I’m a practical girl. I openly admit that I enjoy ironing. It feeds my OCD tendencies. Few things are more satisfying that a crisply ironed and starched piece of linen, be it napkin or shirt. Living in Florida and preferring to wear natural fiber clothing means you wash and wear tons of cotton and linen. And since I am a bit OCD, I disdain the industrial press irons at the dry cleaners. I bought this extra wide ironing board at K-mart years ago when Martha Stewart blew up K-mart and started her retail conquest. Fortunately for Martha, she graduated to Macy’s. Unfortunately for me, I can’t find a replacement cover for this 18 inch wide board. So……..I made my own. The gals at Buttons & Bows did a class on making your own ironing board by stapling this quilted, hot pad material on a piece of particle board. Instead, I flipped my board upside down and traced the outline of my board, sewed a simple seam and stuffed 3/8in elastic through it. Besides having crippled thumbs, I have a new ironing board cover.
In a world of planned obsolescence, I balk at the ease with which we discard EVERYTHING. We toss all manner of things into our big black trash bins and the waste truck empties them and the trash disappears. Off to some landfill. I threw away a DVD player on Saturday that was only three years old…..and that only cost $20. How can a DVD player cost only $20? I was thankful at the cheapness three years ago. But, on Saturday I was irritated it was broken. Damn it! As if I have some place to be indignant about my $20 DVD breaking after three years. Seriously?
So I have made some decisions that I intend to implement in the new year. How to reduce my consumption of everything? How to reuse, repurpose, repair, restore and avoid sending things to the landfill. Compost my kitchen, collect my paper and cardboard waste for fire starters. Learn to avoid buying products packaged (overpackaged) so as to generate trash. If I had to be my own landfill, wouldn’t I reduce the amount of future garbage I bring into my home, knowing that ultimately I will have to add it to the landfill in my backyard? But since the landfill is far away in someone else’s backyard, it’s easier to ignore.
How have you repurposed something? What have you repaired or restored?