Upcycle Living

The previous tenant left behind some very illogical blinds in our bedroom: one side shorter than the other. This left an uncovered corner which allows strong sunlight coming in at 7am which makes the room really hot. We can't even have a lie in on weekends and waking up to bright light gives me migraine for days. The flat came as it is and we're not allowed to incur any unnecessary cost to the landlord and we really don't feel like spending money on replacing some blinds that are still good. So I thought of putting some curtains over it to screen off the sunlight whilst softening the mood of the bedroom.I tried looking for some simple, plain coloured ready made curtains to go with the window size. Unfortunately, the simple-looking home decor market in Malaysia seems to be catered for very rich people only. So I gave up and went to look for fabric in a fabric store instead. Lucky for me, I found some a plain off-white thick material and a chiffon-like material with pretty fl...

We all like some nice pictures to hang on the walls to make our homes more cosy. The problem is: we're renting at the moment and landlords here are very particular about putting nails on their walls, and we don't really fancy spending so much money on picture frames (mind you, they are expensive and cheesy-looking). I've been toying with the idea of making my own frames using as much of existing material at home as possible, and they have to be quite light so that I can perhaps stick them on with some Blu-Tack. This way I can remove them and not leave any unsightly holes on the walls. But finding the right material and to come up with a solution aren't easy, and I'm just too anal about my own decisions. Came last Christmas, my sister in law gave me something that came in 2 pieces of thick styrofoam. I then found some old black sugar paper which I collected from old art projects in college, cut them into proper sizes to wrap these styrofoam pieces up neatly (...

I've been looking for a protective solution for my phone and as usual, I hate to make new purchase and contribute to encouraging unnecessary productivity. So I turned to my stash of clutter for help and found a pair of in-flight socks I got when I last flew with BA. Never worn them, and never will. I took one of them, turned it inside out, and folded the side outward and downward to make it into half the length and double layer. Secure the bottom loose openings by sewing some beads (from my existing bead collection), also serves as decoration :-) Found some thin ribbons (these are cut from clothes that came with ribbons sewn under the shoulders for hanging purposes but I don't like having them), and cut into 2 equal lengths. I tied one end to a straight hairpin and poked it through and around the top of the sock, and tied the 2 ends together when they meet. Repeat the same process by starting the first poke-through at the opposite end. Yay, new phone sock - comple...

We live in a disposable age; everything is highly disposable. Even most of the food outlets we go nowadays serve food in disposable plates and provide disposable cutlery. I love my sushi and these sushi bars are known for their disposable chopsticks. I had in the past used and disposed of many pairs of wooden and bamboo chopsticks, and am gutted about not being able to do anything about it. Up until I found my personal travel chopsticks, I have collected a bundle of the disposable ones. I used to wrap them in used paper napkin, take them home, wash and rinse them, dry them properly (I place them over my portable oven so whenever I make a roast it will dry things up thoroughly) and - store them away. One day I saw this wooden pot stand in a shop and that gave me some idea. I have some old wooden spatula that went sticky due to the built-up burnt on oil, so as usual I hogged on them for ages because I knew they would come in handy one day. I took two similar size ones and cut off t...

My steel oil burner has an open space for tea lights, which looks really pretty. But we live in the hot tropics and need to have the fan on all the time; this means it will keep blowing out the candle flame, which is rather annoying. I reused to buy a specific lantern shade because 1: it's unnecessary to spend extra money, and 2: it will only add on to our clutter. I then remember that we frosted the bathroom windows with some stickers and there is a little leftover which we had no idea what to do with it. So I cut the leftover sticker into a long rectangle (diagram A), then fold the rectangle down the middle so that both flaps are equal size (this has to be done before the protective waxy sheet is removed). Remove the protective sheet and stick both sides together so now we have a thicker frosted sheet. Roll the sheet by the length to make a cylinder, and stick the edges together with double-sided tape (diagram C). And now we have a frosted shade that protects the candle flame fro...

Remember those good old days of videotapes? We were all fond of them once, but when the manufacturers stopped making video players, we are left with a whole collection of useless tapes. So what can we do with them besides chucking them in the bin and sending them off to landfill? I refused to just throw my small collection away and insisted on keeping them in the drawers, gathering dust for years. I do that a lot with most of my stuff: used envelops, boxes, bubblewrap, extra cloth material; you name it. But until I come across a useful task for them, they remain a clutter in the the corner. However, we recently moved into our windy new place on the hill, and I realised that we need some doorstops due to the strong wind. The previous tenant has left behind one rubber doorstop but it only fits under one door, because every single door in the house has a different gap from the floor. That means it is quite impossible to find any doorstop in the shops that would fit them all. Then I...

I always make a point to buy rewritable CDs so that I can reduce the unnecessary disposal. However, I can't stop others from handing me non-rewritable discs. So I still find myself collecting unwanted, damaged, or outdated discs over the years. I refuse to throw them into the bin because they take years to decompose in landfill, not to mention the amount of toxin released during the process. So I kept holding on to them and have no idea what to do with them. We decided to use them as coasters and then found out that the shiny layer started peeling after a while. So I peeled the layer off and completely and cleaned them up. Now they are all transparent, and the problem is, sometimes we just can't see them! Then I thought it would be better to give them some colours to make them more visible. We have some CD labelling pens that are only being used occasionally, so I did some graphic drawings on one side of each of the discs. We just need to turn the painted side downward so...