Paper picture calendars were designed to be disposed of. When the clock strikes 12 on January 1, it becomes obsolete. After 12 months of use, it winds up in the trash.
It's always a shame to just throw it away, especially if the calendar's pictures were personalized or have sentimental value. You could save the calendar in a dusty drawer for six or 11 years (or 28 years for leap years) when the days and months finally wrap around and line up again.
Or, you could try making it into something new. One user on Reddit shared a creative way to repurpose calendars into something useful — and as the holiday season grows nearer and nearer, you might want to keep this idea in your back pocket.
The idea is quite simple: Just cut up the pictures on the outdated calendar and repurpose them into gift tags. Not only will you have unique gift tags, but you won't have to go out and buy any when it's gift-giving season. Plus, you'll be keeping excess waste out of landfills.
"What a great idea! I'm saving this for future use." wrote one person in response to the idea.
Repurposing ideas like this one are critical in reducing the amount of single-use waste entering our landfills. A whopping 90% of all single-use plastics are sent to landfills, and less than 10% are recycled.
When plastic sits in landfills (or any natural space where it may accidentally or purposefully wind up), it leaches toxic, long-lasting chemicals into the ground and local waterways. Plastic that ends up in the ocean disperses tiny microplastics, finding their way into marine wildlife and even the deepest parts of the ocean.
Upcycling, recycling, and utilizing reusable tools like reusable bags, water bottles, and utensils can significantly reduce plastic pollution to better preserve and protect our planet. The simple act of switching to a single reusable water bottle can prevent an average of 156 plastic bottles from entering landfills and oceans.
If this hack isn't for you, there are plenty of organizations such as Trashie, ThredUp, and GotSneakers that can help you reduce the amount of waste you generate and keep perfectly good items out of landfills.
On Reddit, users responded to the idea by sharing their own creative ways of reusing outdated calendars.
One person wrote, "My mother did this throughout my childhood and took it one step further: any tag written from one member of the family to another, she would save after the present was opened in a little file folder organized by person."
Another said, "At the cat rescue I used to work for, we took all the extra calendars that didn't sell and cut them up into gift tags and bookmarks to give away."
"Great idea!" wrote the author of the post in response. "I'll definitely be doing that too."
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