Blog Description

Remodeling tips, trends, ideas, and a few things thrown in for giggles

December 28, 2010

Upcycling your Christmas Trash


The final Christmas packages have been unwrapped, the last morsels have been emptied from their decorative cookie tins, and the bathroom scales have been safely hidden for at least another month.  Now it’s time to take down the lights, put the living room back together, and give the sanitation department some overtime collecting the vestiges of our holiday gifting frenzy.  But before you stuff all the Christmas "trash" into a sack and toss it by curb, consider “upcycling” some of those post consumer party products (no, we don’t mean the fruitcake). 


Upcycling is the trendy way of saying “re-purpose your old stuff into new stuff.”  In other words, forgo the recycling centers (or <gasp> the landfill) and make use of the items without the middle man.  Since we at The Dusty Hammer are so forward thinking we thought what better way to ring in the New Year than to provide you our friends (yes both of you) this post holiday list of upcycling ideas for those Christmas remnants you've got lying around.   Okay, you're right - we're not THAT "enlightened."  We are however pretty good at taking credit for other people's bright ideas... as such we've tapped into the cerebral cortex of our friends at the E Advisor Blog (or their mainframe anyways) who have compiled an interesting collection of possible projects for your post consumer party products.  Some of our favorites include:  

1.    Wine Bottle Plant Nanny:  Worried about what the neighbors will think when you set two trash cans full of wine bottles out for garbage day?  Instead of just tossing them, turn those empty liquor jugs into plant Nannies… that way you’re not the only thing your neighbors call “lush.” 
2.   3D Paper Snowflakes:  Cuz Christmas doesn’t have a monopoly on winter décor and these are way cooler than the folded snowflakes you made in grade school.
3.   Christmas Card Luminaries:  A beautiful way to enjoy those pretty cards again and again and shed some decorative light on your next year's holiday festivities.
4.   Thank You Card:  You want them to send you gifts next year, don't you?!
5.   3D Card Star:  A great tree-topper project for next year’s Tannenbaum (or just to impress the neighbors with your mad origami skills).
6.    Reuse It:  Okay, gift bags yes, but if you're like us and subscribe to the "rip it open as fast as you can" method… you're probably better off sticking with one of the other options listed above.   
7.   Mail Used Greeting Cards to St. Jude's Ranch for Children:  If crafts aren't your thing you can still make good use of those old cards by donating them to St. Jude's Recycled Card Program. This great program not only turns old cards into new ones but helps benefit the important work St. Jude’s does for terminally ill children. Going green and helping kids, now what could be better?

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