Editor’s Note: Good afternoon. If you missed us this morning, you can check out Pauline Rae’s informative story on Montessori education HERE. Now we have Gayle Bates with some highly creative tips on reinventing old household items. Here she is:

Aaaah November – the month between the crazy consumption potential of Halloween and the even crazier potential of Christmas, Hanukkah and the holidays. What a terrific opportunity to pause and evaluate what we possess now, and what we need or want for the future, and then consider if there might be some innovative rethinking, re-purposing and reusing potential.

Recent interviews with young families dealing with today’s economic challenges were very encouraging. Several referred to their pride in creative adaptation: “Like when you go camping, and you make do with whatever you have with you, and it’s just fine.” Some referred to the satisfaction of not running off to the local dollar or box store to purchase a solution, but of stopping and thinking – rethinking actually – about alternatives that would utilize stuff they already had in a different way. Several mentioned the importance of reducing their ecological footprint as motivation, but emphasized the more personal benefits of family collaboration, role modeling and value based action.

Re-purposing is great for giving new life/purpose to items with emotional attachment, keeping hard earned money in our pockets and for diverting stuff from the landfill. As my daughter Ashley Star remarked the other day, “It is easier to get furniture, clothing, anything these days than to responsibly get rid of it.”

I’ve put together some suggestions for common items and possible ways to reuse or re-purpose items and spark your inventive minds.

Ways to Re-purpose Old Items:

-Make ice walkers from 12 to 16 3/8” hex screws and an old pair of old sneakers.

-Remake a wedding gown or formal dress into a beautiful heirloom Christmas tree skirt or festive hanging.

-Cut up stained or worn sweat shirts/pants or fleece jackets into 28cm X 22 cm rectangles for use as reusable Swiffer-type wipes, along with some eco-friendly cleaner.

-Turn old slatted crib sides or headboards into a cucumber tent – or trellis for any plant that climbs.

-Paper coffee filters that don’t fit your new machine – or have been replaced by a permanent gold filter – are great to polish glasses, make yogurt cheese, use instead of cheesecloth to hold spices when making soup or stew, or filter cork bits from wine, or sediment from camp stove gas.

-A shower curtain after its final curtain call might be recast as a summer fun slip and slide, a plant cover, an emergency tarp/poncho in the car or camping kit, or a craft area water proof protector.

-Old metal top loading washing machine tubs make great fire pits.

-A damaged or unwanted hardcover book can be reinvented into a small ‘safe’ for hiding small treasures, or an altered book artistic masterpiece.

-Crib or small blankets or quilts can be added to create covers for larger beds, opened to become cushion covers, or become draft stopping and/or decorative wall hangings.

Clothes and other fabric items can be the hardest to find other homes for, but the good news is that they are the easiest to re-purpose.

-Pockets from old jeans can be used to create an organizer for the car or any room.

-Old tee shirts cut into stripes, joined and braided make the very best area rugs and is mindless enough to do during low brain power periods of the day (I’m not the only one who has these, right?)

-When the top sheet survives the bottom sheet bailout, make a fitted sheet for a smaller bed, or pillow cases, or laundry bags.

-My aunt made pj’s for one of her grandsons and he loved each and every pair, and hated to part with them, so she brought him a box to keep them under his bed as he outgrew them. When he was a young teen she made a quilt out of all his old pj’s, which he described as his most precious possession at her memorial service.

As a starting point there are a lot of great ideas out there, just search the Internet for creative ideas for re-purposing and the pages will roll.

So make a list of what you have now - that you don’t really want or need to keep – and get creative!