The old saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” tells us a lot about how our outlook can change the perceived value of things. What we call waste is merely a changed state of an object or a material which we don’t really want to use or we can’t imagine any use for. The traditional relationship with waste has been challenged throughout the ages and reducing waste has become an active lifestyle.  Although all of this sounds delightful, it is really hard to get started. Charity begins at home! Trite, yet true. So let us look at 4 ideas for home decoration using discarded materials.

Tires and ropes

The nearest junk yard has heaps of these goodies. You can use these as practical sitting ideas or tables. Although be careful. Dragging around tires can damage the floor so be sure to at least use some temporary floor protection. Put a cushion on a couple of tires tied together and you can both sit and store things inside them. If you are a little skilled or you have people you know how to, you even turn a tire into a bathroom sink.  If you have kids then give them a bucket of paint and ask them to go crazy. What you have is a masterpiece installation. Put them on the wall or pile them up in the yard. Or just take one and pot a plant!.

Don’t let them papers go!

Every year millions of papers go to waste. It is a nightmare! So hold on to yours. Be it old letters or newspapers, all of it can be reused and it is really simple. With paper you have a lot of different options too. The most obvious but a little time consuming would be papier mache.  All you need is glue, boiling water and any thin paper like newspaper and you are sorted. Let your creative side take over. You can also take some time to learn origami and hang little paper birds and other pretty things from the ceiling. Even colorful paper cups come in handy when decorating a wall.  One more thing that you can do, and let me warn you, it is not for everyone’s taste, is use newspaper as wallpaper to give your room that hipster look.

Bottles of all kinds

Used bottles are great for storage, especially the glass ones as plastic bottles may become toxic when they come in contact with heat. But that isn’t stopping you from cutting them up and using them as wall pieces or gluing a lot of them together and using it as a fence for the house or a divider for the living room to separate it from the dining area.  Glass bottles can be used as cool and artsy light fixtures. Get LED strips or fairy lights and just drop them inside a glass bottle and voila! You can also fit a bulb holder on the mouth of a bottle and put a lamp shade on top, put right next to your bed and use it as a reading light.

Katie
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