Anyone that knows me will know that I am a bit of a horder (which I think my father has to take some of the blame for). I never could quite bring myself to throw away things that most people would consider to be rubbish.
Now I'm not talking about old carboard boxes, newspapers or magazines - No what I'm talking about are all those goodies that come of the job site at the end of the day. Anything from off cuts of wood, cut offs of copper pipe, bits of plasterboard and even the perfectly usable set of taps or hinges from an old door.
My problem is two fold, firstly I constantly see life in scrap and you never know when you will need something like this. Secondly (and probably more closer to the truth) is that I am a skinflint, walking around the local shops seeing the price of raw materials makes me shudder.
The down side to my hoarding is that I am constantly moving piles of wood and boxes of 'treasure' around my workshop until I have time to start the next project. And then the inevitable happens, my wife takes one look at what I have stored away and tells me to get rid of it all !
But the satisfaction of turning something old into something new is beyond anything else. Other people might look at it and turn their nose up, but the thought that I made it, with my own skills and my own two hands is priceless.
The process might have been time consuming but I normally always learn a new skill or technic along the way.... so I would urge everyone to at least try to upcycle …. at least once !!
Comments