Upcycling Basic Household Items

With a little imagination and ingenuity, you can breathe new life into standard household items through a process known as upcycling. Upcycling keeps these items out of landfills, provides them new usefulness, and helps the planet because you are reinventing existing things rather than investing in new ones.

What is “Upcycling”?

Upcycling is the art of recycling something by creating something new from it. For instance, you can upcycle a skirt with a small tear into an apron for your kitchen rather than throwing it away.

Upcycling Ideas

Here are a few upcycling ideas to help get you started:

1. Use broken and chipped cups and saucers to create masterpieces.
   
   There are several ways you can do this. You can break them into smaller pieces and use the pieces to create mosaic tabletops, stepping-stones, or even wall art. You can glue cups to saucers to create multiple tiers of a small serving tray, desktop organizer, or jewelry holder. You could even use them as planters for a kitchen herb garden.
2. Give old furniture a new life.
   
   Some ideas to give a piece of furniture a new life include transforming an old dresser into an entertainment center for your bedroom or living room, a serving table or buffet for your dining room, or additional storage for household linens.

   Other projects to consider include:

   • Turning an old entertainment center into a pretend kitchen for the little ones.
   • Creating a beautiful bench from an old chest of drawers.
   • Turning an old bedside table into a pet bed for your furry best friend.

3. Transform bottles into lamps.
   
   A few strings of light and some beautiful bottles are all you need to light up your home with lamps that offer a warm glow and ambiance.
4. Revitalize old jars and bottles into vases and storage.
   
   All you need to do is remove the existing labels and add your own finishing touches.
5. Makeover old tee-shirts into a memory blanket.
   
   That is a beautiful reminder for those who have lost loved ones, or to give to children graduating high school.
6. Make furniture, shelves, etc. from wooden pallets.
   
   Lifehacker recommends going to local, independently owned shops, such as garden and nursery stores, hardware stores, and power equipment stores, and ask if they are willing to part with any of their pallets. Many of them are glad to do it as it saves them from disposing of them.
7. Revamp old windows into picture frames and tabletops.
   
   Anyone interested in a rustic, farmhouse style of décor will find a lot to love about this upcycling project that is simple to do and almost always gets compliments.
8. Create a hanging bookshelf from an old ladder.
   
   That helps to keep books organized and free up vertical spaces within the home for other things.
9. Make pendant lamps from old bottles.
   
   These make some of the most beautiful and unique pendant lights for a home.

You don’t have to move mountains to change the world, all you need is a little imagination.