It is Friday, and Fridays are for fun. A few weeks ago, I bought a set of queen-size sheets from the local Goodwill store. They are 100% polyester, not something I want to sleep on. I bought them for the fabric and made a new shower curtain and other curtains for the bathroom. My total expenditure was less than $15, and between measuring, cutting, and sewing, I completed the project in an evening. I call this upcycling.
I consider my use of the sheets to be upcycling because curtains are a much better use for polyester. The pillow cases will be used for storage bags. I may remake them or just leave them as they are, and use one pillow case as a liner and the other as the outside of the bag.
What some folks call upcycling, like cutting up a wearable sweater to create mittens, seems more like downcycling, but I suppose if the sweater is worn out, then it is being upcycled.
Repurposing household items can be fun. After the lid to the cookie jar broke, I started using the jar as a flower pot. To me repurposing means using an item for some purpose other than what I bought it for. If my new use required modifications to the item, then I would call it upcycling.
In the picture, I have an old barbecue grill and the soap holder we used to have in the shower repurposed.
If I repurpose items that I already have, I won’t have to pay extra for the tariff. If I upcycle items that I bought at a thrift store, I don’t pay tariffs on those either, and maybe I am keeping fabric out of the landfill.
