Ten Ways to Recycle Envelopes

Almost every day we receive envelopes in the mail that we don’t use and throw directly into the trash. They may come with bills that we pay online or in junk mail that we may not even open. Rather than discard these unused envelopes, here are some suggestions for re-use.

1. Use them to collect your grocery store coupons for your next trip to the store.
2. Write your shopping list on the outside of the envelope.
3. Organize your receipts by collecting them each month in recycled envelopes so you’ll have them easily accessible for comparison when your credit card bills arrive.
4. As mini file folders, you can label the envelope and collect magazine or newspaper clippings or photos inside. For example, keep an envelope for easy craft ideas, keeping the instructions inside.
5. Use envelopes as dividers and shoeboxes as file drawers. Label the envelope and put contents inside or between.
6. Keep recipe clippings organized. You can label the envelope so that appetizers are in one envelope, desserts in another, or keep all chicken recipes together at least until you have time to properly add them to your more formal filing system.
7. Envelopes make great dust or crumb collectors. Hold one under your next drilling project to collect the loose particles.
8. Many envelopes can be reused simply by marking out the pre-addressed information and putting a blank white sticker over the area or gluing a piece of white paper securely in place. Your postage stamp will cover the presorted mailing indicia.
9. Recycled envelopes make great bookmarks. Cut them to a slimmer size if you want to.
10. Use them as scratch paper. You can take it a step forward by trimming them to leave the adhesive on one edge so they end up being sticky notes.

You can always add them to the recycling bin but I’m sure we’d all like to hear any other ideas you might have for repurposing envelopes!