Re-purpose Unused Items
I am known to be a pack rat, I can’t seem to throw things away thinking that “someday I can use that again”. While painting our downstairs, I came up with a few ways to re-purpose unused items.
The beginning of January, hubby and I started redecorating the downstairs. We decided to paint the computer room, hall, TV room and eating area a gray shade. We’re taking it slow and doing a wall or two in between our normal daily work projects. I love how the computer room turned out after it was painted. I even reorganized my Angel statues so they could be seen better.
Wire Panel Cubes
We had some wire panels stored upstairs from when we closed our shop so instead of buying new shelves, we re-purposed them. They can be put together in a variety of cube designs so after snapping them together the way I thought they would look good, I positioned some of my Angels on them. It looked great……until I stepped back for a second look. Nope, I didn’t like the finished look, it was too boxy. So all the Angels came off and I started over. This time I made more of a tower with a short stack on the left. One of my Angels is very tall and since I didn’t have any more wire panels to finish the last section, I put her on the cube without the top. Now I like it this look!
The tower rack brings the Angels higher up and fills in the empty wall space. I also had another old shelf rack for the Angel bears in the corner. The old trunk was my grandfather’s and it’s perfect to display hubby’s loon carvings that he collects.
We completed the last gray wall in the TV room yesterday and now the only one left is the accent wall between the two gray ones. Our carpet is red, gray and black so we will be painting that a shade of red.
CD Cabinet
We had a CD cabinet next to the TV from way back when the grand kids had tons of games and lots of music on CD’s. Lately the cabinet had become a storage catch all for things I didn’t know where to put. Well that changed yesterday. I cleaned out everything and most all of it went in the trash! Why do I collect so much STUFF??? So what do we do with this cabinet now?
It didn’t take me long to come up with a way to re-purpose it! There are two doors with slots and the inside of the cabinet had five shelves for lots of CD’s. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to store our thread cones and this is where I became creative!
I took some empty plastic CD cases and slid some on the door panels, turning them into six little shelves on each door. Now each of these shelves can hold four cones of thread. The five shelves in the main cabinet can hold ten cones each so I have the perfect thread storage cabinet for almost 100 cones of thread!
Today we whipped up the TV room top treatment for the slider and since Sherwin Williams has their paint on sale for 30% off until the end of January, we will have our red paint color decided on within the next few days so we can finish out the last wall of painting.
The next time you have something stashed in the attic or garage, take a look at it and see if you can come up with a way to re-purpose unused items.
It is so satisfying to be able to repurpose something. After all, isn’t that why we have been hanging on to it?
Speaking of CDs, like the cassette tapes, they were born and died in about 15 years, (8 track tapes lasted even less.)
Now we have blogging. Live long and prosper.
Oh yes, the cassette tapes that we STILL have a case full of them! LOL I love challenges and sometimes repurposing brings them on, just like blogging! Blog on until the April challenge Doug.
I guess it is good to repurpose unused things. they get a new life and there is always a feeling that we did it!
It’s a challenge at times but someone has to do it Shubhra! LOL I enjoy turning things that don’t have a use into something else. Plus it saves the landfill! Thanks for visiting.
My lady is sooo brilliant her ideas never stop; place is looking terrific she has one more wall to paint. Then?
We make a great team Richard! After the last wall, I’m sure we will find another challenge. <3
Oh this was so much fun.I love reusing and upcycling stuff too. Much easier and more ecofriendly than buying more stuff.
That is so true Amrita! I can always find something to do with “trash” instead of using the landfill! Thanks for visiting!
Great job Martha!
I too use to collect too much stuff… I always have hard time to throw things away. Hopefully, we have a donation center not too far so it’s the alternative when my husband calls for some clean up and I can’t justify keeping this or that!
Glad to know I’m not alone Stephanie! If it was up to my husband, everything would go to the donation center. We do take lots there but there are also things that I just can’t part with. I’m getting better at holding on to things though! Thanks for stopping by.
i truly loved the idea for your cd cabinet 🙂 i try to reuse and upcycle too so i should do a post like this soon.. but i need to do it before my dh decides those things to be out of the house 🙂 he is a neatfreak while i tend to hold on
I’d love to see your reused items Vidya! I like saving the landfill and I can be creative at the same time! I recently found 2 picture frames sitting next to the dumpster, yes they are mine now! LOL