Upcycling Sunday!

Upcycling, def. the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Wikipedia.org

I have really been on a roll this past couple of weeks; sorting, selling, Freecycling, gifting and trashing. After my initial sweep through the house, about a month ago, I am now going back and having a more thorough sort. This means going through closets, boxes and making harder choices.

And one of the things I'm finding about this second sweep, is that I am making huge messes in the house. There are just piles of things all over the place; stuff to sort, things to donate, or sell, or organize. I keep telling myself that once this is all done, our home will be better for it, but it's not exactly an easy, or quick, process.

One of the things that I consistently hear (from My Good Man!) when I suggest getting things out of the house, is the age old argument that "we might need it someday", to which I generally retort "well when we do, the one that we're keeping will be so out of style/too old/cheaper to buy again". I've generally disregarded that whole argument.

Until last week, when I had real first hand experience of this very issue. We received a VitaMIx as a holiday/birthday gift from family (a kithcen item that we have been hankering for, for quite some time). So out went our dependable, but now obsolete blender.

Two days later, our lovely new VitaMix started to make horrible sounds while blending, accompanied by a strong burning smell. Not good.

So back to the VitaMix company it went, and we suddenly found ourselves without a blender! At least My Good Man had the decency not to tease me for my cut throat "get it out of here" attitude!

And a quick update on my 2013 in 2013 project ... I'm currently at 533 items out of the house, via sale, gift, donate or trash, leaving just 1480 items more before the year is out. Not too shabby!


And how is your Upcycling/donating/organizing going? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Upcycling Sunday!

Upcycling def. the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Wikipedia.org

A good week for Upcycling!

We gave a bag of fireworks to a neighbor who was going to a big family celebration. (They *really* enjoyed them, which made me oh-so-happy! We've been saving them for an occasion for ages, so giving them away to help celebrate someone else's special occasion felt really good!)

Two kennels went to a friend of ours who has a new kitten (we had three kitty crates, and three kitties; now we just have our one cat, Puffin Muffin, with us, so we only need the one crate).

Before ...

 ... and after!

Some gift bags went to a new home through Freecycle. (No photo ... they went so quickly!)

I made a new (longer) door snake to replace a store bought (much shorter!) So the shorter one went out to a Freecycler.

Two stacks of magazines went out on Freecycle as well.

I also sold a homeschooling book through an online group.

The Little Ones have suddenly decided that they're done with baby food, so the pouches of purees went to our local homeless shelter.

But really, the big Upcycle this week were the three huge bags of baby clothes that I took to a consignment sale yesterday. I marked all of my items to be donated if they don't sell, so it's really a triple whammy; I move some things out of the house, I may make some money from the venture and other people get the benefit of the donated items - it's all good!

And what about you? What are you Upcycling this week?

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