Posts tagged with “repurpose”
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What to do with an Old Typewriter

Typewriters are about as useful as a dinosaur in modern times, so you think... But, there are some people who are not quite willing, ready or able to give up the old typewriter yet. Myself, I still like the old sound of the clacking keys, but with a modern keyboard (it's so much easier on the fingers).

Typewriters are still being made into art, they have a place in creating music and some are being broken up to become jewelry and sculpture. It's a bit sad to see an old typewriter get broken up into bits, but at least it's not just being sent to the dump in disgrace or melted up to become a new car, eventually.

Of course, there will always be people collecting things and wondering what they are worth, typewriters are not an exception.

Just Because Your Typewriter is Old Doesn't Mean It's Dead!

A typewriter isn't so antiquated that it can't still have some practical use, as a typewriter - a typing machine.

Black Spruce Hound suggests:

  • typing invitations and thank-you notes (great for people with less than great handwriting)
  • holiday cards and recipes (things you can't easily print from the computer)
  • poems and quotes (give them an older and decorative look)
  • ransom notes and hate mail.

Beautiful Old Typewriters on Planet Oddity

Typewriter Sculpture

Typewriters Used for Music

Other Typewriter Uses

Typewriter Conversion

USB TypeWriter conversion !

Typewriter Collecting

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What to do with Broken Books

Books get broken. Some can be repaired. Some aren't worth repairing but could be repurposed/ upcycled instead. Book art is nice to see but, I think it needs to be practical so we aren't just creating clutter but something useful too.

I don't have many hard cover books these days. I miss them.

When you buy a book now it's either a paperback or a bigger sized paperback book. Very few books are published and distributed as real hard covers any more. In stores they seem to think those big sized paperback books are the new hard cover books. They're wrong. I think they just don't want to reduce the price. But, do they really think we are that easily fooled?

The old hard cover books, the real hard covers, needed some extra looking after once in awhile. The old bookbinding sometimes came a bit unraveled if the book were well read many times. We would recover the book. We used wallpaper left over from a home decorating project, drawing paper from architectural drawings my Dad didn't need any more, or plastic which was intended as drawer liners but worked very well as book covers too.

It wasn't just book covers that took abuse. We taped up pages and made home made repairs to the book spines too. Tape wasn't the best choice for fixing pages though. After time the tape would get yellowy and sometime after that it would eventually lose its stickiness and fall right off as if it were just an ordinary piece of plastic. I guess, by that time, it was.

Books Beyond Saving Can be Upcycled

Not all old books can be saved.

Sadly I lost a few boxes full of books when the water heater tank leaked and eventually cracked down in our basement at one house. No one noticed right away. So there was water on the floor awhile. The boxes were in the same room, sitting in the water. The water was soaked up into the cardboard box and into the books.

The books on the bottom were the worst off. Some were mildewed and I wasn't even able to pick them up due to allergies to mould and mildew. Books in the middle were water logged, thickened with wavy pages. They couldn't be saved. No store would have taken them in trade and I couldn't keep them due to the allergies. Most of them were past being readable anyway. Some books on the top were not too bad. But, I was so disheartened I wrote them all off.

We burned them all. At that house we had a large backyard on the edge of a small rural town. So burning out in the back garden was ok.

Burning isn't the only option for books beyond saving. If the pages are okay still you can do a lot in creating book art. Books in bad shape can still be used, just in different ways.

Be Creative but Practical Too

I think there is one very important thing to keep in mind when we repurpose books or anything else. That is to keep the repurposing functional. Yes, a lot of the book art is cool or interesting to see, but where will it be a year from now even? Will we still like it, want to keep it and want to give it space in our home - or will it just become one more piece of stuff we have around adding to the clutter?

There should be new value added to anything we repurpose. If we are just creating mindlessly or for the joy of the moment then are we really repurposing and upcycling at all? Or are we just giving the book a temporary stay of execution?

I think it's very important to find new uses for old things but they should actually be useful.

If you can't fix them... repurpose them!

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Repurposing Abandoned Buildings

Old warehouses, churches, factories and other large buildings have been repurposed as new apartments for years. This isn't something new. But, as we seem to be getting more abandoned industrial buildings and structures, we need better, practical ideas to keep reusing these old places in new ways.

Sustainable buildings and adaptive reuse is the key to repurposing abandoned buildings.

So far the best use I have seen for a repurposed abandoned building was making it a home for birds. This sounds like just any abandoned building as animals and plants do make their way inside and hanging around outside naturally, without any help. But, in the case of the building being repurposed they had taken the trouble of making it a place for native species of birds to be a breeding colony. Then people collect the feathers, down and guano for fertilizer.

Lately, I read a post by Cory Doctorow about an artist colony being created in Detroit where the homes are very derelict and very cheap to pick up from the bank. The artists have begun living off the grid in these old buildings, written off by everyone else. This is such a great way to give new life to the old places.

I started looking into other ways and means of reusing abandoned places. I found industrial water towers which had been repurposed as new homes. I read about an abandoned hospital being turned into a new theatre. A good idea for taking advantage of all that space and likely available parking too. I found old airplanes, boats and big ships turned into homes. I also like the idea of abandoned buildings being turned into libraries and other places which the whole city or town can use.

Artists are turning abandoned structures into modern art. Nice but not so practical as they will eventually need to be kept up or repurposed again. Also, most of them will still be empty and still attract local wildlife which may not be welcome in urban areas.

Turning Abandoned Buildings into Homes for the Homeless is Not so Easy

The idea of taking abandoned buildings in the city and reusing them for the homeless is not new. People think it's a great solution to using an abandoned place. However, it isn't so practical or easily done.

One problem is the 'not in my backyard' phenomenon. Not everyone is eager for a gathering of homeless people to be brought into their area of the city or town. An abandoned building will attract rodents, birds and other wildlife and, of course, weeds. It may also be a danger as it begins weathering and falling apart. But, that could still seem preferable to bringing in people who could be unpredictable, needy and desperate.

Another problem is funding for this kind of project. The building needs to be renovated and brought up to modern building codes for the plumbing and electrical wiring. These are not light expenses, especially when you factor in the labour to get all of this done.

Where does the money come from for something like this? Even if the city/ government takes on the project the money comes from the local area through taxes.

One other thing, the building owner may not want to sell or give up control of the land the building is on. Just because a building is vacant and empty does not mean no one owns that building. As long as the owner is paying the taxes they own that place. Never assume no one owns a building just because it's empty, falling apart and abandoned.

A real estate investor and land developer could hold onto a property for many years before doing anything with it. They may need to pay insurance on a ruined building but that could be less hassle and expense than turning it into a usable space and dealing with laws, taxes, more insurance and tenants too.

Something else which comes into the mix of problems is historical preservation. In order to renovate a building which has been given historical significance you need to stick to specific guidelines and use real historical materials and parts while adhering to modern construction and building codes. This is not so easily done, as I know from personal experience (my brother buys, fixes and rents/ sells old, sometimes derelict, homes).

Links to Repurposing Ideas and Thoughts