It's a quandary: You want to have flowering plants indoors, but your companion animals have a habit of chewing or eating them. If this is the case with your feline friends, try picking up nontoxic plants that won't harm them. African daisies, Christmas cacti, orchids and tropical plants like bromeliads are generally safe, although if large amounts do get eaten, it can still cause your pet to get mildly sick.

If your medicine cabinet is full of unopened and unused cosmetics that you've collected, there's no need to toss them out. The nonprofit Cosmetics for a Cause helps women in distressed life situations by distributing unopened skin care and color cosmetics to them with the mission of "outer beauty, inner strength." Since 2012, more than $1.5 million in makeup and personal care items have been distributed. To donate, visit cosmeticsforacause.org.

Next time you fry up a batch of donuts or have some used cooking oil that can't be reused, don't toss it into the trash. Vegetable-based cooking oil is biodegradable and can be used in the backyard to help control pesky weeds. When the used oil is cooked down, pour it on top of especially tough weeds that are hard to pull. The oil will not only kill them, the oil also will keep new weeds from coming back, all while giving you a natural way to dispose of used vegetable-based cooking oil.