Refurbish fits in nicely with the three ‘R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) and can bring new life to an otherwise useless item. Before buying new, see if you can revamp something you already have. Or turn someone else’s trash into your treasure.

Want some inspiration?

• Time Out New York, the weekly magazine featuring all there is to do in the big apple, has a feature called Tossed and Found. Wary Meyers, a deocrative art company rescues found objects from the street and turns them into conversational pieces for the home. Recent Tossed and Found conversions include an old steel basketball hoop turned into a decorative side table; a discarded garden planter turned into a light fixture; a pile of astroturf turned into outdoor pillows.

• Designer/Artist, Tiffany Threadgould created RePlayground, turning her passion for transforming garbage into treasured items into a thriving business. Threadgould takes things like old film cannisters, computer keyboards, credit cards, umbrellas and creates fun, functional items.

• Demolition Depot in New York City reclaims elements from old buildings that are undergoing renovation or being torn down. Demolition Depot’s Harlem outlet is a treasure trove of building supplies, reclaimed furniture, ornamental pieces (the list goes on, and on.) Artists, builders, and DIYers congregate here to find one of a kind items that would otherwise have been destined for the landfill. There are similar businesses scattered across the U.S. like this, such as the Re-Store in Seattle.

• Furniture makers Bart Bettencourt and Carlos Salgado have created an entire line of one of a kind pieces made entirely of reclaimed wood called Scrapile.

If you’re like me and aren’t much of the creative, DIY type, find places to donate old items to instead of throwing them away, or list items with photos on sites like Craigslist or Freecycle to see if someone else can give it a new home.

What kinds of things have you rescued and refurbished?

Amy says: My imagination is limited when it comes to things like this, but I recently took a table I got last summer for $5 at a stoop sale and revapmed it. It is still a table, but it is now sanded, primed and painted white.

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