Number Forty One: Socks Into a Door Draft Catcher
We’ve encouraged DIY and upcycled door draft stoppers before as a great handmade holiday gift that can also help the recipient conserve energy and reduce his or her heating bill. But we fell even more in love with this idea of making your door draft stopper out of colorful and mismatched socks. Save the socks from the world of unclaimed socks! Turn them into a colorful door draft stopper and give them new life. This particular DIY instruction is for a door draft stopper that looks like a snake, but there’s no reason that, if you don’t want a cartoon animal as a final product, you can’t simply have a long stranded door draft stopper using the same technique.
Image via Gosgrain
Number Forty Two: Old Windows Into … So Many Things!
If you’ve ever renovated an older house and had the sad moment when you realized that the old windows needed to be replaced with modern, energy efficient ones if you wanted to be kind to the planet, then you know the sadness that overcomes you when you look at the beautiful, old, removed windows. But there are actually dozens of ways to upcycle old windows and window frames. You’re likely familiar with recycling them into picture frames, but we also fell in love with so many of the wall art and outdoor uses we saw on this list.
Image via Remodelaholic
Number Forty Three: Wine Corks Into … So Many Things!
We like our wine. We like it so much that we’re about to list two wine-related upcycling possibilities. The first one involves those pesky wine corks. As a little known side fact, wine corks can actually be recycled (if nowhere else, your local Whole Foods will have cork recycling). But why recycle them when there are so many ways to upcycle them? From decorative options to practical ones like coasters, trivets and bathmats, you can upcycle your wine corks into fun projects that give you plenty of excuses to keep drinking the wine. All of the wine.
Image via Buzzfeed
Number Forty Four: Wine Bottles Into … So Many Things!
We warned you that we’d be doubling up on the wine-related upcycling projects, and we maintain that we drink a “functionally healthy” amount of wine and that’s why we’re so familiar with these! If you thought that there were a lot of ways to upcycle wine corks, then you are about to be entirely overwhelmed when you see how many ways there are to upcycle wine bottles. Sure, you probably already knew that they could be made into vases, but did you also think about tiki torches, drinking glasses, soap dispensers and wind chimes?
Image via el mundo del reciclaje
Number Forty Five: Mason Jars Into … So Many Things!
While it’s all the way down at number forty-five on our list, the most popular item to upcycle is a Mason jar. Let us be clear though, going to a craft store and buying two dozen Mason jars isn’t the same as upcycling them. So unless you have extra lying around and regularly preserve or jam on your own, that is crafting, not upcycling. But if you do have a surplus of Mason jars, there’s so much that you can do to upcycle a Mason jar. We’re not even going to go into the list or give some examples because there are that many things. Can’t imagine where to get started? We like that list we just linked to with thirty ideas.
Image via Crafting a Green World
Number Forty Six: Old Books Into … So Many Things!
In this world of digitization, many of us have a slew of old books that we may not be reading or using any more. Even before digitization, there were frequent runs for many of us to the used book store to offload our old books. But there are actually so many ways that you can upcycle the contents of an old book. Want to use the entire book? Create table legs, nightstands, lamp stands or secret safes. And there are an almost endless number of inspired ways to turn the interior pages of an old book into home décor or gift items. We love our books, but we don’t necessarily love them cluttering up our home, which is why we’re personally excited to try some of these upcycling projects.
Image via AJ’s Trash 2 Treasure Blog
Number Forty Seven: Old Maps Into … So Many Things
Another paper item that many of us find ourselves not using or needing any longer is maps. Between in-car GPS systems and map systems on smartphones and tablets, the need for a paper map has all but vanished. Which doesn’t mean all of the paper maps stored up in the world have vanished. Fortunately, if you thought that there were a lot of ways to upcycle old books, there are even more ideas out there for how to upcycle old maps. We were literally floored by some of the clever ways that people came up with to turn the beauty of an old map into everything from home décor to gifts to practical elements. It almost makes us long for the days of paper maps (almost).
Image via Sweet T Makes Three
Number Forty Eight: Plastic Bags Into Woven Items
Yes. Firstly, we are opposed to the existence of single-use plastic bags. But we also respect your right to use them and your personal choice. We also want to remind you that many grocery stores have huge bins where you can recycle them. But let’s say that none of that is the right answer for your personal situation. Did you know that you can upcycle plastic bags by weaving them into things? We did not until we found this list of fifty ways to upcycle plastic bags. Coasters, bracelets, belts, jewelry… we were impressed by the list. And we’ll use it if we ever end up with a ton of extra plastic bags.
Image via thredHED
Number Forty Nine: Denim Into … So Many Things
We’re going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the reason that you have denim to recycle is a)because you wore it to the bone or b)because you rescued a ton of it from your local Goodwill and not c)because you’ve put on some weight and don’t want to be reminded that your jeans don’t fit! You have so many choices! We found over 800 ways to upcycle your denim. Some of them create other clothing items, some of them create homewares, some of them create gifts and some of them create art. It’s really your denim world out there. Now go get comfy in it.
Image via Carry Hers by Natalie
Number Fifty: Old Lampshades Into … So Many Things
To be honest, when we decided to Google and see what we could come up with for upcycling old lampshades, we expected to not get a ton of responses. Really, how much can you do with an old lampshade? The answer (you’re not surprised right now) is quite a lot. Chandeliers, baskets, tables and really, really cool new lampshades using the frame from the old one are just a few examples. We almost hope those cheap lampshades we bought at Ikea see their end days sooner rather than later so that we can try some of this!
Image via Decor to Adore
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