Get crafty with recycled and repurposed items around the house

By Katie Machol Simon on Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 1:00 pm

-Instructables Green also lists tons of uses for various items for the home, office, or garden. They also regularly feature contests where people send in submissions of their repurposed items and give out great prizes (i.e.: the latest one, "Get in the Garden Contest" where you could win a brand new indoor composting machine).

-Recycled Crafts at Craft Gossip takes a more decorative spin on reusing items. They feature posts on ways to jazz up the walls in a room, ways to make repurposed furniture and decorations, things to make jewelry and fashion accessories from, and various garden-related projects.

-Craftzine also features repurposed items for wearing, decorating, planting, etc., and has recycled fashion-related contests regularly. It also features more off-the-wall projects (i.e.: the Bill Cosby portrait using jello shots).

Here are some highlights of different projects using recycled items from these sites:

-Hanging shoe caddy planter

-Bottle cap chandelier

-A jacket made from empty juice pouches

-An herb garden made with plastic bottles

-Ways to reuse an empty Altoids tin

Wondering what to do with those items in your house that you don't know how to or where to recycle, and don't want to just throw them away? Why not get crafty and rework those items by making them into handy things you'd actually use?

I found these great sites that are dedicated to making useful items by recycling and repurposing what most people would just throw away.

-Recycle This features ways to use over 600 items and has over 8000 suggestions of ways to reuse, repurpose or recycle things that would otherwise go in the trash. They’ve covered items from around the home, office and garden, things for particularly hobbies or sports, and random bits of technology that have broken or are just out of date.

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