Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Upcycling

Both my sister and I recently did some moving around and shifting of our home spaces this past week. After two years of wandering with minimal attachments to or desire for material responsibilities, I have found that I like where I am at. By staying here I think I will go far. So now, I am needing some of the items I felt so previously encumbered by. I also learned, in my two years that I don't need nearly us much as I think I do and that the universe has a way of providing me with exactly what I truly need (which isn't always the same as what I want.)

Perfect example: In the last week my roommate moved out, taking with her the majority of the home utensils she accumulated over the years living in the house. As she was sharing them with us, I hadn't purchased any of my own. The kitchen was a ghost town when she left. In the same week I also started working at Little Pickle Press, the best job I could hope for until I am a successful author. Both of these new developments presented new needs. Which, by the luck of the universe were filled within days when my sister spotted late in the afternoon a garage sale sign with the word FREE written over it...she has a knack for these things.

As we walked through the garage sale finding a perfect collection of pots and pans I spotted a copier, scanner, fax machine. Since it was missing ink and a power cable it was offered to me for free. Just the day before I had a conversation with my new boss about purchasing such an item.

As we compared our loot my sister excitedly proclaimed, we are upcycling!

We are what? I wondered.

Upcycling is defined by Wikipedia as he process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. Uhh what? I'm not sure if my definition is accurate but u
pcycling to me, is finding things you can use that someone else no longer has a need for. Kind of like sharing. What is the point of recycling when no one uses the materials that are being recycled. It made me start thinking about the other side of recycling...the upside.

Plus, sometimes you find things you want, not just the things you need, like this print I also scored at my Sunday afternoon upcycle:


(sorry for the poor picture quality, I just snapped it really quick with my iPhone...obviously not a 4G)