Upcycled Homemade Bird House with The Tom's of Maine #LessWasteChallenge

It's time for Spring cleaning! This is the perfect time to go through your home to purge unwanted and unused items. Before you drag those garbage bags out to the curb, consider the alternatives. I've partnered with Tom's of Maine to show you a few ways you can upcycle things around your home. I've also got details on how you can join the Tom's of Maine and TerraCycle#LessWasteChallenge.

Spring is undoubtedly my husband's favorite time of year. In traditional form, we adhere to Spring cleaning every year. We go through each room of the house and clean out items we no longer use or need. I tend to hold onto things because I'm sentimental, but my husband is the voice of reason that reminds me that I can hold onto memories without hanging onto things. We can easily fill bags and bags with unwanted items, but that doesn't mean they have to be destined for the landfills.

In keeping with Tom's of Maine #LessWasteChallenge, where families are challenged to reduce 1 pound of waste per week, we always donate items that are in good, working condition and are steadfast with recycling every single bit of paper, plastic, aluminum and cardboard. But, there are always things that can't be donated since they're broken or just too worn out to be of any good use. Toys that are broken or have too many missing pieces usually wind up in our garbage. More than 250 million tons of waste is generated every year in the United States, and I just hate thinking that we're contributing to that number. To help prevent additional waste from ending up in landfills, natural personal care brand Tom’s of Maine and TerraCycle®, a recycling leader, teamed up for the #LessWasteChallenge toy recycling program.

In honor of Earth Month and to help teach children about the importance of recycling, TerraCycle collected used and unwanted toys to be upcycled into something brand new that can benefit a community. Think park benches, playground equipment and beyond.

I got my kids involved by having them pledge to take the #LessWasteChallenge. It was SO easy with just the push of a button and it's free. Then, we sorted through their toy bins to find toys they no longer wanted or that were damaged or missing parts. They've been abundantly blessed in the toy department so there was no shortage here! To help them part with their toys, I reminded them that they'd be put to good use in other ways. We sorted toys into three piles: keep, donate to charity, and send to TerraCycle for upcycling.

Once we started digging around, I saw a half empty bin of wooden toy logs and got an idea. My son has been dying to buy a bird feeder for our backyard, so I figured we could create a combination homemade bird house and bird feeder. It's really perfect timing since the birds are busy making nests all over town.

How to make a Homemade Bird House

Gather up your wooden logs and decide how big you want your house to be. We had a huge set, so we still had quite a few pieces to choose from.

I let my little guy design a house, complete with windows for the birds to climb in and out, then I glued the pieces into place with a hot glue gun.

For the floor of the birdhouse, we upcycled a plastic tray that I had on hand. I glued small pieces from our wooden log play set to the bottom of the tray to hold some rope in place so it wouldn't slide around. I created a large loop, then criss-crossed the rope at the top to create a hanging point so it would be balanced when hanging outside.

The cool thing about using the tray for the base is that it left us room to create a combo house + feeder. We took a Tom's of Maine toothpaste box and upcycled it into 2 smaller boxes by cutting away the midsection. Then, we poured some bird seed into them.

The upcycled boxes of seed fit perfectly right underneath the windows of our homemade bird house and feeder. We chose a nice, shaded spot in our backyard and hung up our bird house with great anticipation. We can't wait until we get some visitors!

I hope you love this DIY Homemade Bird House idea.
Will you be joining me in the #LessWasteChallenge?

If you don't have any old toys to upcycle, check out this awesome DIY project to turn your mouthwash bottle into a bird feeder. It's just one easy way to participate in the #LessWasteChallenge and show your family how easy upcycling can be!