In Honor of Earth Day: How to Create New Storage From Old Things

The comedian George Carlin had a routine I’ll never forget, about “stuff.” About how we have to have stuff. And then we have to buy stuff to hold our stuff. When we get too much stuff, we buy bigger houses. To hold all our stuff. And so we can go out and get more stuff.

If you have extra stuff that needs organizing around your home, why not recycle and repurpose things that already exist to hold your stuff? Here are some really cool, attractive ideas …

A banana box bin to hold extra blankets and pillows in the bedroom. This fun and funky recycled vintage crate was shared on BHG. I like how it’s lifted up on a few luggage racks:

We’ve all been seeing a lot of recycled shipping crates, so I’m working really hard here to find ideas that are not made from shipping crates. Let’s find some ideas that are more unusual. Sometimes the “unusual” comes from the extraordinary vision to see what something could be. Which is very different from what it is right now. Like, Centsational Girl found a $10 Goodwill cabinet and saw its potential and completely transformed it:

Are you in awe of this? I’m in awe of this. There’s a lot of cabinet makeovers out there but this is in a class of its own. So the next time you’re confronted with a storage cabinet that’s not at all your style, imagine what would be your style. Maybe a makeover is possible.

Gather up all your lotions and potions in little wooden vintage drawers. You can find drawers like this at flea markets, antique shops and Etsy. Give them a new job in life! HGTV shows how this can tidy up your bathroom countertops:

Another idea from HGTV, you can often find old wooden test tube holders on Etsy and Ebay. Look what you can do with them!

If you have a smaller kitchen that’s lacking an island, Apartment Therapy shows how to repurpose an old dresser into a kitchen island. Just add some marble, granite or even butcher block wood from IKEA cut to size to make a countertop:

Do you have a pile of magazines you just can’t throw away? Store them and turn them into seating at the same time! This is a genius idea from NJUORDER:

To really take the repurpose and recycle idea to heart, you can recreate this with a cushion, old belts and some kind of a wood platform.

All these ideas and many, many more (like, more than 1,000 ideas!) for repurposing and recycling things are on my Pinterest Board. Check them out and follow the board for more ideas as I pin them:

Follow India pied-à-terre’s board Repurpose Reuse Recycle Reclaim … RETHINK on Pinterest.