4 Ingenious Ideas for Upcycling Everyday Items

1. From t-shirt to shopping bag

To get started, let’s head to your wardrobe for this ingenious way to reuse old t-shirts:

• First, cut off the sleeves so you’re left with a tank top. 
• Now cut the neck into a deep U-shape to create the handles.
• Turn the shirt inside out and cut several, one-half inch-wide strips along the hemline that are 3-4 inches in length.
• Once you have a fringe effect, tie adjacent strips together to create the bottom of the bag.
• To close the small gaps between each strip, tie the top strip to the bottom of the adjacent strip. Turn it inside out and that’s it — you have a new shopping bag! 

2. Other ways to use old clothes

You can also use old stained or worn shirts and pants by wearing them when you garden, paint, or work around the house. Being able to use clothing that isn’t perfect but still works is a great way to upcycle. You can also use old clothing for pets and rags for cleaning. There are even companies that can help you make keepsakes out of old commemorative t-shirts.

Without upcycling, many articles of clothing just end up sitting in landfills cluttering the ground and not really decomposing at a fast rate. So, just because something looks like it has been through the wringer doesn’t mean that it can’t still be useful! It’ll likely be more useful to you after you upcycle it than sitting in a landfill taking up space while not being used at all.

3. Keep your empty tissue box handy

Moving on to your kitchen area, here’s how you can turn an empty tissue box into a storage container for plastic grocery bags. To have them pop up just like tissues, just attach the bottom of each plastic bag to the handles of the next one and insert a bunch of them into the tissue box all at once. That way, you can pull them out one by one. These bags can be great for storage, extra trash bags or even bringing your own bags grocery shopping.

4. Old plant pot to plant halo

Finally, let’s step outside. If you’ve replaced an old plastic planter with a new stylish one, give that old planter a new life as a plant halo for your garden. All you need to do is cut the bottom of the pot with scissors or a sharp knife and then push the halo halfway into the ground.

Now, just plant any water-loving plant in it and whenever you water your plant, the water won’t run off before it has the chance to be absorbed in the soil. Simple and practical!

What we’re doing at Keter

While we’re talking about things that are good for the environment, also consider what you’re buying. Don’t buy things you won’t use and try to stick with products that are eco-friendly. At Keter, we pride our products on being highly sustainable. All of our products are 100% recyclable, but we make products that last a lifetime so you don’t have to keep buying new things and throwing old items into landfills.

 When it comes to making our products, we are also continuing to minimize the use of virgin resources, and we want to eliminate waste as much as possible. Why? Because the earth is our home and our workplace. We like it and the people who live here!