Refurbishing Your Home? Consider These 3 Alternatives to Replacing Items

Refurbishing your home can be an exciting endeavor. But when it’s time to deal with old furniture and belongings, many people begin to wonder if they really need to toss out items that hold years of memories and nostalgia. Replacing items isn't the only option when it comes to dealing with your old furnishings nor is it the most earth-friendly. Here are several options that are not only earth-friendly but can also help inspire something new from something old.

Repurposing

The key to any home refurbishment project is to stay organized. Make sure you only start one project at a time. In addition, you should know what you want to make before you start dissembling something. Repurposing your current furnishings is a wonderful way of being friendly to the earth and future generations. Recycling ideas can include simple projects like turning an empty wooden frame into a chalkboard. There are also more time-consuming projects, such as taking two old wooden chairs and transforming them into a single wood bench for your yard. There are many inspirational projects from sites like Pinterest and Instagram from which you can draw ideas.

Refinishing

If you are in love with your current kitchen table but are tired of the color, you can consider refinishing the item to give it a completely new look instead of replacing it. Doing this can also save you money. Depending on the process and resources used, refinishing items can result in significant savings compared to the cost of replacing them. Before you decide to refinish a piece of furniture, look at what it’s made of. Any furniture made from cheaply manufactured medium-density fiberboard (MDF), for example, is just not worth saving. Any antique with designer markings should not be refinished as it will depreciate its value. The best wood furniture to refinish are real wood pieces that date from the 1940s to the 1970s. They are not considered antiques nor are they cheap synthetic mass manufactured pieces.

Reusing

Reusing old furniture is the best way to save on cost and spare our landfills. While not everybody is on board the Zero Waste movement, many individuals, at least, are aware that tossing out perfectly usable furniture is a waste. Some ways of reusing furniture that has been in your home for a long time include putting a new tablecloth over something, hanging some curtains in front of an item or moving some things into another room. You can also bring indoor furniture into the garden or patio for a different look.

We can all get tired of our same old furnishings pretty quickly, especially if we have to see the same things in the same arrangement every day. Refurbishing can be an exciting home project. However, before you replace your old furniture, consider giving them a chance at another life by re-purposing, refinishing, or reusing them for something else.