The Virtues of Upcycling: Upgrade Your Home, Cut Down on Waste, Let Your Creativity Run Wild

Glass jars or tin cans are easy to jazz up into something decorative. (Annie Spratt/Unsplash)

These days, upcycling seems to be on trend. On TV, particularly natty-looking hipsters demonstrate how to re-purpose ordinary household objects into beautiful, inventive items, often made for little money—and sometimes sold to “boutique shops” for a handsome sum.

In countless cafés, you’ll find up-cycled tin cans as cutlery holders and canning jars as drinking glasses. A coffee shop I used to frequent had old-fashioned sewing machine treadle bases as tables—beautiful to look at, but a killer if you cracked your shin on the mechanism below the table. I recently saw a review for a restaurant in the UK where food was served on shovels. Yes, gardening equipment! Of course, my mind immediately jumped to the scenario of the unfortunate person who snags the handle and has their entire meal catapulted across the room.

But trendy or not, up-cycling is something we can all do, if we all put our minds to it, and something we can get a great deal of pleasure from.

Jazzed-up Jars

As a child, my family upcycled out of necessity. I distinctly remember rows of coffee jars lining the shelves in our kitchen. From sugar to tea leaves, lentils to dried tapioca, all were on display and stored safely in air-tight vessels, none of which cost more than the price of the coffee they originally housed. It was a way to save money and re-use the ever-practical glass jar.

To this day, my mum uses plastic laundry detergent bottles to store rice, oats, and other foodstuffs that need to be kept dry. The bottles are easy to pour from, reduce waste, and save money. It’s upcycling at its best!

Any glass jars can, of course, be jazzed up to look decorative, if that takes your fancy. Attractive adhesive labels are readily available in shops and online, and can be a simple addition when paired with a circle of fabric placed over the lid and fixed in place with string or a ribbon (try an elastic band if all else fails!). Tin cans, although not everyone’s cup of tea, make a very nice “shabby chic” container. If they are just that little bit too shabby for your taste, they can be wrapped in string, producing a sort of basket effect. Jars and tin cans can also be converted into eye-catching light fittings when hung upside down at different heights (do check this with an electrician before connecting them, however!).

Wondrous Wood

Another excellent upcycling material is wood. It’s strong, beautiful, and highly versatile. Recently I fashioned a felled sapling and a chunk of tree trunk otherwise destined for firewood into a coat stand, each side branch trimmed down to act as a hook. Thin slices of tree trunk can also be made into side tables if legs are attached, and scaffolding boards can be made into chunky shelving or glued together into broad sheets of wood to be formed into table tops. It may not be glamorous, but in the right setting, it can look stunning.

Fabulous Fabrics

Approximately 92 million tons of textiles are disposed of globally each year; a mere 12 percent of that used for clothing is recycled. The average American citizen discards about 82 pounds of clothing annually. So much can be made from those ripped shirts and trousers with holes in them; it just takes a bit of imagination.

At the start of the pandemic, I got out the trusty family sewing machine and made reusable masks from old shirts. I saved scarce resources and money, and helped keep family and friends safe during very difficult times. My parents, as newlyweds (thrifty from the start), utilized scraps of fabric to make a practical and attractive rag rug for the fireplace. Clothes or cushion covers can be made out of old garments that have sentimental value. If not much of the fabric is reusable, patchwork could be an option. A few small squares can be saved at least, and with them, the cherished memories.

Getting Creative

In times of adversity, upcycling and recycling are of extra importance. It’s not all about the need for frugality, however; it’s also about human ingenuity and getting creative. Necessity is the mother of invention, true, but how about trying invention just for fun? Challenge yourself to look at the things around you with fresh eyes. Make something new!

Once you open your eyes to the possibilities, you may never look at ordinary household items in the same way again. Almost everything has the potential to be up-cycled or recycled.

Going back to the humble tin can, I fondly recall teetering along on homemade stilts, feeling on top of the world (although I was probably only about three feet tall at the time). Simply put, the stilts were upturned cans, pierced on each side with a loop of thin rope passed through them to hold on to. High-tech they certainly were not, but fun? Absolutely!