All posts tagged: Upcycle

DIY Christmas tree made with cardboard packaging, lit up with a string light and decorated with toys

DIY Christmas Trees that are Eco-friendly and Plastic-free

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It’s that time of the year again when we see Christmas decorations start to fill the streets. Most of these decorations sold in your regular stores are made from materials that typically get thrown out and end up in landfills (like plastic). Everywhere you look, it stares back at you in the form of trees, decorations, gifts, and wrapping paper. Here are some ideas that allow you to lead a low-waste lifestyle and conform to the true meaning of Christmas.

art installation at the Louvre paris of a woman with a large pile of clothes

What a Waste: How to be a Conscious Consumer

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Do you think twice about the stuff you buy? I’m not just talking about the price factor, but also the value of the product in how it will enrich your life and the product’s life cycle. Do the resources utilised in the making then disposing of it justify its use? Conscious consumerism in India and the world is on the rise. As festive sales are being heavily advertised, it’s a good time to reflect on how you can be a more conscious consumer. Conscious Consumption Definition What is conscious consumerism? As the name suggests, any consumer of products who, along with price and quality, also considers these products’ social and environmental impact. A product’s life cycle, from production to disposal, is as strong an influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions as to its need. The Rise of Conscious Consumerism The consumer model is slowly shifting. Many customers want to focus on conscious consumerism—a buying practice driven by a commitment to making purchasing decisions with a positive environmental, economic, and social impact.  More people want to buy …

DIY Ideas: Repurposed Wooden Box

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I love getting surprise packages…even the ones I’ve ordered for myself. I don’t like shopping in crowded places and trying out stuff at the malls.  Unfortunately that means I also have a lot of packaging that collects at home. Fortunately, where I live, people are very serious about waste segregation and recycling, so I know they are not ending up in a landfill. I’ve also previously mentioned how I reuse cardboard boxes.  A while ago, I ordered a piece of art that came in a wooden box. The box looked beautiful on its own but I didn’t know what to do with it. I took my time to figure out my options. I could add some legs and tiles to turn it into a coffee table, but it was getting too expensive; I could turn it into a display shelf, but I didn’t want to add more planks to it and it would be a pain to dust; I could turn it into a miniature dollhouse, but that too would require a lot of effort …

packaging box covered with wrapping paper repurposed to a cat food holder with a cat doodle on it saying feed me

Creative Ways to Reuse Cardboard Boxes

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Up-cycled cardboard boxes is a great project to do, as well as a nice way to use up leftover packaging materials. These boxes have become an affordable way to get creative with your decor and can be transformed in a multitude of ways. What are some of your ideas? Go crazy and make a variety of boxes out of different types of plastic, like bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard or even tea bags. Our imaginations are the limitation here If you’re like me, you mostly shop online. Some are local stores that deliver in baskets they can take back. Mostly, you’re left with a bunch of packaging material of different kinds. I have tried to be cautious while shopping online. I try to group my orders together by the same vendor, but even after all that I usually get items shipped to me individually. Thankfully, I live in a community that’s serious about waste segregation and recycling. We have multiple vendors who come in to collect the dry waste for recycling. I try to reuse as …

Using old CDs to make a mosaic on a plain tray

Creative DIY project: Use Old CDs and Make a Mosaic Tray

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The CD Mosaic is a unique corner wall display for your home that provides an old CD with new life. The simple, yet beautiful design allows the disc to be appreciated for what it is: just another item in your collection. Remember when we had drawers full of cassette tapes? Some originals bought from the store, some blank ones with recordings from the radio, and a whole bunch of mixed tapes. Then came the CDs and DVDs. They saved a lot of space, but were soon obsolete. I haven’t had, or felt the need to have, an optical drive in my home for over eight years. So now what to do with all the CDs? There is a lot of clutter in our homes that we don’t use. We donate it to a general recycle bin and hope that tomorrow it will be replaced by something new. I saw this trick somewhere and knew I had to try. Yes, it repurposed some of my CDs, but it also looked awesome. This is the simplest and …

Old suitcase up-cycled to a bedside table with storage

From Vintage to Contemporary – Upcycled DIY Suitcase & Vanity Organiser

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Making do has its rewards, and the satisfaction that comes from re-purposing an old suitcase or some other found item is priceless. You don’t have to break the bank to add a little rustic chic style to your home’s decorating scheme. In fact, you don’t even have to spend money at all. In this post I will show you how I took an old hardcase vanity box and an old suitcase and turned them into custom storage. The best thing about the finished piece is my only outlay was some elbow grease and a can of spray paint. My mom doesn’t like to throw things till she absolutely must. Over the years we have found interesting things from her collection, and given away a lot of the rest.  Two of the things that were languishing in the corner were her hard case Samsonite suitcase and Aristocrat vanity case from her wedding. They have stood the test of time. There’s a metaphor somewhere there I’m sure. Both the items can no longer be used for their …