After carpeting your home, it is likely that you are going to have carpet remnants. So, what can you do with carpet remnants?
Your only limit is your imagination here. While some people will keep their carpet remnants to carry out repairs to their carpets late on, other people make door mats from them. Other people can make throw pillows. You may even want to make a stylish rug. There are plenty of arts ; crafts projects where those carpet remnants will come in handy.
What To Do With Carpet Remnants?
There are plenty of things that you can do with carpet remnants.
Whenever we have carpet remnants, we tend to keep a few spare pieces. They don’t have to be big. Sooner or later, you may notice that small parts of your carpet end up getting damaged.
The carpet remnants can be a great way to repair that damage. It will save you from having to track down a like-for-like piece of carpet.
In addition to this, you may want to make a doormat. In fact, this can be an incredibly good idea. You end up with a doormat that is exactly the same color as your carpet. It will also help to prevent the carpet from getting damaged by muddy feet.
If you are feeling particularly crafty, then people have made the following with their carpet remnants:
- Throw pillows
- Rugs
- Scratching posts for their cats
You can even use an old bit of carpet to cover up a compost bin. It is surprisingly good at that job.
Is It Worth Keeping Carpet Offcuts?
We always recommend that you keep a few carpet offcuts. This will allow you to repair any damaged areas of your carpet with ease. However, if you don’t really know what to do with the carpet offcuts, then it probably isn’t worth keeping them hanging around.
While you can get a lot of use out of carpet offcuts, we do appreciate that not everybody is going to be great at arts ; crafts, nor are they really going to have much use from the carpet.
Do Carpet Remnants Need To Be Bound?
If you are planning on making a stylish rug or mat from the carpet remnants then, yes. If you do not bind the sides of the carpet remnants, then they will start to fray.
Binding the sides of the carpet remnants will also give you nice, clean lines. Most carpet remnants will be rather rough on the edges. If you don’t bind the edges, then whatever you are making with those carpet remnants isn’t going to look too great.
How Do You Bind Carpet Remnants?
You can purchase binding kits online. Essentially, these kits will allow you to ‘glue’ down binding tape around the side of the carpet remnants.
That being said, this isn’t really something that you should tackle yourself. If you have never bound carpet remnants before, then you will likely end up making a mistake. The vast majority of kits available on the market aren’t too great.
Luckily, there will be plenty of places that will be able to help you out. If you look for any store that sells carpets or rugs, then it is likely that they will offer a binding service for you. You may even want to approach a few stores that deal with fabrics.
Of course, if you do plan on binding the carpet remnants yourself, perhaps to save a little bit of money, then make sure that you do things carefully. If you mess up the binding, then you will have made a pretty expensive mistake as the binding tape is not cheap in the slightest.
Can You Recycle Carpet Remnants?
You can recycle carpet remnants. The problem is that you may struggle to find somewhere that will recycle them.
The problem with many carpets is that they are made with petroleum. This means that they can’t just be thrown in the normal recycling. Most of the time, if you throw them away, they are going to end up in a landfill.
If you really have no use for your carpet remnants, then just throw them in the bin. It isn’t the most environmentally-friendly thing to do. However, chances are that you really will struggle to find somewhere that will recycle the carpet for you. You could always ask your local carpet store for assistance but, even then, it is going to be a bit of a long shot.
Does Carpet Decompose?
No. Carpet does not decompose. Well, at least not in the near future. It may decompose centuries from now.
We know that there are a lot of people that do consider throwing their carpet in the compost bin. We won’t lie to you. Some of the fibers of the carpet may start to break down. However, the bulk of the carpet will remain, and it is likely going to ruin your compost heap. This is because the vast majority of carpets are petroleum-based.
If you really want to get rid of your carpet in a ‘green’ way, then look for somewhere that will recycle it for you. However, once again, we do want to point out that it can be incredibly tough to track down somewhere that will do this, at least outside of the major towns and cities.
Final Thoughts
If you have old carpet remnants, then we suggest that you keep hold of some. You will be able to use these remnants to fix any issues with the carpet later on down the line. If you do not want to throw away or recycle the carpet remnants, then there are plenty of arts ; crafts projects that you can carry out with them. For example, you can make rugs or mats with them (remnants may make a great welcome mat!)
Do bear in mind that if you plan on doing anything with those carpet remnants, then you may need to have the carpet bound to stop it from fraying.
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