Sustainable Furniture

Cardboard.



Yes, that stuff we flatten and recycle. It really is a fascinating, completely recycled and recyclable material to work with.

Several years ago, when I was working for a company that dealt with many cardboard boxes every night (that had to be stacked for scanning to be sent out again) we used to get creative with the way we stacked them. Here is an example.




A couch, ottoman, lamp. We made other things with them as well over the long night shifts. That's me on the end- with the cup. We knew cardboard could also be furniture!

So tonight I was thumbing through all of the shows you can stream directly for Netflix for something interesting to watch and ran across Big Ideas for a Small Planet.
This show is GREAT!

These guys have taken a version of that cardboard idea and ran with it. I'll admit I was dubious at first about some of the designs, but some of them are just plain fantastic!!











I LOVE that spiral case!!

Cardboard is cheap, easy to ship, collapsible, a blank slate for decoration, and incredibly strong when built to be.

May not be suitable for homes with cats with claws. (Well maybe the spiral storage case. Don't think they can reach that!) Exhibit A:


These guys have made entire offices out of nothing but cardboard. Simply amazing! I may make this my new office, too.















These folks below have a lot of great ideas. Like shelves, seating, tables, kid kits, and more. And this is the kind of furniture that would be fun to put together. No tools!












Here are cardboard file cabinets, shelves, and even a cardboard bed (without mattress)


This is a great way to build for the future.

Smarter not "disposable."

When I was in a sculpture class in college we were told to make things out of "found objects." We, went, as a class to a local "dumping ground" and found odds and ends to make five sculptures, each. It was one of the most fun projects I've done. I may delve into this once again, when I have workshop space. It's messy!

This guy started a family business to build lamps out of Junk. They literally find the junk they need, from the places that have to dispose of it. He takes a lot of ordinary things and turns them into extraordinary pieces of furniture. I'd love to have one of these lamps!


The carbon footprint of the furniture industry is gigantic. It is estimated Americans buy 70% of their furniture from over seas. That's a lot of oil down the drain.

Can't we work out more sustainable furniture solutions, like these guys have?

How big does your house NEED to be?

It is my hope to help introduce people into a new way of living. The way we do things now will not sustain our planet. The good news is there are better ways of doing things. I hope to touch on more of these areas soon.

Today I want to talk about size of residence.
How much space do you really need?

The average American house size has more than doubled since the 1950s; it now stands at 2,349 square feet. Whether it's a McMansion or a bigger, cheaper house in the exurbs, the move toward ever large homes has been accelerating for years. Unfortunately so has the population- of the earth!


Are there spaces in your home that never get used? Places just for "show" or because your house is supposed to have a family room, great room, game room, whatever the case may be?
I would like to propose a different viewpoint. That part of your home you aren't using is costing you energy to heat, cool, power, and clean, not to mention furnish.


So much less space is actually required for us to function. I, for one, am a big fan of multi-purpose spaces. Your "living room" can easily be an office, den, bar, guest bedroom, and center of the home.

Kitchens? Lets just say I'm not much of a cook. There are a few things I can make but I have realized that there are many other people out there, just like me, who are running a full size old fridge to house 1 pitcher of tea, mustard, and one empty ice tray in the freezer. Appliances and kitchens for people that barely use them can be very small.



There are even more appliances available to furnish homes like these, and power them for a lot less!

It is the smallest priority for me personally in a home. I see a lot of space that could be used for
other things.





Need a huge bedroom?

Why? As long as you have sufficient storage space, you really need a space for your bed and a few comforts. Face it, your bedroom is for the BED. Why not create spaces that you really love elsewhere in the home, or outside of the home, for that matter to enjoy and relax in? Remember the family on Little House and the Prairie? The kids slept in a loft above the main rooms. It worked fine for them and many other families as well. I really love this idea for a kid's room.

There is an entire movement of people who believe in living in smaller homes, and sustainable movements as well. I hope to help merge the two.


www.tinyhouseblog.com

www.thistinyhouse.com

www.greenandsustainablehomes.org

Living in this way- I hope to show that a community center, that houses many of the not often used elements of the home, will reduce the size and footprint of each individual home and create a sense of community.


Questions? Comments?

Welcome to the Sustainable Station

We, here at Sustainable Station, want to share with you a vision of the future.

A future that brings unity to communities
and proportions to our lives.
A future that measures the value
of a building by its
ecological footprint and energy efficiency rating.
A future borne of responsibility.
A future that WE can build.

What does your home do for you?
A "home" is often defined as:
-the place where one lives: a residence
-the dwelling places together with the family or social unit that occupies it: a household
-an environment offering security and happiness

What powers your home?

*Most likely your power company uses coal, gas, nuclear power, or hydro-electric power. Coal, gas, oil, and nuclear power deplete limited resources, AND cause pollution. Nuclear power is the cleanest, but takes quite a while and resources to build the plants. Not to mention the radioactive pollution it creates, that has to be stored forever.

Coal mining known as mountaintop removal alone has destroyed the landscape, and habitats around 495 mountains here in the U.S. so far. Learn more about this @ I love mountains.org

Also Kilowatt Ours is an excellent resource for education on energy production. They offer a video that is well worth the donation and a free school course designed to teach the next generation about the challenges we are facing.



Renewable Energy
Only a small portion of people in the world today are using the limitless resources of wind, the sun, water, geothermal power or biomass. These are also, unfortunately, currently the forms of producing electricity that is clean- and not as harmful to the environment.




What CAN your home do for you?
By carefully designing your home or making strategic changes to your existing home you can lower your energy costs and wean your household off of dirty energy and onto clean power. Small things such as switching out your lightbulbs to more energy efficient measures, to larger projects such as powering your home with solar or wind can make a big difference.



How recycling can benefit your home.
Using gently used items or non-perfect items in your home should be a matter of pride. There are several services to help you locate items that can be re-used and where to offer items you are done with.

-Freecycle
-ReUseIt
-Craigslist

There are also many items made from recycled things- such as recycled glass counter tops, insulation made from recycled newspaper or denim, art projects, recycled paint, and plenty of other ways! What can you think of to make something from something else?

Where does trash go?
In spite of our efforts in recent years to reduce waste, littering, and preserving our streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans- there is still a blanket of trash created by ocean currents about twice the size of Texas floating above Hawaii? It is refereed to by marine biologists as a continent of trash. The majority of that garbage arrived in our generation's lifetime.


What is this energy from trash I keep hearing about?
Some communities are setting up plants to extract the methane gas produced by landfills to use it for energy rather than have it contribute to the problem. This is a great solution but we do not have unlimited space for landfills on this planet. Keeping your plastic bottles, cans, cardboard, and newspapers separate from trash for the landfill will reduce waste and help preserve the environment of this planet we call home.

What matters to you in a home?

Do you need a big house with numerous rooms?
Space for all the "stuff" you have accumulated?
Do you just need somewhere to be your "home base?"

I'll explore the Tiny House Movement in a future post. Thanks for reading!