The Internet is full of ideas for ways to reuse pallet wood. We here at Unconsumption certainly have shared a good number of them. (Browse our Pinterest board here, Tumblr archive here, and/or Facebook album here for various examples, including several ideas for DIY projects.)
If pallet repurposing interests you, and you’ve been wondering how to go about disassembling pallets, here’s a brief tutorial from Old World Garden Farms that looks like it could be helpful.
I’m guessing that most of us don’t own the tool the tutorial recommends using: a reciprocating saw (a.k.a. “sawzall”) that can cut through nails. If, like me, you don’t own one, perhaps you live someplace where there’s a tool bank where you could rent such a tool, or a tool library where you could borrow one?
Special note: For reuse projects, many of us look for pallets that are made from harder wood that, if it’s been treated, was heat-treated, not chemical-treated. We mention it on Facebook here.
DIY project du jour:
Got milk (crates)? Turn plastic crates into a credenza.
Friend of Unconsumption Will Holman made this one, and he provides a tutorial over on Instructables here, so you can make one of your own.
Find more crate reuse here.
Brilliant! And a great addition to the “beverage carton-repurposing” idea file.
Spotted on Facebook, on the Grow Food, Not Lawns community gardening page here. (If you’re aware of the original source, please tell us — I wasn’t able to track it down.)
Other garden-related ideas can be found in earlier Unconsumption posts here and here.
Here at Unconsumption, we love cassette-related repurposing; check out our collection of past posts here.
However, this photo shows two products that were designed specifically for iPhones: An iPhone cover that looks like a cassette tape, and a case that fits it.
So, no, this is not an old cassette tape case repurposed as a phone holder.
That said, an iPhone can be placed vertically in an old cassette tape case. Try it — it works well!
(via TechCrunch)
Have a chipped plate? Why not turn it into a clock?
Helen Kerrigan made these. (Photo via Auckland Art & Craft Fair.)
More new uses for secondhand and/or broken china can be found here.
DIY project du jour: Turn a broken garden hose into a door mat.
A tutorial, on Mark Kintzel’s blog here, mentions the idea of making something like this with a new “dollar store door mat” as a base. Instead of buying something new, I’d check with my neighbors to see if someone has an old door mat they’d let me reuse.
To soften clothes when washing them, do you use dryer balls, add vinegar before rinsing your clothes, or do something else, instead of using disposable dryer sheets?
The reason I ask is that I came across this tutorial (via the dōTERRA blog) for making dryer balls — which many of us could easily make using yarn from old sweaters — and wonder what fabric-softening alternatives the Unconsumption community has found that work well. We’re all for using something other than single-use disposable products.
Tell us: What do you use?
I always enjoy coming across reuse ideas on sites where I don’t expect to find such things … like Buzzfeed! But this post about what to do with pizza boxes is pretty cool:
So you can’t recycle them and they don’t fit in your trash can. Earn a few extra karma points with the earth by making these practical projects.
Here they are: 15 Awesome Things You Can Make With A Stupid Pizza Box
Handlebar table.
DIY, inspiration — if you can get your hands on some old bike handlebars!
More uses for old bicycles and bike parts here.
It’s wine o’clock somewhere — which means it’s time to share another wine-related repurposing find.
Today, it’s wine corks used as floor covering.
This photo, via MSN, shows the cork-floor handiwork of Dan Phillips, of Huntsville, Texas-based Phoenix Commotion (mentioned previously on Unconsumption here), which constructs affordable homes from recycled, salvaged, and/or found materials.
More posts in Unconsumption’s wine o’clock series can be found here.
(Thanks, Chip, for the tip!)
Today’s edition: Food packaging
1. Why not make globes/ornaments from cereal boxes or other paperboard packaging? Plumpudding made these globes using this simple tutorial from marthastewart.com.
2. More DIY inspiration: A very cool necklace, made by Bird Ross (photo via PaMdora’s Box).
Want to check out other ways to repurpose packaging? See this Unconsumption Pinterest board.
