Repurposing

I love that word ~
repurposing ~ to use or convert for use in another format or product.

I get flack for not doing more to take care of the environment (I'm wasteful in that I use paper towels and paper plates, and I use plastic utensils and disposable drink cups at parties, I probably only recycle most things because I’m forced to, and I have to admit that I really am guilty of being wasteful at times). But I think I do my part as far as repurposing. Instead of throwing a lot of things out I find another use for them. I’ll even take other folks cast-offs and put them to good use. So I think that by salvaging items from their trip to a landfill has got to be helping the environment a little bit anyway! I mean isn't repurposing a form of recycling?
I’m hoping my fondness for re-purposing is my small way of going green.

Here are some examples of my repurposing:

I use old baby lap pads as shelf liners in my bathroom.


I use a jewelry box in my kitchen to hold sweetener packets. (I know the paper from the sugar packets is wasteful, but I don't use sugar a lot except when baking and it's usually used up quickly then, I never use it in coffee, tea, or on cereal, so I only need it for guests, and if I buy a big canister it gets lumpy, no one wants to use it, and it ends up getting thrown out, so for me, packets are less economically wasteful).



I use empty maple syrup bottles as vases.


I use empty honey jars and cookie jars to house beach glass.


I use an old planter holder in my kitchen to hold breads and biscuits.


I have an old floor lamp that Ray has now repurposed as a planter (well, it’s still kind of sad looking, but the flowers are just getting started, I’ll take another picture in a few weeks to post, maybe it won’t be so pathetic looking by then, Ray thinks it looks like a bird's nest right now.).


My outdoor sink was once in a friend’s kitchen and when she was doing over her kitchen the sink was slated for the dumpster if I didn't want it (didn't want it??! Of course I wanted it, I've been coveting this sink for over eighteen years!). It is now used for quick wash-ups outside, it's used as a potting table, and it's used as a bar for parties and barbecues. And the skirt under the sink was once part of a shower curtain that I used in my bathroom. Oh! And as you can see, the sink is used as a plant stand sometimes!

Ray and I rescued this little table from a neighbor’s garbage pile, it now sits in our back room.




I also repurpose other things but I don’t have any pictures to go with these examples. I use empty egg cartons and plastic trays from chocolates to hold jewelry and buttons and safety pins in dresser drawers (a tip I learned from my Mom). I use cardboard coffee cup holders/trays to hold paint pots for the grandkids, and I’m also going to use them in some craft projects for the kids this summer. I use old cans as pen/pencil holders. I use empty water jugs and orange juice jugs as watering cans. I use old cookie tins to hold crayons and small toys for the grandkids.
We also have all those reusable shopping bags from IKEA, and also many other canvas shopping bags (unfortunately Ray and I are both so forgetful and we almost never have those environmentally friendly bags with us when we go shopping so we either have to be wasteful with our money and buy even more of these bags, or we have to be environmentally UNfriendly and use plastic).
Okay, so I’m not going to win any awards for being ‘green’, but I don’t think I’m the most wasteful person in the world either.