Treating your beloved items with care- your most sustainable job yet

By Mallory Grady

One of the most important things about creating less waste is taking good care of the items you do bring into your home. This can mean darning a beloved sweater that you have worn so much a hole has developed. Or refusing to dry your jeans to give them a longer life. The most sustainable mindset you can have is to take good care of the items you choose to bring into your home.

As a design team with a sustainable focus in mind, we often get creative in order to make a client’s items work- by simply painting the legs on a table they already own, moving items between rooms, or giving a dingy item a good scrub. This idea is how we are able to use what a client already has- by repurposing and reusing in new ways. It is amazing how an old item in a new home can bring new life to the item.

When the legs on your chair begin to get wobbly, instead of sending the chair to the landfill, investigate further what might be causing the problem. Oftentimes, it is as simple as a quick tightening of the screws to make the piece feel new and wobble-free again. Similarly, if you don’t like the legs on your current couch, swap them out with a set from Amazon and see if that makes the couch feel new to you. Or hire our design team to help you make sense of what works and what doesn’t.

Items in our home tell a story. An antique that comes from an antique store has had a long life before you acquired it and will hopefully have a long life after you choose to sell or pass it on. Pieces that we choose to bring in our home tell a story that is unique to us. When we think critically about what we bring in our home, only bring things we absolutely love in our space, and care for those items as best we can- that’s a true sustainable mindset.