Conservation Monday #5: Reducing Waste in Other Rooms

It's Monday, which means it's once again time to share some conservation/waste reduction tips!

The last two weeks, we've looked at some ways to reduce waste in the kitchen and the bathroom. For us, these two rooms are the biggest waste generators. But today let's look at some other areas of the house where you may be able to cut down your waste and conserve resources.

Bedroom

1. Get Rid of Old Clothes. While you may not think of old clothes sitting in the closet as "waste," they are certainly wasting your space if you are not wearing them! If items are in good enough condition, and you have the time, you may be able to sell them online, to a place like Plato's Closet, or through another consignment store. Otherwise, donate! Free up that closet or drawer space for the clothes that you actually do wear.

2. Minimize Clutter. Again, not exactly a waste stream issue, but by reducing clutter you will save time cleaning and organizing.

3. Use Blankets instead of a Heater. If you live in a mild enough climate (this may not necessarily work for you if you have inches of snow on the ground!) pile up the blankets and leave the heater off. You'll save energy, which in turn reduces your electric or gas bill.

Home Office

1. Junk Mail. It's so easy to let papers just come into the house, and then what do you do with them? Hopefully you're able to toss them in the recycling, though there are those pesky ads that have some plastic coating on them preventing recycling. But wouldn't it be better to stop the junk from ever coming into the house? The Federal Trade Commission website shows you some ways to opt out of unwanted mailings (and phone calls!). DMA Choice also allows you to opt out of certain unwanted mailings.

2. Print Judiciously. It's very easy to get into the habit of printing out everything. But if you only print out the files that you truly need a hard copy of, you will reduce paper usage and reduce your need for storage.

3. Sell Old Books. If you have old books you aren't going to read again, sell them to your favorite used book store. One of my favorite used book stores will even pay you more if you take store credit rather than cash. Since I always find great art/architecture/theater reference books there, I'll happily trade old fiction for more long-term resources!

that top shelf has a nice hole in the sea of books - the former residents are in a box waiting to be sold, and read by someone new

Living Room

1. Reduce clutter. Once again, clutter reduction saves time and effort when it comes to cleaning.

2. Rent/Borrow vs Buy. This applies to movies, books, even video games. By renting movies and TV shows (from either a physical rental place, or Netflix) you have access to lots of media without having to purchase it. This can save you money, save space, and reduce the amount of packaging that enters the waste stream from producing all those DVDs. Borrowing from friends is also a great resource, and free!
Your local library is also an amazing resource. I haven't bought many new books in the last couple years (when I have, it's primarily been for school) as our public library is so extensive. Some people also borrow movies from the library; personally I haven't had the best of luck with this as DVDs are often scratched. However I have had excellent luck borrowing music and books on tape from the library.

3. Use those Blankets! Just like the bedroom, blankets can be used to keep warm instead of a heater. I enjoy curling up on the couch with a cozy throw blanket while reading or watching TV. If your heater can get noisy like ours, you want to avoid using it while watching TV anyway!

 you can see my pile of blankets on the stool above

Of course, if you have any other suggestions for reducing waste in any of these areas, please share in the comments!

A Month of Small Fixes: Calendar Art

I admit, I hoard craft supplies.

Anything that looks like it could be useful for a project down the road HAS to be kept. Sometimes this leads to drawers full of old calendars...

And sometimes this leads to old calendars becoming art.

And who doesn't love free or cheap art?

I recently hung this in the bathroom.

And remember these from my living room? They're also photos from an old calendar!

Using calendar pictures to decorate is very simple. Just find an image you like, and place the frame over it to figure out your crop (if needed). Trim (if needed) and frame! It's an excellent way to personalize your walls without spending much, and the perfect excuse to keep on hoarding those craft supplies!

****

Linked up to:

Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways
One Project at a Time 
Craft Schooling Sunday
Strut Your Stuff Saturday

Apartment Gallery Wall

My sister Laurel will be starting grad school next week. Since she is planning on staying in the same apartment for the next two years, we finally had the chance to do some fun decorating! (We couldn't do much when she was in the dorms, then she studied abroad, and then was only in her last apartment for 6 months -- not enough time to do much decor.) Last week I drove out to Sacramento to help her put together this gallery wall. I'll walk you through our process here.

The layout of the apartment naturally pushes the majority of furniture towards the wall on the left, which the complex painted an avocado green as an accent:

The wall opposite stretches into a somewhat awkward entry hallway, and also has the door to the balcony on it (as well as leading to the bedroom, bathroom, and linen closets, which you can't see here). With Laurel's furniture, the flow of the room worked the best with no furniture on it. The best way to take advantage of a completely clear wall? A floor to ceiling gallery!

 

We started by laying out the art she already had. She also wanted some shelves, since her small bookcase was already full and she hadn't even bought her books for this semester! After a shopping trip to Home Depot for shelves, as well as stops at Cost Plus and Target to get some more variety in frames, we figured out our composition on the floor. After many tries and lots of rearranging, we finally had something we liked.

The next step was to hang it all up! We started with the larger middle shelf and the painting directly above it. We then moved outwards, readjusting as needed when we got close to the ceiling, or to the thermostat and light switches which we had decided would act as boundaries for the collage.

Laurel's style when it comes to hanging pictures is very different than mine (or Sean's). Sean is an engineer, and very much needs things to line up; I tend to break lines more often but I still gravitate towards more orderly arrangements. Laurel likes things even more random than I do! With the collection of differently styled and sized frames, and so many different finishes throughout the room (yay for second hand furniture!) it really works. We were able to achieve a nice visual balance without any symmetry, and most importantly Laurel loves it!

Next up, Laurel and our mom are going to finish slipcovering her chair (you can see a little bit of it in the bottom of the picture above) and then more fun details for her living room! After looking at Pinterest together we've defined the look she wants for the apartment as "nautical with modern lines" -- basically beach inspired but modern and clean with a good dash of Restoration Hardware inspiration. It's going to be a lot of fun pulling the whole apartment together. Thanks for letting me help you decorate, Laurel!

****

Linked up to:

One Project at a Time

Living Room Progress

I'm finally back!

It's been a hectic month, with getting a show opened, finishing final projects and design presentations. Not to mention everything my amazing husband has had going on between work and school! We didn't even get to rest this past weekend after school got out, which was filled to the brim with family and friends. We saw "Ironman 3" with my sister-in-law on Friday, attended graduations (and grad parties) of friends on Saturday, then had an afternoon with some cousins from Utah on Sunday.

In between all of that, we finally started getting the house cleaned up and organized again. Today I want to share some photos of our living room. It is the room that gets cluttered the quickest when things are busy, but it is also one of the most relaxing rooms to be in when it is clean.

Here is a shot showing most of the living room (standing in the dining room)

This great antique shipping crate is the perfect coffee table for a small sofa. I picked it up at the beginning of my 3rd year of college at a yard sale. The sides say L.B. Co., for Long Beach Shipping Company. The people who sold it to me said it was a cheese shipping crate.

A small vignette on one of the side tables. (Please forgive the odd color balance in this shot, I think I should have turned off the lamp that was next to the table.)

My cozy reading nook between the windows and the patio doors.

The living room isn't perfect yet. The Victorian chair badly needs reupholstering, and I plan to get more art and photos hung on the walls. We also have way too many magazines around...it's time for a major purge there! It's fun for me to document the progress as our mis-matched belongings slowly become a cohesively designed room. Stay tuned for more!

*****

Linked up to One Project at a Time at A Bowl Full of Lemons

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is here, which unfortunately for this theatre grad student means lots of work and little play. But while waiting for glue and paint to dry on models, I do get a little time to decorate the house with bits of spring. Here are a few photos of the console table in the living room.

The nasturtium on the balcony is overflowing with flowers right now, so I picked enough to fill this teacup with them.

I love how the yellow and orange of the nasturtiums pick up the colors in the oil still life behind it.

The console table is typically my decorating oasis -- it's one of the few surfaces that the husband knows not to put stuff down on (the other important one being my drafting table!) So, despite the chaos of school and work, this table is always a nice, calming surface with things that make me happy. You can see some of the chaos below and next to the table, but not on top!

Some of the different pieces on the table right now:
-oil still life, painted by my aunt when she was a kid. This used to hang in my grandparents' house, and now I have it.
-otter painting, by me. This might find a new home in the office, since the colors would work well in there. But for now it sits in the living room, adding cuteness!
-photo box with fun family photo from my wedding. The box itself was a wedding present from some friends.
-purple candle, from my mother-in-law (purple is my favorite color)
-small jar with amethyst: I used to collect rocks, and I've been working on using that collection in my decorating
-jar with sea glass and white shell: the sea glass in here comes from all over the world, from Santa Cruz to Rimini, Italy!
-vase: This has a great story! Our first Valentine's Day, Sean brought me a dozen roses. But, living in the dorms, I didn't have a vase! Luckily my amazing roommate did, but I had Sean promise me that the next time he bought me flowers he would buy me a vase. And so he did!

I love having a place in the home to display things I love, especially those that bring up wonderful memories. And by incorporating the seasons into this display, the table can constantly tell a new story.