Valentine’s Day can be such an exciting time of year. The parties, the love, the flowers. Everything that comes with the holiday is so much fun. But you know what’s not fun; overconsumption and waste. So here are some creative things you can do with your holiday decorations instead of immediately discarding them.
- Make it room decor
Do you have a heart garland, a beautiful design from a card, or a heart-shaped foil balloon lying around? Turn that garland into decor by sticking it on your door or putting it up to hang with your curtains. Put a straw into your foil balloon to let the air out and lay it flat to use as wall art. Or instead of putting your flowers in a vase, let them dry out, wrap a string around the stem and let them hang upside down for an eccentric flower display. Valentine’s Day decorations are the perfect excuse to have cute heart-shaped decorations around your dorm or room and its main colors of pink and red are easy to incorporate into most color schemes.
- Scrapbook/Craft it
Looking for a way to remember this day forever but journals aren’t visual enough and pictures just say too little? Taking a few decorations and creating a spread in a scrapbook can be a unique way to commemorate your special Valentine’s Day occasion. This can utilize multiple decorations in one place. And if a scrapbook is too much of a commitment for you, frame a special image and use a streamer, Valentine’s card, or a bow from a gift to decorate a picture frame and to get a second use out of your decor.
- Save those flowers!
Flowers in themselves make for beautiful decorations no matter what time of year it is but sometimes we want them to last a little bit longer. One good way to do this is through pressing your flowers. Lay your petals, leaves, or full flowers in between two pieces of paper and place the paper into a book. Allow your flower to be pressed in the book for around one to two weeks and keep the memory of that special day forever. You can even keep this flower taped into a scrapbook or turn that into wall art. Another method to keep your flowers looking fresh for longer is to spray hairspray on the petals when you get them.
These are all ways you can change the way you treat disposable decorations. These same techniques can be applied to many other holidays and events. From Galentine parties to graduation celebrations, different decorations can be repurposed so we get a better buy for our buck. We can also be more mindful of our purchases, buying items and saving them with next year in mind instead of treating them like one-day one-use objects.