Find upcycling ideas about how to reuse items and avoid them being sent to landfill. Doing this can not only save the planet, but it will save you money too.

Do you want to be even more environmentally friendly? Would you like to be able to do it without much effort at all? Then you might want to know about upcycling ideas.

Upcycling can be an easy way to update and renovate items that are a little bit past their best. This stops them going into landfill, which in turn helps the environment. It also stops you needing to buy a new item, so you’re helping the environment by cutting down on how much you consume.

To help you get started upcycling, here are some handy ideas to get you started

Forage Far & Wide

In order to upcycle you need items to do up. To find them try looking far and wide. Rather than looking around your home where you probably have everything as you want it, you’ll want to look in storage spaces. Your cheap self storage unit, your garage, your spare room – wherever you have furniture and accessories stored. Try selecting one item to up cycle first to see how you feel about it. If that goes well you can then go back and look for something else to do.

Prepare Really Well

Preparing is so important when you’re upcycling. Planning ahead means you have all the tools and accessories you need to get the job done well. You’ll also want to clean and prepare the item that you’re doing up. Preparing well means that the end result is more likely to be successful.

Don’t Spend Lots Of Money

For an initial upcycling project it is important not to drop a lot of money on it. It may go horribly wrong and you may actually hate the process.

Instead, rummage around your cheap self storage units or your garage and see what paintbrushes and bits of old paint and other things you already have. Make the project as cheap as possible. If you start taking to the process and find you’re good at it, then maybe you can invest in more equipment to make things easier. Initially though, it really isn’t worth much of an investment.

Don’t Skip Steps In The Process

If you’re impatient you may be partial to ignoring one or seven steps on a tutorial or upcycling video. If that sounds like you, then do try to be more disciplined and follow all the steps given to you. Even the smallest detail like sanding an item down or allowing it to dry fully can make a huge difference to the outcome

Don’t Feel Like You Have To Keep The Item

If you upcycle an item and you still hate it, don’t feel like you need to keep it as you’ll just resent it taking up storage space. Instead, why not sell it or give it away for free? Somebody with more experience might be able to do it up and ensuring it doesn’t go to the tip in this way still prevents it going into landfill.

Hopefully, the tips above have helped you with your first upcycling project. There are no real dos and don’ts when it comes to being creative with items that have seen better days. The very fact that you’re trying to avoid something going into landfill is an amazing thing. If you can help one item get a second life then you’re doing your bit.