November 29th 2015 - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

Since we moved to where we live now we have started to recycle much more than we did before.  This isn't because we have more facilities to do so or they are closer or that we have choosen to, its just sort of happened.

We have a small crate outside that the bin men collect every fortnight.  In it can go tins, glass jars and bottles and newspapers/magazines.  Ours doesn't get put out all the time as its never really full.  We have a brown bin for garden waste, plus we have 2 compost bins at the bottom of the garden but these are used more in the summer than the winter.  Then the local supermarkets have other recycle points for plastic, cardboard, glass etc so we take to these when we go shopping.

My fireplace surround is made from recycled wood that was the gate over the drive way (we had to remove the gates as our car was too wide to go through them.)  The gates were treated in a thick black substance which we sanded off, we cut the wood to fit the whole in the fire and then varnished the wood in a natural pine stain.  It is fixed to the wall with haard as nails.  It looks lovely, much better than the big fire sticking out into the lounge.

Part of my decking has been made from pallets that a local company was getting rid of - listed as ideal for DIY projects or fire burning.  They let us have a 2nd lot as well so that we could finish it.  Again it was cut to size, sanded and treated with a wood stain and then varnish.

(picture was before it was stained)

I have used more wood from the old gates to make a 3 tier shelf unit that sits on top of another unit but being 3 tier means I can put alot of junk items on it.  I don't have a photo of it as its full of odds and ends and not tidy at the moment.  The last of the gates was used to make 3 shelves over a doorway of which the was sealed as not needed nor accessable from outside as has a shed infront of it.

We have made pillows from clothes that no longer fit the kids so they have them on their beds as scatter cushions.  Here is the crocodile that was a onesie:

The latest recycle project comes in the form of the old kitchen lino.  There wasn't anything wrong it and it would quite happily have lasted a few more years in the kitchen BUT I wanted a new 1 that matched the colour of the walls and woodwork.  So we rolled up the old one and stood it by the back door and laid the new 1.  Today we emptyied out the outdoor storage cupboard that technically isn't outdoor anymore as we knocked the wall through so its accessable from the kitchen instead of outside.  We swept the floor, filled in gaps around the old door with sealant and then fitted the old kitchen floor to the cuboard.  This involved lots of cutting and moving etc, it's not perfect but hubby is not a floor fitter!  BUT if it makes it a bit warmer in there than walking on concrete then its worth it.  It also helped us to get rid of loads of rubbish and junk that had been dumped in the cupboard and was no longer needed.