I grew up with the 3R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and recycle. But there’s one more ‘R’ that I think is not just important, but extremely fascinating.… And that is Repurpose! You can argue that ‘repurpose’ is a form of ‘reuse’, but to me they are different enough to deserve separation.

The image that I shared is of 3 glass beer bottles, re-blown to make them into drinking glasses. Brilliant!

I love seeing objects being repurposed: A tin roof from a barn becomes the finish on a fireplace; An old ladder, hung horizontally, becomes a book shelf; An old bathtub becomes a love seat.

There is an artistic design element to this kind of repurposing that really appeals to me. I especially like when the item is identifiable for what its old function was while in its new use. Creativity and ingenuity come alive when an item is cleverly repurposed.