7 ways to… upcycle household items

As a society, we are fuelled by consumerism — conditioned into wanting to buy and then throw away new items again and again on repeat. But this is catastrophic for planet Earth — we are squandering so many of our planet’s precious resources, creating mass amounts of waste, causing water shortages, habitat destruction and unnecessary greenhouse gases.

But we really do not need to throw away so much, because it is easy to upcycle — the process by which existing things are made into new or improved items. To upcycle something, you don’t even need to change its function, you can simply upgrade its look to enhance it in some way. Of course, you can entirely change its use if you want to!

Just about any material can be transformed — an old rug can become a cushion case, a broken stair spindle can be made into a lamp stand, or an old chest of drawers can be painted to look like new! Upcycling ideas are only