We’re fans of reusable items, especially things that can be used instead of plastic wrap and other disposable, single-use plastic products.
Beeswax-infused fabric is such a reusable item for food storage. Waxy cloth can be used to cover vegetables, fruit, cheese, bread, and other items, including those in bowls. The warmth of your hands helps to mold the material around the food you wish to wrap or over the top of a bowl or other container. The waxy cloth can be rinsed off using water and mild soap, if necessary, hung to air-dry, and it’s ready for use again.
The Art of Doing Stuff blog features this simple tutorial for making your own sheets of beeswax wrap; all you need are pieces of cotton fabric, beeswax, an oven, and a tray.
For pre-made options: This recent Design*Sponge post mentions Bee’s Wrap, made by a small company in Vermont.
A similar food-storage product, Abeego, has been made in Canada for the past several years. The folks who make Abeego wrap even put their scrap pieces to use, turning them into useful items such as business cards and twist-ties.
For helpful wax-wrap care and use tips, check out Abeego’s Web site here.
(photo via The Art of Doing Stuff)
Cup of tea, anyone?
Some 3,000 tea bags (yes, you read that right!) make up this installation at Rolling Greens, a “home and garden destination” in Los Angeles. (Spotted on Pinterest here. Source: Los Angeles, I’m Yours, which features additional photos.)
See also: Quilt made from steeped tea bags.
How would you describe this example of repurposing? Beautiful? Or not your cup of tea?
DIY idea du jour:
Recover worn furniture with used paint sticks. Colorful and rustic looking, for sure.
To help in gathering sticks, tell your neighbors you’re collecting sticks. Also, ask staff at a store that sells paint to keep their used sticks for you.
(Photo by matangi.etsy on Flickr; spotted on Pinterest here.)
(To fold your own napkins — ideally reusable cloth napkins — into “rabbits,” see this tutorial from Martha Stewart.)
Looking for some simple, DIY ideas for green Easter decor?
We’ve rounded up several ideas, including this cute basket — just weave strips of paper or ribbon through a strawberry basket’s slots (great idea via Parentella blog!) — on this Unconsumption Pinterest board.
See also: Our Easter-tagged items on Tumblr.
Plastic, strung. Installation at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, July 2009. (Photo via Betty Birney’s Blog.)
Don’t you think something like this would make a unique room divider?
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.
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?
It’s wine o’clock somewhere, which means it’s time to share a wine-related repurposing find.
Today, it’s corks made into a bird house.
For other items in Unconsumption’s wine o’clock series, check out the archive here.
(via tinnedpineapple)
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!)
