Upcyling around the homestead is a great way to save money and to be kind to the planet around you. As mentioned in our previous post ‘Use What You Have: Upcycling Around the Homestead’, there are a lot of ways to reuse things or find free items around your homestead. Today I’m just going to focus on one thing that you can possibly reuse around your homestead, animal feed bags. Here in Fairbanks, feed bags are not recycled. I can’t stand throwing them away so I challenged myself to find ways to use them ALL around my place.  

Now, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been hoarding my empty feedbags for awhile now and my husband has been complaining the whole time. But I knew, I just knew those feed bags would be useful.  And I was right! It wasn’t until we started building an addition onto our house that my husband had a real appreciation for feedbags. Those things are tough! Way tougher than garbage bags. You can throw asphalt shingles, nails, metal chunks, OSB board, etc,  until the bags weigh a good 40 lbs.  Now he asks where my feed bags are.  Ha ha sucker! 

Ok, thanks all to everyone for commenting on our previous post and giving me ideas.  This is how I ended up using my feedbags.

1. Potato grow bags.
2. Tarps for piling garden dirt on and to cover the dirt up to keep weeds out.
3. Tarp and shade screen for my rabbit tractors.
4. Store wood shavings for my chicken house that I obtain from the local lumberyard.
5. Storing potting soil overwinter that I’ve obtained from my compost or chicken yard.
6. Picnic tablecloth.
7. Garbage or recycling bags for camping or canoeing (garbage bags tear easily).
8. Garbage bags for holding offal during butchering.
9. A butcher bag for restraining turkeys during butchering. 
10. A mat for craft projects in the house with my kids.  I suggest rinsing the feed dust off first.
11. A back drop tarp for spray painting.
12.  A DIY dry bag for winter camping, when we’re trying to beat the winter blues, so snow doesn’t get on our gear that is towed behind the snow mobile. Again I’d suggest rinsing the feed dust off first.
13. Storage bags. I have a lot of storage under my house because it has a post and pad foundation on sloped land. This is my main storage space and the bags help keep the dust and dirt off of things. Especially seasonal items. 
14. Contractor bags.  We’ve been adding a room to our house and these bags are the best.  
15. Cleaning up my yard of dog poo after a long winter. 

Honestly I was not able to use up all my feedbags, which tells me I need to either use less of them (i.e. find another way to feed my animals) or find a more creative way to use them on a consistent basis. I know I should make tote bags for groceries but I’m a horrible seamstress. It took me forever just to sew the potato bags. But I did notice a theme with my feedbag usage; feed bags can always replace garbage bags, recycling bags, or tarps.

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If anybody else has any great ideas that doesn’t involve a lot of sewing, please feel free to share.