Upcycling Ideas for the New Year

Happy New Year to you all!

Ahhh, the New Year. Plenty of people make resolutions of what they want to achieve, whereas others are more focussed on revamping their personal space! People’s homes are being scrubbed from top to bottom, and personal belongings are being sorted into piles of ‘keep’ or ‘throw’.

Except here at Blue Door Property Guardians, we don’t like to see people throwing their perfectly good personal items away, just because they might have received something better for Christmas. We also know that you can buy some great things from secondhand shops or websites to improve your home. Have you ever heard of upcycling?

Upcycling is the process of taking something ‘old’ or used and breathing some much needed life back into it. Whether that’s giving it a lick of paint, or just changing the purpose of it completely. Upcycling provides you with new projects, the opportunity to learn new skills, and opportunities to enhance your living space.

Upcycling is very beneficial for the environment too. As you’re giving a new life to something previously owned, the amount of materials and waste being sent to landfill is minimising. The production of new items is also slowed down, meaning greenhouse gases and other pollutants are decreasing too. Another great thing? You can keep these incredible new items for yourself or sell them for a little bit of pocket money. Win, win!

So, what can we upcycle? Here are some ideas…

Move over wardrobes, it’s time for clothing rails

Clothing rails can be a perfect addition to your living spaces and you don’t need to head to the shops to buy one brand new! Take a ladder, some screws, spare wood and some paint and voila! You have yourself a brand new addition to your home.

Clothing rails are great to show off your favourite pieces of clothing or to keep in your hallway to store your coats and shoes.

Wooden crates are for more than just transporting goods

Have you had any new deliveries and received them on wooden crates? Or do you know somebody who has plenty of wooden crates that they don’t know what to do with? Keep them.

Wooden crates can be attached together and painted to create new shelving units of bookcases. You can choose the layout, the size and the design of how you want it to look. A perfect new place to store your favourite reads or most prized possessions.

New plant pots for new plants!

Unless they really can’t be used anymore, don’t throw away your old buckets. Your old buckets can be transformed into the most gorgeous planters and new plant pots to redesign your garden.

Buckets come in all shapes and sizes, so you can really turn your thumbs green and start your own green corner!

Egg cartons are for more than just eggs…

Don’t know what to do with your old egg cartons? Sure, you can recycle them but you can also use them for your upcycling projects.

Egg cartons are great for storing those Christmas decorations after the festive season. If your decorations have personal value to you or are valuable in general, then you want to keep them in perfect condition for the next year without any damage coming to them.

Another great use for your old egg cartons is to keep them to grow some windowsill herbs. These are super convenient for your cooking and it saves you pennies on the shopping!

Second-hand furniture can be a first-class success

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure after all, right, Orinoco? So much joy can be brought back into second-hand items and with a little bit of TLC you can bag yourself a brand new addition to your home, or even make some pocket money for yourself.

You can get furniture such as sofas, chairs, drawers, wardrobes and more from second-hand stores or websites for a great price, and then the decision is yours for what you do with them. This is the perfect chance for you to be creative and create bespoke items where you can’t get anywhere else!

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The list for upcycling projects is large and you can pretty much give anything a brand new life and purpose. Not only is upcycling great for the environment and you’ll be doing your bit, it is also cost-effective for you too!

We’d love to hear about your upcycling projects and what you’ve managed to achieve, so make sure you pop us a message with your new creations: admin@bluedoorpropertyguardians.co.uk.

What has BDPG Achieved in 2022?

Well, 2022 certainly had it all didn’t it? We were lucky enough to see two total lunar eclipses, the UK had countless Prime Ministers, and the incredible Lionesses finally brought football home. Now as much as the England Women’s team were goals galore, here at Blue Door we hit a lot of our goals too! Here’s a look back at our year and what we’re extremely proud to have achieved.

Making Things Seamless

We’re big on making our team’s lives easier, in fact we’re huge on it. We created and implemented a brand new CRM system for all staff to use and tailor to their needs. It did involve a bit of data migration, but we’re not complaining now everything is up and running. It has allowed us to streamline our processes, giving us more time and flexibility to work with our Guardians and property owners. Win, win!

Staying In The Loop

There is nothing worse than not knowing what you’re talking about. Here at Blue Door, staff training is always at the top of our Christmas list. We’re proud to have a team who are always keen to learn and progress, which is why we love organising training and staff development days. 

Here’s a quick insight, one was all about LinkedIn and knowing how to utilise the platform for specific business needs. Safe to say it worked, with one of our members increasing their following by over 1,200. If you haven’t already, give us a follow on LinkedIn here (not at all a shameless plug!).

Having All The Contacts

They say it’s not what you know, but who you know. Well, we guess we’re out of that old saying because we have both. Thanks to the team’s dedication and hard work, 2022 allowed us to build connections with huge organisations, some of which have over 70,000 properties in their portfolios and 300 sites across London.

We don’t like to slow down either, we’re part of over 20 industry-related groups and memberships to make sure we’re always in the know about all things property and guardianships.

Starring On The Big Screen

If you’re signed up to our newsletter and have read our blog, then you’re bound to have seen the news about us being on the big screen. We were honoured and lucky enough to have been asked to work on Shelter’s 2022 Christmas TV campaign. We can’t stress enough the importance and incredible work this charity does. You can learn more about our involvement here.

Safety Is Key

Health and wellbeing has always been at the forefront of Blue Door and that didn’t slip in 2022, and will certainly continue in 2023. Our incredible health and safety team created, introduced and rolled out a brand new Safety Management System (SMS) to help manage safety risks. This allowed us to have structured processes for daily business functions and tasks. Our team even went that step further (like they always do!) and provided company-wide training and resources so everyone is aware of the new system.

Providing Flexibility

If the past couple years have taught us anything, it’s all about having the procedures in place to offer flexibility for your team. One of our project manager’s opened up our flexible way of working for our property owners and Guardians too. By creating various resources such as presentations, slide decks and documents, it opened us up to a new virtual way of training, onboarding and communication.

Quite surprised we managed to narrow it down to just our top 6 achievements as 2022 really did spoil us. From everyone here at Blue Door, we wish you all the best for 2023 and whatever adventures it may bring. As always, if you have any questions, even if you just fancy a chat, our inbox is always open.

The Nuts & Bolts of Commercial Insurance

Whether you’re a small or big business, commercial insurance is always going to crop up. All the different types of insurance can get a little messy, which is why we’re going to do everyone a favour and break it down so we’re all on the same page.

What is Commercial Insurance?

In a nuts (and bolts) shell, commercial insurance is insurance that protects businesses against losses and claims for things like damage to property or injury to employees. It’s a general term covering various types of insurance, such as public-liability insurance, employer’s liability insurance and professional indemnity.

What are the different types of Commercial Insurance?

There is a huge commercial umbrella when it comes to insurance, and here’s the most common:

• Commercial property insurance

• Motor insurance

• Tool and equipment insurance

• Cyber liability insurance

• Business interruption insurance

Which Commercial Insurance is right for you?

The insurance game isn’t an easy one to play. It’s hard knowing what insurance to take out and which one is right for your needs. There’s a few tips and tricks you can use to help make your decision. You should consider the following:

• Does your business deal with members of the public?

• What type of service or product do you offer?

• Are you a sole trader or an employer?

• Are you a limited or public company?

• Do you have a premises for your business?

• Do you use a vehicle or any special equipment for your business?

By answering those questions, it will help to give you more of a feel about what type of insurance you’re going to need. We’re going to dive into all things property insurance, after all property is our main player at Blue Door.

Let’s talk Commercial Property Insurance shall we?

Commercial property insurance is a must have. This type of insurance makes sure you’re covered for any cost of repairing, rebuilding, or replacing stock/equipment on your premises. 

What does commercial property insurance cover?

• Burst pipes

• Flooding

• Theft

• Fire

• Weather-related damage such as fallen trees

Commercial property insurance can be broken up into four areas, all of which are essential when owning a property or premises for business.

Buildings Insurance

Buildings insurance will cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding your premises if it is destroyed or damaged from events such as flooding or fire. 

This type of insurance isn’t actually required by law, but we do highly recommend it. If you’re renting your premises, this insurance is your landlord’s responsibility - but we’d always double-check with the landlord to make sure this is in place. 

Unfortunately, the majority of buildings insurance policies won’t cover you for things such as general wear and tear. So keeping those carpets in tip-top shape is down to you.

Contents Insurance

Contents insurance covers anything that is not physically attached to the building. For example stock and equipment, or if your premises is a home then valuables and goods such as furniture and electrical items. This insurance isn’t mandatory, but highly recommended to make sure your belongings are safe.

Similar to buildings insurance, this doesn’t cover wear and tear and the majority of policies come with value limits on your contents.

Fixtures and Fittings Insurance

Pretty much self-explanatory this one. This is to cover any fixtures or fittings that aren’t deemed as stock or goods, but don’t belong to the building itself.

Loss of Rent Insurance

This will help compensate for any loss of rent or income due to the property being inhabitable and your tenants having to be moved out.

Remember, insurance and covers differ between different policies and providers, so it is essential to always check each policy. We’re always here to help anyway, feel free to email us on admin@bluedoorpropertyguardians.co.uk or give us a call on 02078594213 if you have any questions or need a bit more help in the insurance department. 
You can also take a look at our Property Owners page to learn more about our guardianship offering.