Earth Day - Reuse, Refurbish, Repurpose!

In honor of Earth Day 2013, I thought I would resurrect a theme that I started with in my early blogging days - Saved From a Dumpster - the idea that refurbishing old but structurally intact upholstered pieces is good for the environment because the other place these pieces are likely to end up is in some dumpster and ultimately into landfill.

Between 1960 and 2008 the population of the United States has grown 69%. The number of households has increased 94% in the same time due to each household being statistically smaller. The amount of upholstered furniture we are throwing away into landfills has increased six times from the 1960 figures to those of 2008. Though the numbers have increased each decade the real jump occurred in the 1980’s and has climbed since then.  link to source

It has been almost ten years since I have started to seek high quality but outdated upholstered pieces to refurbish. During that period, I have refurbished and sold over 1000 pieces - many of which would likely have been placed in dumpsters and headed for landfill. This is something that everyone can do and it even makes sense economically. Most older pieces are better made than today's readily available furniture. Most were made in America and reflect high standards of manufacturing that are more difficult (and expensive) to find today. So, in honor of Earth Day - here are some more recent "saved from the dumpster pieces"!

Most of these items are sold - eBay or Etsy 

Most of these items are available - eBay or Etsy

I hope these images are inspirational and encourage others to reuse, refurbish and repurpose!