This is: how I recycle.You can't tell me you've never made a bed out of milk creates, or shelves out of bricks and planks at some stage in your life. I certainly did. Being a stone poor student wasn't all bad, it was a time when I learnt how to be resourceful, and how to 'womble'. (On council clean-up days, people chuck stuff out, stuff too big to fit in the bin, they pile it all up on the path outside and the council trucks come along and take it all to the tip. But if you get there before the trucks you can pick up some amazing stuff... that's called wombling).
Anyway, I've given back all the milkcreates, and have a real bookshelf now, but I realise I still re-use heaps of stuff around the house. I use the boxes from tea and soap to keep make-up, hairbands and clips, creams and stuff all organised and tidy inside my drawers. I use old food jars to keep zippers and pins, I use old cotton tip boxes to keep jewellery making supplies together... and old film canisters as travel containers to hold small amounts of shampoo, face cream, washing powder, etc. They're very handy when you're traveling actually. It may not be very glamourous looking, but who really cares.
We have also used freecycle to get rid of loads of unwanted stuff before we moved house; old printers, phones, books, chairs. You list something you're getting rid of, people search the listings and email you if they want what you've got, then they come and pick it up, take it to a new home and extend the life of some perfectly good thing that would have otherwise ended up as landfill.
Keep it in mind, it's a fantastic resource, and they're everywhere. www.freecycle.org.
Of course we do all the usual stuff too... recycling, food scraps and green waste, grey water on the garden, fabric shopping bags, etc.
10 comments:
Thanks for the ladder ideas. I would love it in the bedroom to hang things from (it's still sitting in the garden at the moment).
I was the same as you at uni....milk crates as furniture...and my bed was a mattress on top of bricks!
I'd still rather something secondhand and re-purposed now instead of new!
Oh how I love your blog, SO pretty.
I freecycle too - though I have had some people reject a couch.. Very funny, as it was my husband's - and I HATED it (think brown velour and mighty uncomfortable, though he kept saying: BUT IT'S MORAN!). But freecycling is a great, great thing!
Coffee cans. My husband drinks coffee and I just can't get myself to throw out the cans. I keep paintbrushed and colored pencils in them. Make them into little rattie houses. All sorts of stuff.
I use small glass jars that held mushrooms, or jelly, or what ever to store beads. My mom is the one who had me doing this from a very young age.
I love hard waste collections. I don't have any more space to even consider collecting anything, but I love the fact that anything of any use is usually gone well before the trucks come to collect it!
I had never heard of freecycle before - definitely have to have a better look at their site. Could do with a bot of a clear out!
Cheers!
I've never heard of freecycle before either. What a fantastic idea! I'm also big on the old glass jars and coffee canisters for holding buttons and bits and bobs. Oh, and kids' shoe boxes too - always so sturdy, and just the right size for keeping little bits and pieces in :)
Thank You for the link to freecycle, I had heard of freecyle a long time ago and thought it was a great idea and then I forgot.
Hey, I've nominated you to suggest next weeks This is...! I hope you can play, feel free to post your theme anytime before Friday.
Angela x
Great ideas and great link-thanks.
Great idea on the freecycle. I will have to check it out in my end of the world. I love the idea of old film canisters as travel containers. I will def. be doing that next time.
Cheers Kyla
Your film canisters reminds me of a fellow DH and I met on a cruise.
He said that a film canister held exactly one shot of alcohol so he would bring his own stash to the cruise ship bar instead of having to pay their exorbitant prices.
During my uni days, my bookshelves were made of bessa bricks and wooden planks scavenged from somewhere.
That freecycle site is a great idea. They even have it in Japan I see. Thanks for that link. Moving away from here is going to be a nightmare in terms of getting rid of things we're not taking home.
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