Zero Waste Renovating: Reusing

The previous homeowners clearly had a knack for their own DIY techniques. There are quite a few built in wooden shelving units in this place. Most of them are very much not my style unfortunately so I’m currently in the process of removing them.

I am quite fortunate, a lot of the wood is in fairly good shape and I don’t intend to throw it out! In the interm while doing things in the home- I’m lucky to have a garage/ shed (it was a garage but the previous owners removed the garage door to make it into a man cave… Yeah) I can store these materials in until I have time to transform them into something I’ll love.

I know that most people aren’t as lucky as me and have an abundance of space to collect materials to keep them from a landfill. For those whose space is more limited- remembering to recycle, sell/give away, or enjoy a bonfire with the scraps is crucial to keeping your waste management low.

After living in the home for a month, I had 3 bags of garbage, mostly wallpaper that had been removed, but it was killing me. Before putting in on the curb I did a final garbage scan to see if there was anything useful in these big bags. I realized that the paint cans were an adorable little bucket once the paint had dried in them- I had 2 empties in the garbage, so I grabbed them and now using them as little waste bins for kleenex!

DIY Dishwashing Detergent

Dishwasher tabs are convenient but can lead to unnecessary waste and plastic, they all seem to come in plastic tubs and some of them even come individually wrapped…

I’ve found the transition to scooping a little powder into the dishwasher is just as effective as those tabs.

In a bog bowl, combine:

2 Cups Baking Soda

2 Cups Borax

1/2 Coarse Salt (or Epson Salt)

1/2 Vinegar

Store in a airtight bottle, even reuse one of those old dishwasher tab containers if you have one!

When going to use the mixture, scoop 2 tbsp of mixture into the soap insert, and to help fight grease, add 2 drops of dish washing liquid on top of the mixture to help with grease fighting. (NO MORE THAN 2 DROPS… TRUST ME.) Made that mistake in childhood. Only took once to learn the difference between the dish soap and the dishwasher soap.

Fill the Rise aid with vinegar to help with cloudiness, and then run your dishwasher as you normally would.