredients for a great all-purpose cleaner for orange or lemon zest, dried out as fire starters, or thrown into the bottoms of rubbish bins since they’re great deodorisers.

2. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Swiss Chard. Don’t throw out the stems. We put the chopped stems in stir-fry and salads or turn them into fridge pickles in a jar of vinegar with a clove of garlic and a dash of honey.

3. Coffee Grounds. You can use coffee grounds as an exfoliant for your face, feet, arms, or legs or, in a pinch, to scrub your dishes. We save money on fertiliser for our blueberry bushes and sprinkle coffee grounds at their base instead. Blueberries love them! And we’ve also been known to use coffee grounds in steak marinades and as a secret ingredient in brownies (very fine espresso grounds work best for
this).

4. Eggshells. Put a handful of clean crushed white eggshells into a fine mesh bag, throw them in with your whites in the laundry, and the shells will help take the grey out of your light-coloured fabrics. No need for bleach! Or use the shells as your natural calcium supplement. Research has shown that eggshells have many beneficial properties. Skip the pills and simply bake your eggshells at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for eight minutes. Let them cool and then grind them to a fine powder. Add your supplement (a teaspoon or less) to your favourite smoothie or juice once a day. Check with your health-care provider
to discuss safety and appropriate dosage.

5. Wine Corks. Wine corks make for great… wait for it… corkboards! Use an old picture frame or mirror and glue the corks into place, fully covering the mirror or backing of your frame. Did you know that cork is both a noun and a verb? Use your corks to cork all kinds of liquids in pretty reusable glass bottles. Search online for “cork reuse” and you’ll find hundreds of other ideas. Lastly, our favourite: cork pot lid grippers. If you have metal pot lids that get hot to the touch, squeeze two or three corks under the lid handle, perpendicular to it, so you touch these instead of the hot metal. Presto! Cool to the touch even after hours of cooking.

6. Onion Skins. Throw them in soups and slow cookers: More than five hundred thousand tons of onion waste is thrown out each year in the European Union alone, and this bulb, including all the fibre in its skin, is nutritious!

7. Parmesan Rinds. Save them and throw them into your soup stock. They’ll liven up your minestrone or vegetable soup!

8. Bean Water. If you cook beans in a pressure or slow cooker, save your bean water; it makes a
delicious and nutritious base for soups.

9. Tea Leaves. Dry used black tea is a stink remover. Tea leaves make a great deodoriser to remove
odours from your fridge, carpet, and dog bed. Herbal and black tea leaves make great instant compost
for potted plants or outdoor gardens.

10. Toothbrushes. Don’t toss those used toothbrushes. They make for great cleaning tools. Keep one under the sink for scrubbing around faucets and sink edges. Label another one for use as a fingernail cleaner after gardening. Store one in your cleaning supplies bucket for spot cleaning carpets and furniture. And save one for the laundry room for scrubbing out stains.

In the spirit of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and The Joy of Less, experience the benefits of buying less and sharing more with this accessible 7-step guide to decluttering, saving money, and creating community from the creators of the Buy Nothing Project.

In 2013, when friends Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller launched the first Facebook Buy Nothing Project group in their small town off the coast of Seattle, they never expected it to become a viral sensation. Today there are thousands of Buy Nothing groups all over the world, boasting more than a million members, and 5,000 highly active volunteers.

In their island community, Clark and Rockefeller discovered that the beaches of Puget Sound were spoiled by a daily influx of plastic items and trash washing on shore. From pens and toothbrushes to toys and straws, they wondered, where did it all come from? Of course, it comes from us-our homes, our backyards, our cars, and workplaces. And so, a rallying cry against excess stuff was born.

Inspired by the ancient practice of gift economies, where neighbours share and pool resources, The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan introduces an environmentally conscious 7-step guide that teaches us how to buy less, give more, and live generously. At once an actionable plan and a thought-provoking exploration of our addiction to stuff, this powerful program will help you declutter your home without filling landfills, shop more thoughtfully and discerningly, and let go of the need to buy new things. Filled with helpful lists and practical suggestions including 50 items you never need to buy (Ziploc bags and paper towels) and 50 things to make instead (gift cards and salad dressing), The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan encourages you to rethink why you shop and embrace a space-saving, money-saving, and earth-saving mindset of buying less and sharing more.

Released 14th of April. Pre-order here.