Recycle, Upcycle, Reuse, Organize, RePurpose!!

Did you miss me? I’ve been gone from Blog World (yes, it’s a proper name, and thus is capitalized) longer than I expected due to a) being out of town and b) dealing with a hopefully short-lived health issue. The doctor has found what’s wrong, and has prescribed a fix. Unfortunately for me the fix is almost as bad as the original trouble. But SOON I shall be back to some semblance of “normal,” a term which for me is as yet undefined since I continue to RePurpose Linda.

In addition to the above mentioned health issue, I have a sprained arm. I think I did it by overtaxing myself on the weight machines at Lifetime Fitness. So I’ve been stymied at the gym AND at home, PLUS we were out of town celebrating my father-in-law’s 85^th birthday and I didn’t stay on the WW Plan, so last week was kind of a bust, repurpose-wise. But only in the realm of my physical repurposing. Last night was WW again, but I couldn’t go. Suffice it to say that my current ailment often keeps me close to home/bathroom. Phil went (was the only guy there which made him uncomfortable) and lost another 2 lbs! I’m so proud of him.

I mentioned last week that this blog will present a multi-faceted repurposing adventure. First, the physical: losing weight and improving my overall well-being through exercise. Second, reverting to the cheapskate I was years ago when kids-at-home were aplenty and money was not. Now, I’ve spent a chunk of the last two weeks on a third facet: repurposing THINGS. This is the more conventional sense of repurposing, which is taking something that no longer serves its original purpose and re-making it into something else. Like making old T-shirts into rugs. Perhaps for profit down the road a ways. Etsy maybe?

Technically, unless it’s torn or otherwise really shabby a T-shirt can still be worn, but if it’s been given away to the Salvation Army I say it’s prime re-purpose material. First I did some research on Pinterest and Etsy, then developed a plan. My goal is to eventually re-use things around the house for the repurposing-things adventure, and since I’m married to a world-class packrat, there’s lots and lots of things around the house, particularly in our basement. But I needed a jumping-off place and decided on T-shirt rugs.

I first want to try a braided rug. Seemed like something I could do. So I needed T-shirts. I had a good number of my own, ones I wear for house cleaning or painting, but for future reference and because I wanted to get out of the house for a while I went to the Salvation Army store in Plymouth to see what their prices were like. The SA store has a perpetual 50% off sale on items with tags of a certain color, depending on the day. I went on “white tag sale day.” With 45 bazillion T-shirts to choose from it wasn’t hard to limit myself to white tags. Not knowing how many T-shirts I would need to make a rug, I bought 8 shirts in various shades of grey, blue and green, for a total of $15, averaging just under $2 per shirt,which still seems a little on the expensive side for used clothes, doesn’t it?

Then Phil and I went to the St. Vincent De Paul thrift store where we donated some old computer equipment and books and the like, and I shopped for more T-shirts. They were $1 each, and since it was “Men’s Day” at St. Vinnie we got them for another 25% off! I like these prices better than SA.

Now all I need to do is cut up the shirts and start braiding and sewing! I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I also have a Lenten project going, which is sort of a re-purposing effort – dejunking and organizing my home, starting with the kitchen. Have I mentioned that I am married to a packrat? Well I am. So when I saw this idea on Pinterest (my new love) I thought it was a perfect fit for my life right now. A) Usually have to stay close to home and B) Want to stop the piles of stuff from growing and pushing us right out of the house. And of course the real purpose of Lent is remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us, so I purposely do not have the TV or radio on during my project time so I can concentrate fully on prayer and thanksgiving.

Each day during the 40 days of Lent, I'm tackling a different area of the house. Since Lent does not include Sundays, I have a built-in day off each week! Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Day One (Ash Wednesday): The Plan. I couldn’t go to church, so I sat at home and planned out my Lent Project.

Day Two: Paper Piles – My Mother’s stuff. I went through seven years of collected papers (medical stuff, bank statements, bills) and sorted, organized, filed and shredded for an entire day. Felt so good to have that done!

My pretty dejunked shelves!

Day Three: Paper Piles – Phil’s stuff. TEN years of collected papers, same categories. This actually took a day and a half. 

Day Four: Shelves in kitchen near Phil’s desk. I really only had half a day for this because of Day Three running over into Day Four, but it was enough.

Day Five (Yesterday): Phil’s desk. Ohmygosh. He still had floppy disks in there. And software from two computers ago. Printer cartridges from three printers ago. The list goes on. But again, feels really really good, and looks good too!

Closeup. Boxes in top right are full of cards:
thank yous, blanks, birthday, etc.

Today, Day Six, I plan to tackle the junk drawers in the kitchen. Sort, pitch, clean, organize, re-cycle, re-purpose, re-use, and consolidate into one drawer. I’ll let you know how it goes!