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Upcycle, reuse & repurpose – Inspirational ideas

Making & DIY, Sustainability

Upcycle, reuse and repurpose unwanted items. Make the most of your rubbish and maybe even make something beautiful.

Take a look at these weird and wonderful ideas. Hopefully they will inspire you and help you to look at your rubbish in a whole new light.

Just click through each slide using the yellow boxes at the bottom of the pictures, or by clicking on the actual pictures. Enjoy!


Upcycling – by ThriftySustainability.net – Created with Haiku Deck

Why Upcycle?

Upcycling unwanted materials helps our environment, one repurposed item at a time. Creating something from our waste will save that waste from going into a landfill site. It will save the energy and transportation that would have been used to process the waste.

Repurposing can also save us from buying something new, if we can make what we need, out of what we already have lying around… we can save money as well as live sustainably.

Upcycled items can also make fantastic gifts, just take a look through the slides above for some great thrifty and sustainable DIY gift ideas. Or take a look at this previous post for another upcycling idea: DIY gift idea

Some of the most inspirational upcycling ideas are those which use our rubbish to create something beautiful and that puts something in the world that will cheer people up a little when they see it. That’s got to be worth the effort!

What will you upcycle? Do you have any upcycling ideas? Please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Happy Upcycling!
 
A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!

 
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Free education – learn for free

Free, Sustainability, Thrifty

Reasons to learn for free

What will inspire you to learn for free? Here are just a few suggestions:

    • If you are unemployed and want to make your CV stand out from the crowd – taking a free online course will give you an edge, it will make employers notice you. It will also boost your self-esteem as you realise how much you are capable of
learn for free education e-learning thrifty saving money sustainability university

Add valuable skills to your CV for free

  • If you are employed but looking to develop your career, get a promotion or pay rise, taking a free online course will give you new skills, experience and ideas. Your employer will take your new skills and qualifications into account should you approach them for a promotion, or improved salary
  • If you are employed but feel that you have chosen the wrong profession, if you are unhappy or think that there is something else that you would be better suited for… why not browse the thousands of free online courses to see if there is something you could learn which would inspire you, give your life purpose and start you in an exciting new direction. For example, below are links to free courses which cover sustainability and the environment
  • If you are retired but would like a project – learn for free! Keep your busy and hungry brain fed with fascinating information from all over the world. Take a course with a friend or a group of friends. As an example, you could take a foreign language introduction course, or a course about a country’s culture and then visit that country
  • University education in parts of the UK now costs thousands of pounds. Many can no longer afford to go. You can get the same quality of education online for free and save yourself a fortune in student accommodation bills too. You can learn from home, and in your pajamas if you feel like it. Many of the free courses offer certificates of the qualification at the end of the course. All further education will help you to find your place in the world
  • Here’s a crazy idea… Learn for fun! It’s free and there is a whole world of information out there just waiting for you. Cut out an hour of TV each night and learn in that hour instead. Learning something new can expand your horizons, open your mind to new possibilities and introduce you to new circles of friends who share similar interests. You may also find yourself extremely popular when there is a pub quiz

 

Places where online learning is free

learn for free education e-learning thrifty save money sustainability

What will you choose to learn about for free?

You do not need spend lots of money to get a great quality education. There are many resources available online for anyone who would like to learn for free. Take a look through the thousands of courses available from the suggestions below, or try google-ing ‘free education online’ or ‘free university courses online’ etc for many more choices.

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses
The Open University provide hundreds of their courses for free. All can be done completely online. Some of their popular free courses include:

  • introduction to bookkeeping and accounting
  • managing my money
  • start writing fiction
  • introduction to cyber security
  • forensic psychology

    globe world sustainability education sustainable learning for free thrifty

    You could learn about sustainability

If you are interested in sustainability and the environment, here is a link to the Open University’s free Environment & Sustainability courses.

 

https://alison.com/
Scroll down on the Alison home page to the popular free courses section. Courses are completely free and can be done online. Popular free courses include:

  • Diploma in Psychology
  • Diploma of Business Management and Entrepreneurship
  • Diploma in Project Management
  • Diploma in Workplace safety and health
  • Diploma in Operations Management
  • Diploma in Human Resources

 

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
Open Culture give you access to 1,150 free online courses from the world’s leading universities – lots of video and podcast lectures available for bite-sized learning too. A chance to enjoy a university-standard, free education. All online, all free. This site also has a wealth of free text books and audio books available to support your learning.

 

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/itunes-u/using/
iTunes U is an Apple iTunes application which allows the world’s leading universities to provide some of their courses completely free online. There are also many free video and podcast lectures and presentations to dip in and out of. Using the information in the link above, you need to download the iTunes U application to your computer (pc & mac are supported as are ipads) then just browse the wealth of free learning opportunities. Universities that contribute include: Oxford, Harvard, Yale and MIT.

Happy learning! If you have found a really great free learning resource, please feel free to add it in the comments section below
 
A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!

 
If you would like to receive Thrifty Sustainability updates by email when a new article is added, please subscribe here: