Visitors to the Pikes Peak Habitat ReStores — Northeast, 6250 Tutt Blvd., Colorado Springs, 80923, and South, 411 W. Wahsatch, Colorado Springs, 80903 — might notice decorative dragonflies hanging from the ceilings. These upcycled projects are made from ceiling fan blades, table legs, and other reused items — and they’re just one of many projects illustrating how old items can be given new life.
“I’ve always been huge on repurposing and recycling,” says Andria Vincent, ReStore Northeast manager. And the ReStores are an excellent source of supplies. “You can find glue sticks here. You can find hot-glue guns here. You can find little nails and little hammers and make things with tiny hinges,” she says. “Just walking up and down the aisles, you can find so much stuff here….It’s not just doors and windows and furniture. It’s unique hardware, unique tile.”
Upcycling requires creativity and imagination to transform an item, or parts of an item, into something new. Vincent and Toby Drury, the ReStore South manager, not only enjoy seeing what customers come up with, but they’ve completed their own upcycling projects, too. Some of the ideas they mentioned include
• Turning a hutch into a cage for a bird or rabbit, or a vivarium for a snake
• Transforming a dresser into a hallway bench
• Adding shelves to a bifold door and using it as a corner shelving unit
• Filling tubs or toilets with soil and using them as raised planters
• Repurposing a tub as an outdoor pond
• Turning an entertainment center into a child’s play kitchen
“Corner kitchen cabinets can be turned into kids’ toy bins just by switching out some hinges and turning them on their side,” says Vincent. “There are simple things that you can make.”
In addition to offering inspiration and products for customers looking to reuse and repurpose, the ReStores also serve as recycling centers for paint, porcelain, and metal, including copper.
“We are the largest PaintCare recycler in the state of Colorado,” says Vincent. For perspective, she explains that it takes 155,000 gallons to paint the Pentagon, the world’s largest office building. In 2021, Pikes Peak Habitat ReStores recycled 188,000 gallons. “So this tiny affiliate was able to recycle more paint than it takes to paint the world’s largest office building!” she says.
Donations are recycled into Green Sheen paint, available for purchase at the ReStore South. The stores can only accept five gallons of paint per customer per day, but Drury points out that’s five gallons total — so if someone has ten cans with half a gallon or less, they meet that requirement.
In addition, the ReStores work with Colorado Springs Utilities to recycle porcelain, including high-flow toilets and sinks, into road base. “A lot of people don’t realize, because we’re around porcelain and use it so much, how dangerous it is,” says Vincent. “If we were to put a sink or a toilet into the landfill today, 500 years from now it’s still a sink or a toilet because it does not biodegrade at all. So by bringing it to us and having it go to ‘commode the road,’ they’re recycling it into something we use.”
Reducing waste—through reusing, repurposing, upcycling, and recycling—is important to both Vincent and Drury.
“I would like to see less things going in the landfill and less things produced. I think we really need some changes in our society to be able to come up with a better way of doing things,” says Drury. “We’re over-inundated with things. We now over-produce, and half of it goes to waste. I would really like to see more ways to keep more of that from happening.”
That’s just one way the ReStores fill a valuable niche, accepting and reselling items such as building supplies and old toilets that most other thrift stores don’t take. The ReStores keep gently used home goods and construction materials circulating in the local community, and they connect vintage items with people who appreciate the heritage.
“You don’t know what you’ll find from day to day,” says Drury. “You see history when you’re in the ReStore.” He mentions donations including antique gas lights from around 1908, removed during a remodel of the Colorado Springs City Auditorium, and signed photographic prints of the Pikes Peak Road Race that came from a local resort.
Vincent says the stores also have received unique contributions from individuals who have cleaned out their basements and attics.
“We get the old speckled tile that nobody can find because they don’t make it anymore,” she says. “There’s unique stuff that comes in that you would never [otherwise] see in your lifetime.”
She adds, “It’s super neat, and people still don’t realize that about the ReStore, and it’s so fun. I love the ReStore!”
