Starting Seeds with Repurposed Recycling (Saving Money + Reducing Waste)

We like to be resourceful.

And we like to experiment. 😏

In today's post, we're showing you four typical kitchen items that we repurposed for starting seeds and how we used it. Normally, these items would either go to trash or recycling.

Although sometimes mom drives me insane with the amount of stuff she saves and keeps for "just in case", when it comes to gardening season, we basically save everything and try to reuse it.

There are many reasons why we love gardening and saving money in the long run is one of them.

We're also gals who try to avoid or minimize waste when we can - so we repurpose what we can, we compost, we use vegetable scraps to make stock, we've learned so many uses for things we used to just toss out before, and instead maximize use of what we have.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time, it worked in our favor. (Woohoo!)

When it comes to starting seeds, we use seed starting peat pellets, 4-6 container starting pots, small container pots, etc.

We already used our seed starting peat pellets, but why buy more when we have seed starting items in our house already available to us (and all we need is soil)?

So today we're showing you three typical kitchen items we repurposed in starting seeds this year, so if you're looking for some creative ways to reuse what you have on hand to start seeds, we hope these inspire and help you!

Plastic Berry Containers

Confession: Cindi has a slight obsession with strawberries. 😋

We've gotten 2-3 containers of strawberries each week for the last several weeks. Early March is strawberry season in Florida, and Plant City, FL is one of the largest producers of strawberries so they were on sale 3 for $5 in grocery stores here.

Translation: we doubled up on strawberries two weeks in a row and needless to say, we ended up with a lot of empty strawberry containers. (And Cindi had one happy belly! 😏)

Normally, these containers would go in recycling, but we decided to get creative with them since we had more seeds to start anyway.

What we loved about these strawberry containers for seed starting:

The holes in the container allow the perfect amount of venting. It doesn't allow condensation to build up (which could cause mold if it stays too wet for too long), but it's closed off enough to keep the container warm.

When condensation builds up in other containers, we either leave the lid slightly cracked open to allow some air through or we'll take the lid off for short periods of time each day. We didn't have to do either with the strawberry containers.

How we used the strawberry containers:

Helping seeds germinate

We removed some of the peat pellets from the larger group that took longer to germinate (where some seeds had already sprouted) and isolated them in the strawberry containers. This way, the lid to the strawberry container could stay closed and keep the peat pellets warm to help the seeds germinate without slowing down germination with the fluctuation in temperature from keeping the lid off for the plants that already sprouted.

The photo below has a both lettuce mix and basil peat pellets in this strawberry container.

For larger seeds

Some seeds need more space to grow and peat pellets wouldn't have been appropriate. We had some potato eyes saved that needed planting, so these berry containers became the perfect temporary home.

Starting fresh batches of seeds

Just earlier today we decided to experiment with fresh blueberries to see if we could start a plant from their seeds. (If you're following us on instagram, you caught us in action!) Fresh strawberry container handy, in a matter of seconds the new seed bed was ready for sowing and our new experiment began.

Pro tips for using plastic strawberry containers for seeds: line the inside with paper to prevent soil from falling out of the bottom holes while allowing water to drain (we used napkins or paper towels, coffee filters would work too). The paper will break down over time so even when we're ready to transplant, we're not too worried about it.

Waxed or Plastic Milk Cartons

What we loved about it

Milk cartons are designed to be waterproof, which makes it ideal for starting seeds (as long as we don't overwater the container).

Since milk cartons are larger, they're great for larger seeds as well.

How we used it

Thyme seeds are so tiny and we wanted to plant it in a bunch, so the bigger milk carton (as opposed to the small peat pellets) was an awesome solution.

We also used a plastic milk cartons for planting bunching onions (not pictured).

Pro tips: cut the container in half. We taped the edges, which are paper, to prevent water from getting into the paper and ruining the container.

Egg Cartons

What we loved about it

The dips in the egg carton made it so much easier to hold the peat pellets so that they stood up instead of falling over (the way they would if they were on a flat surface).

How we used it

The egg carton was another way for us to separate plants that sprouted and needed to be under the light (we didn’t want to put the remaining peat pellets that hadn’t sprouted under the light yet). Without the egg cartons, we wouldn’t have had anything else to use to hold the sprouted plants unless we started breaking out the Tupperware. Or purchase more trays, and we didn’t think purchasing more trays was necessary.

And there you have it! We hope you found our repurposed milk cartons, egg cartons, and berry containers for starting seeds helpful for you and your garden! If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below. 😊