Upcycling Sunday!

*Sorry this is getting out to you a little later than usual; I had technical issues, aka I forgot to press the 'publish' button. Oops!

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

Maybe it's the colder weather keeping us indoors more, or maybe the fact that we are getting the house ready for guests in a couple of weeks, but I have suddenly been hit by a bit of a de-cluttering bug.

I've been toying with the idea of becoming more minimalist for a while. Our small home feels so much smaller with lots of 'stuff' in it.

I always like to find other people who are doing the smae thing as me, so I was excited to find a group on Diaper Swappers who have given themselves a challenge; 2012 in 2012 - that is re-gifting, donating, selling or throwing away 2012 items in the year 2012. Joining a little late, I signed up for the mini-challenge of 168 items in the month of December. (2012 items equals 168 items each month!)

I love a challenge!

One day in, and I am already 63 items down, leaving only 105 more items to pass on to reach the challenge. (I was lucky enough to be able to Freecycle most of these items, but some just had to go in the trash ... old tea bags from 2002 and dried out markers are two examples).

I won't bore you with pictures of all 63 items, but here a couple of highlights!

 

So, yes! - this is all kid's stuff. But, going through it and getting stuff out of the house feels so good :-)

How about you? What did you Upcycle this week? 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?

1. Please enter the direct link to your Upcycling Sunday blog post in the Linky tool below. If you don’t have a blog but still have something to share, feel free to add it to the comments.
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