Today’s post was inspired by this photo of a winter boot that I texted to my mom and sister this morning. A little backstory (since I know you are hooked by that riveting intro sentence)… my sister gave me these hand me down boots which were in perfect condition aside from the fact that the metal fastener was broken off (thus causing my son to get snow in his boot- the ultimate tragedy). I didn’t want to trash them because my son is about to grow out of his current pair and high quality kid shoes are damn expensive these days. Luckily, I had the idea to use an old key chain ring which I poked into what was left of the fabric and voila! Fixed! I sent the pic off to my mom and sister and my mom replied with “Earth points for that!”. That was enough to make me go deep into my photo archives to find more photo evidence of various upcycled projects so I could gain even more Earth Points and thus win at the game of life. That’s how it works, right?

We live in a culture that is chock full of consumerism, of which I am part of the problem. It is so easy to order whatever we need and have it delivered to our doorstep. Shows like The Home Edit inspire us to buy alllll the plastic “product” to organize our heaps of stuff in order to make it look pretty. We update our kitchens every decade or so simply because the old style was out of fashion, despite the fact that everything was working just fine. I must repeat this, I am a part of the problem too and am not trying to point the finger and make you feel shitty about your recent reno or plastic bins. I too went out and bought a handful of cheap plastic containers after watching (and honestly enjoying) The Home Edit. It is so hard to avoid the bright shiny new things especially when we see everyone else’s new things all over social media. We want in on the fun and so we ‘treat’ ourselves to new new new all the damn time.

What I am hoping to do here is to inspire you to think before you purchase. Look around your home and see what could be repurposed. Although I love throwing shit out that I don’t need anymore, I encourage us all to pause before we add to the landfills and see if there could be another use for the item at hand. There is something so gratifying about breathing life back into an old item or making do with what we have instead of spending our time and our money on buying something new. Every time you use your recycled item, you will feel proud about the Earth Points you’ve earned and it will motivate you to earn more in the future. Without further ado, here are some Earth Points success stories from my life that hopefully will inspire you to think outside the Amazon box next time you need something.

While I loved this cotton shower curtain for its beautiful design and pleasing colors, it was a little loud for my tiny bathroom and therefore ended up sad and lonely in the bathroom closet. I felt bad for abandoning my somewhat new purchase, so decided to give it a new life as cloth napkins! I then decided to sew our initials on them (so I didn’t accidentally get my kid’s one that he used to clean up spilled milk with… gross). Now we get bonus Earth Points for using less paper napkins. Boom!

I bought this 28% alpaca wool cardigan used and didn’t realize it was missing a button at the time of purchase. It is insanely cozy but I kept finding myself putting it back in the closet after wearing it for only and hour or so. The missing button made it look scrappy and drove my OCD self a little cray cray so I finally retired it to the donate box. After a few weeks, I was about to donate everything in the box but had second thoughts when I saw it’s soft brown fur peaking out at me, so I decided to try something. What if I removed all the button snaps and sewed it into a sweater instead? I am by no means a professional seamstress but I went for it and it worked! I love it even more now.

Similar to the above story, I adored this kimono cardigan but rarely wore it because it was a little too flowy for my style. I like my clothes to stay in place as I move about my day (much to my husband’s dismay) and it just wasn’t cooperating. One quick attack with my trusty sewing machine and now it is one of my favorite pieces of clothing in my closet.

This doll-sized bunk bed was a blast to make. I dare say I found myself in a state of flow while creating it. It was one of those projects that came to me spontaneously when my daughter was trying to find a place for her dolls to sleep. We looked around and found an old bamboo utensil organizer that I no longer used. I took it apart and then found some extra pieces of wood for the posts and then nailed it all together. Then we took things one step further and made matching bed sets for them with the leftover shower curtain material and cotton balls for stuffing the pillows. Nighty night ladies!

While I love when my daughter plays with her dolls, the clothes and accessories were often scattered around the house which drove me a bit nuts. I tried to encourage her to keep them in a bin but I would always end up finding a random shoe with the blocks or little shirt in the figurines’ bin. As Christmas was approaching, I saw this sturdy farmhouse style crate that I bought years ago at a thrift store with new eyes and turned it into a little wardrobe for her doll’s clothes. I could have spent $50 buying a new one but instead I used paint I already owned and only had to spend $12 on the cute hangers. She told me it was her favorite Christmas gift (and also happened to be one of the cheapest). Earth points and mom points. Plus, now everything is nicely organized and I can live my happy clutter-free life.

This very fancy treadmill desk saved me about $100. When I realized I wanted to blog while getting my steps, I immediately started shopping online for a product that would make my multitasking dreams come true. Once I realized that I was basically shopping for a piece of wood, I scrounged around until I found this shelf I had been using as a shoe shelf. I added some old dish clothes to make it extra fancy (and also less slippery) and I’ve been happily blogging while stepping ever since.

If you have a sentimental child like I do, then you will understand this one. When our well-loved, outdoor chair-hammock finally broke, I knew my child would be upset to see it thrown away. While I sometimes choose the tougher mom route, this time I chose to be sympathetic and told her I could make her a bag from the fabric. She loves it and plans to use it as her library bag… if and when they reopen (shout out to libraries everywhere, we miss you!). (Side note, I did replace the beloved chair-hammock so this one did not save me money, but I like to think I still earned some Earth Points for not throwing it into the rubbish).

When I was in the beginning stages of pandemic school planning, I had grand plans of making the perfect home schooling environment for my kids. That didn’t last, but the geoboard I made did! I won’t go into explaining how I made this one as it is pretty obvious, but the kids still play with it on occasion and who knows, maybe it has taught my preschooler a shape or two! Nailed it (I can’t help myself)!

Ah yes, my victory garden from the Spring of 2020. There was something extra comforting about making a garden last year when the world was going to shit and I was scared to go grocery shopping. I knew I wanted to grow cucumbers but didn’t have a trellis and didn’t want to risk me or my family’s life by going to Lowes or Home Depot. Instead of ordering one online, I searched through the wood in the rafters of my garage that the previous owner had left us as a parting gift. It felt great to put that wood to use (that’s what she said) and it surprisingly held together 3000 cucumbers later (whoa, so many dirty joke opportunities here, I’ll leave it up to you dear reader).

One of my craziest ideas ended up being one of my most successful. Once upon a time I bought too many samples of sage green to pick the paint color for my bedroom. As you might know, I don’t love clutter, even if it’s in a cabinet in the basement. I wanted to use up those samples along with the half gallon of white that was leftover, so I decided to mix it all together and hope that I liked the color enough to use it on my dining room walls. Indeed, it was the perfect color and it made me very happy to have cleared out my paint shelf for the time being.

If you have the time and energy for it, Halloween is a great time to get creative, save money and earn Earth Points. Jane needed wings for her costume last year so I made these out of cardboard, leftover fabric and a hinge. My favorite part is that we used an old pair of her stockings (cut in half and sewed into loops) so she could wear it comfortably.

Made this excavator out of cardboard and food containers. My favorite aspect of this costume was that I used the kids’ nut and bolt tool toys to hold the whole thing together. Of course, once I was finished the hours upon hours worth of cutting and painting and putting it all together, my son announced to me that he changed his mind and wanted to be a crane instead. Wonderful.

Since buying this house six years ago, I’ve wanted an entryway cabinet of some sort. We have a coat closet but it is next to our front door and we use the side door off of the kitchen 100% of the time. I legit almost spent close to a grand buying a big old cabinet with hooks and doors and shoe shelves, but I decided that was ridiculous and that I could find another way. While we did purchase this amazing shoe cubby bench (no regrets) and a plank of wood, we ended up saving about $800 by not buying the giant entryway cabinet. I had my eye on some cute brushed gold hooks but it would have cost over $100 because I wanted nine of them. $100. For hooks. Not hookers, hooks. Come on! Instead, I spent zero dollars and instead, spray painted the eclectic selection of hooks I already had with leftover gold spray paint.

I take no credit for this one as it was an awesome project inspired by my daughter’s art assignment. She learned about Frank Lloyd Wright and then was supposed to design her own buildings. I just loved watching her spend hours making these buildings and structures with her only supplies being cardboard and tape. Please tell me why I continue to buy too many presents for my kids every damn Christmas when they are quite happy playing with tape and cardboard!? I’ll never learn.

I got very close to buying a makeup organizer (with gold accents of course) the other day but the one I liked was too big for my minimal amount of makeup and it was more money than I wanted to spend. I came home and was going to search online when I stopped myself, determined to use something I already had. In my kitchen storage I found this square vase which fit everything perfectly. The small glass jar inside the vase was from an old candle that had very little wax left inside. It fits perfectly inside my small bathroom cabinet and makes me happy every day that I do my makeup (like once every two weeks these days).

Have you earned any Earth Points by repurposing something you already owned? If you are scouring the internet for your next purchase, can you think of an alternative that will help your wallet and the earth at the same time? Please share your thoughts and creative solutions!