10 (Easy) Ways to Re-use your Old Calendar

Your calendar has been with you for one whole year.  Now it's time for it to go... but hold on!  It wants to keep you company a little while longer.  Maybe the waste bin can wait!

Here are some eco-friendly ideas that can not only lessen the trash around but also save you some pesos.

1. Picture Frame

The last page on your papemelroti wall calendar has a little folder that you can use as a picture frame on your desk.  Just cut out the inside pages and you can use this to showcase your pictures.

If you don't have a papemelroti wall calendar, you can still use whatever calendar as a picture frame.  Just use the thickest paper on the calendar and fold it.  Paste your picture at the center of the folded space.  Cut out the nicest designs or photos and use those as the "frame" around your photo.

2. Art journal

Sometimes ordinary days go by unnoticed but we forget the little joys that come with it like the kind stranger who gave us his seat on the bus or a beautiful leaf that we saw by the wayside.  When we keep these little keepsake items, we remember those special moments.

When we remember the days like that, we can also share the stories with our loved ones and we also grow in gratitude and appreciation for ordinary days.

3. Notebook

4. Gift tags

5. Stamp, Washi and Sticker Collection

If you don't use it, you lose it!  It's super sad when the washi tape we have saved up for years and years loses its stickiness.  We need to use it!

Collectors of stamps, washi tape, and stickers can use old wall calendars to showcase their favorite designs just by sticking them on!  The extra thick paper of the calendar will serve as a nice backdrop for your collection.

6. Memory Board or Dream Board

Because you can hang the calendar anywhere, you can actually use it as a memory board (much like the art journal, except it is hanging).  Use whatever you have on hand like different kinds of art materials - colored paper, stickers, pictures, magazine cuttings, etc.  

Display these on your wall to see your favorite stuff in one place.  Imagine it as a real-life Pinterest board where you can put snippets of color themes that you like for your next art project, pegs for what you want your room to look like, and whatever other projects you want to accomplish this year!

7. Bookmark

You can also give these as gifts or tokens of friendship this Valentine’s Day.

8. Wall decor

Every month's design can serve as a decoration to liven up a plain space.  The words and drawings are so inspiring that you can use them as little posters for your workplace, club board or to cheer up a sick friend.  

9. Coloring book

Re-purposing your calendar can be a fun activity for you and your kids, nephews and nieces. Just find the best images that you like best and color them using pens, pastels, or crayons.

10. Drawing Drills 

Since each month has a lot of squares, sometimes if you don’t use the space for writing down notes, you can use the squares for something else.

These can be used to improve your drawing skills!  Practice makes perfect!  Repeatedly drawing lines and curves gives you better control and you'll see that you will be much better in translating your imagined images into paper just by doing these drills.  Try to make the straightest lines and neatest patterns to hone your skills at drawing and calligraphy.

Just cover the dates with some white paper (or just leave them there).

Every little bit helps!  No matter what type of recycling you do will benefit the world around you.  If more and more people value paper and resources and not be used to having a throwaway approach to life, we would have a much cleaner country (and world)!

By the way, we really want to thank you for purchasing papemelroti wall calendars (those of you who did)!  Your calendar was made in the Philippine Islands and is made of 100% unbleached recycled paper so NO TREES WERE CUT in the production of this product.  No chemicals were released into the air as well in the manufacturing process so YAYYY!

What do you do with your old calendars?  Feel free to let us know in the comments below!

If you want to check out our 2024 Calendars and Planners, visit our shop online or in stores.  All the designs were exclusively done by papemelroti artists.

We also have scroll poster and tiny desk calendars.  Any year planners and calendars are available too!