Spring Cleaning? It's time. What to do with all the stuff you need to get rid of?
The Instructables website offers up some great ideas for re-use. According to their website, "Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others." In effect it is a community of doers who constantly create, share and collaborate on DIY projects.
Now that you've made a start, let your imagination run wild and create your own reuse project with those book pages. Break down the steps. Take the pics. Join the Instructables community. Share. Repeat.
--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh, Renew
14 comments:
I love spring cleaning. There is no better feeling than removing winter items from my closet, putting them into storage or donating items I no longer care for. I find this is also a great time to reevaluate trends I am following. One thing that I do every spring is turn unwanted jeans into shorts. With Philly summers, you can never have enough pairs of denim shorts. For all the jeans that I have ruined the hems on the bottom, this is a great way to recycle favorite items and not have to part with them.
I wish I had the time to be that creative and crafty. I have been wearing this pair of pajama shorts for the past few nights that are completely shreaded. The waist band is literally hanging on by a thread. I keep them because they are silky, comfortable and I love the print. Really I should just sit down and think of something new and creative to do with the fabric from them,but the only thing I can think of would end up being a very small pillow by the time I cut down to the usable fabric.
I am always thinking of ways to re-create items but never really seem to be able to execute my ideas,so I definitely need some instructions. The instructables website is definitely overwhelming at first so I would like to take the time to look through it. Also, for our design 3 class we had to create a handbag out of found items, and I used a book, like the one seen on the website. Mine wasn't functional so it's interesting to see this adaption.
I feel like a lot of of people are intimidated by the idea of making things. They are scared of making a mistake or having the item not turn out as expected and therefore they give up before they even try. This is really unfortunate because one of the best aspect about making something is not the success of the end product but the process undertaken to get there. It is fantastic to see websites like the Instructables and publications like Readymade are trying to reduce this fear by given people construction guides.
This website is great! I have bookmarked a few pages, so hopefully I have time to go back and try some of these out of summer break. I love the pj pants as well as the entire cake decorating section, and reusable teabag/coffee filters. And now that I hear that the Bubble House is closing :( I want to try out the bubble tea recipe they have on here! Looks easy and delicious and is a lot cheaper than buying one at a restaurant.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-ChineseJapanese-Bubble-Tea-Tea-Ta/
Once again I love the idea of DIY and reusing old products to make something unique and new. Unfortunately I have not been gifted with the talent to sew very well which limits my creativity. I would love to turn old tees into shorts, but I just don't think I have that ability. Instead I take old garments that I no longer want and give them to friends who would like them or even my sister. That way my spring cleaning doesn't lead to waste elsewhere than in my closet.
I am in love with this website!!! There are so many great opportunities to make new items out of the old. Unfortunately, I wish I had enough time to sit down and enjoy crafts. I was intrigued by some of the options to make slippers because I am forever going through them being that I rarely go barefoot in my apartment. This would be a wonderful website for teachers and parents to use so that we can start to incorporate "green" practices early on in childhood. Awareness and knowledge are the building blocks to making a difference in our world.
This website is so cool! It gives great DIY ideas. I love that there are recipes, gift ideas, and just great ideas in general. Some of the ones that stood out to me were the home made pizza recipes, I definitely have to try that one time. Also, the keyless entry to get into your dorm room is a great idea as well. I remember I always had trouble remembering to bring my key or where I had placed it in my room. I also thought the secret coffee cup candy dispenser was a great idea- candy and coffee are my 2 favorite things. I am definitely going to go back to this website and try a few of these tricks.
This website is great! I love the idea of people coming together to show others how they put together their own unique ideas. I also like the fact that there are pictures included in the instructions. Not everyone can follow instruction that well, but the pictures definitely help on the process. Once spring cleaning is done I will log on again to see what I can come up with.
I am constantly trying to find new ways to re-construct my loved garments and items into new possessions. It is very difficult to figure out what to do with them though! A friend of mine turned her old license plate from her first car into a purse and uses it ALL the time. I would definitely love to do that with the plates from my first car, so I've been looking for instructions or DIY sites to potentially instruct me!
The first thing I noticed about this homepage is the doggie cookie cutter that you can make yourself- something I think my mother would LOVE to try out! We bake cookies all the time so this would be a fun experiment to make our own shapes for our family and recycle in the process!
This website is amazing. It is a wonderful way to discover and share different creative projects. Some of them were really odd, like the ear spa, but others are definitely useful. The hardbound book purse reminds of a dress I made out of fairy tale pages for a competition in high school.
I already got some great ideas from the Instructables website and am excited to explore it further. This seems like a great platform for sharing creative ideas. My mom doesn't like to throw things away and holds onto everything. I think that a site like this would be perfect for someone like her because it would allow her to reuse things. Can't wait to share this with her!
This website is really cool. A bit overwhelming at first, but thats just because of the insanely wide variety of DIY projects it has to offer. It's great that there is an emphasis on reuse, especially with items that are trendy and functional, like purses. All of the instructions that I read are well written and easy to follow, especially with the extra picture documentation. I like the fact that with the ability to share your own ideas and recipes it is creating this online community among people who share similar interests.
Spring cleaning is one of my favorite things. Actually doing the cleaning is not that fun, but the feeling I get after it's all done makes it so great. I'm not sure though, if I would take old t-shirts and make them into shorts, because it would take a lot of time and patience (which I am lacking right now) and it would also be somewhat nerve wrecking since the website is not clear what size the pants would end up being. However I might be patient enough to make the purse. Personally I probably wouldn't wear a purse that was made out of a book, since it isn't really my style, however I would definitely consider making them to sell them. I have a huge collection of books as I am an avid reader, many of which are taking up space that could be used for other newer books, so being able to reuse them and then make a profit from it would be awesome. I'm inspired to think of other ideas for reusing other things that I no longer use around my room and home.
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