How to Upcycle Like a Pro
If you have an itch to get crafty or don’t know what to do with some of your clutter, upcycling could be the perfect solution to hit both birds with one stone. Upcycling is the process of freshening up old products with modifications or repurposing items in creative ways for new use. Wide-spread upcycling and recycling reduce the emission of things like CO2 and the impact on landfills, so if you’re looking to be more green and eco-friendly, here are some helpful tips for you to upcycle like a pro.
Inspiration
If you’re reinventing your home or planning on making a big move, you’ll want to explore ideas for the look you want to go for. Thanks to the internet, it’s easy to find an array of do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and tutorials for any item, budget, or level of expertise. It’s also easy to discover and hone in on particular designs and aesthetics to develop a vision for what you want your home to give off. For example, if you want your living room to give a retro 1970s look, you should consider researching the decor, colors, patterns, and furniture of that time to start planning what you’ll need to upcycle and how.
Plan and Prepare
You’ll want to assess your budget, space, equipment, and items that you have or need to buy. You want to make sure everything you buy and do suits your home and personality and doesn’t end up being an unhappy, expensive pile of clutter. In fact, part of your planning and preparation should involve considering your home overall and your plans to stay or move, including how much space you’ll want to have. Knowing this will help you narrow down what projects you can take on and, therefore, what supplies you’ll need to get. Mapping our how to tackle your project will help you to foresee any obstacles that may arise so you don’t hit multiple roadblocks in your creative process.
Find the Best Items
There are many places to find hidden gems, whether it’s a community yard sale, antique shop, online marketplace, clearance, family donations, or your own home. This is an opportunity to follow sustainable practices in reducing, reusing, and recycling the respective items in good or poor use. Many things outweigh their stay in our homes and need to be replaced entirely and trashed, but other things still have some life in them and just need spruced up or repurposed.
Get the Right Tools and Space
Designate a space in, outside of, or away from your home where you can work on your project. You’ll want to keep all the materials and equipment there to not create physical and stressful clutter in your home. Then you need to take inventory of materials and tools you already have that you can reuse (another great way to be sustainable!) so you can figure out what you’ll need to buy. Be sure to do thorough research on quality equipment, but don’t go over your head on your level of expertise in using them. No need to buy a table saw if an X-Acto knife will do the trick!
Sell or Curate
You may find in curating beautiful or useful pieces for your home that you’re rather good at your craft and you’d like to keep going even after you finish decorating your home. Whether you have other belongings you were looking to get rid of or find you’re done with an upcycled item and want to make something fresh for your home, your crafting doesn’t have to end. This could be an opportunity to upcycle items and sell them in the community or gift them to friends and family. There are plenty of craft shows or opportunities to open a small business on an online marketplace if you want to keep your hobby alive on a manageable scale.
Ready to take your downsizing and decluttering journey to the next level? Check out our ebook, Unlock the Power to Declutter!
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