So, it’s officially that time! With Easter morning just around the corner, you’re probably starting to think about boiling eggs, buying chocolates, and hunting down the kiddos’ old Easter baskets, right? (Because we certainly are.)
While it certainly is one of our favorite holidays, there’s no denying the prep work required to make Easter what it is. (Think: all the decorations, plastic eggs, stuffed bunnies, plastic straw, and Easter baskets.) And what are you supposed to do with the decorations the other 364 days a year?
No need to worry, however. Keep reading for a list of what to do with your old Easter Baskets.
If you’ve reached the end of your Easter egg hunt era, you might be tempted to toss the baskets into your garbage bin or a dumpster. However, don’t act so quickly.
Baskets are terrific organizational tools that serve a wide variety of uses. For that reason, it would be wasteful to simply toss them out! According to Rubicon, the United States throws away $11.4 billion worth of recyclable containers and packaging each year.
If you want to get rid of your old baskets, you should recycle them instead. Baskets made of untreated wood, cane, or other plant-based materials can go into any wood recycling bin (not your regular, curbside bin); metal baskets can be placed in the metal recycling bin at your local recycling center, and certain communities also allow you to recycle plastic baskets.
If your basket falls into a different category than those listed, you should find an alternate use for it before tossing it. Stay tuned for great Easter basket ideas.
Have some old Easter baskets lying around with no more Easter eggs to hunt? Or just regular old baskets, for that matter? (And let’s be honest, who doesn’t?) Well then, you’ve come to the right place. After you devour your Easter candy, here are 8 things you can do with your old Easter baskets:
Old Easter baskets are perfect for making homemade, trendy planters for your houseplants. Think of them like mason jars, except in basket form. If needed, you can spray-paint the exterior and use a plastic trash bag for the basket liner. From there, fill the basket with soil and fertilizer, then plant your favorite flowers.
If the Easter baskets have your kiddos’ names embroidered onto them—and you’d like to keep them that way—then try using them for toy storage. You can stash the baskets all over the house (in the living room, in bedrooms, on the stairwell – you name it), and your little ones can fill it with their blocks, dolls, books, etc.
If you’re looking to continue using your old Easter baskets, and you simply want to jazz them up a bit, then consider upcycling them. (For those who aren’t already on the bandwagon, upcycling means reusing a product in such a way that it creates a product of even higher value than the original.)
Clever ways to upcycle your old Easter baskets include making them into cute bunnies by adding colored paper ears or pipe cleaners, using popsicle sticks to create a white picket fence. You can also add faux blooms made of tissue paper, giving it a ruffled skirt, and things of that nature.
Another clever Easter basket idea is to turn them into accessory holders. If you have little girls at home, then you know the reality of finding bows, hair ties, scarfs, ribbons, jewelry, barrettes, and all their other accessories scattered throughout the house. An old Easter basket is the perfect way to keep everything in one place.
Need a container for your new baby shower, wedding, birthday, Christmas, or Easter brunch gift? Well, if you have an old Easter basket lying around, you might be in luck. These decorative baskets are perfect for filling with candies, soaps, goodies, candles, linens, and any other gifts you want to give.
It’s safe to say even the best of us get a bit disorganized from time to time. That being, said old Easter baskets are terrific for organizing the top (or bottom!) of your desk. Baskets tend to be the perfect container to stash all your papers, notebooks, pens, or folders.
If you have kids at home, these baskets are also a great way of organizing coloring books, stickers, arts and crafts supplies, and just about everything else.
Who else’s closet looks like a tornado could have blown through it on any given Tuesday? (Yup, ours too.) If this sounds familiar, then your old Easter baskets just might save the day. You can use them to organize linens, socks, old t-shirts, winter accessories, or anything else that might need a home.
Just like you’d use old Easter baskets to organize your closet, you can use them to organize your pantry! Throw canned goods into one basket and your spices into another, and your culinary life will be sorted before you know it.
All right, so now that we’ve covered what to do with old Easter baskets, you still might be wondering so what? Why should you bother repurposing your old Easter baskets?
(Glad you asked!) If you need a bit of inspiration, here are 5 reasons why you should repurpose your Easter baskets instead of tossing them:
1. It is less expensive. Repurposing your Easter baskets means you aren’t buying anything new, which inevitably saves you money.
2. It uses less energy. For those of you who might not know, recycling is energy-intensive (meaning it requires things to be heated up or melted down during the recycling process). Although it uses significantly less energy than what is required to make the original product, reusing and/or repurposing an item uses barely any energy at all.
3. It creates less pollution. While recycled materials create far less water and air pollution than raw materials, repurposing items causes virtually no pollution at all. Therefore, your environment will thank you for repurposing your old Easter baskets.
4. It supports quality over quantity. The consumer culture we live in encourages us to buy cheap, replace often, and shop carelessly. However, buying things to repurpose them helps us become mindful shoppers, as we are more inclined to buy high-quality items that we genuinely need.
5. It sparks creativity. By nature, repurposing old items requires you to tap into your creativity. Give it a go, and you will probably surprise yourself with just how innovative you can become.
Got a bunch of old Easter baskets lying around? Hopefully, you have been given enough ideas on what to do with them. If you're interested in more great ideas, Studio DIY has great resources on repurposing an Easter basket with step-by-step instructions.
National Geographic reported that the U.S. alone produces 250 million tons of trash per year (a whopping 4.4 pounds of trash per person, per day). We don’t know about you, but we’re pretty sure that number is large enough without our old Easter baskets tossed in the mix.
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