WE recycled the iron poarch railing into a grape arbor Worked nice. Babs

There are some great ideas in this thread!  Way to use your imaginations...

I just turned an empty parmesan cheese container into a great shaker for fertilizer for DH to use in a small garden (not planted yet).  It worked great (grate? LOL).

Lots of things around the house can become tools for something entirely different. My new hobby of refurbishing old sewing machines required lots of different things for cleaning all the little crevices and nooks and crannies, so I went on a search thru the house to see what I could find without spending money.

1. a baby's toothbrush - the narrow head was good for reaching into small spaces and the bristles were very soft so not to damage delicate paint finishes.

2. diamond coated nail file - for smoothing down some rough metal edges.

3. makeup brush, mascara brush, tiny brush for flossing teeth - because these brushes are pointed they reached into tight areas also.

4. Stencil brush - just stiff enough for scrubbing metal but won't scratch.

5. Half a small scissor - worked great for scraping off old encrusted dirt

6. Thick bamboo skewer - wrapped with a cotton rag for reaching in to wipe down the inside metal parts.

7. Old sewing needle - for really tiny places.

8. Plastic microwave dishes that came in boxed baking mixes - for holding small parts so they don't get lost when out of the machine

9. White and green kitchen scrubbers - great for rubbing off rust on metal pieces, but not for chromed metal - it will scratch.

10. Vaseline - for grease on the gears

My husband screwed baby food jar lids to the bottom side of a wooden shelf in the garage and then places screws and nuts and bolts in the jar and just screws it into the lids when there full..  He spray painted several large coffee cans (gotten from friends) and then hot glued a single nail or bolt to the outside so he knows whats in side with out opening them.  We use metal trash cans with well fitting lids to store extra dog food in.  The big heavy duty plastic trash cans with lids fit under the work table in the garage and hold all of our winter coveralls and sometimes even our sleeping bags.  We use raw potatoes to unscrew broken light bulbs from the socket when they break.  My husband is great at making old things seem new. 

I bought some very nice sheets at a yard sale last week and today sat down and made them into pillowcases.  King-sized pillow cases are ridiculously priced and usually need to be replaced before the sheets do in a set, so I was in need of several.  So far I've gotten 4 cases out of the sheets I bought and still have plenty of 'material' left - they'll end costing me about .25 cents each or less, near as I can figure, plus I'll have enough remnants for throw pillow shams or possibly a few valances.  If you lay them out right and use the selvages and hems, only two seams are needed per case, too, not really much sewing at all...Liz

 From an old article I previously ran in my column:

Turning White Elephants into Work Horses

Long ago, a fellow blogger had a photo of a rather odd piece of furniture on the front page of her blog, and she was asking what it was, and for suggestions on how to reuse it, dismantle it and turn it into something else, or how to get rid of it. She is a very conscientious frugalite, and didn’t just want to heave it to the curb.

Well, the standard raft of answers about CraigsList, freecycle, and classified ads showed up, but I had another answer. First, a question.

“Where did this thing come from—where did it originate?”

She didn’t know. She bought it at a yard sale, thinking it was a low shelving unit with two small doors in it.

I correctly identified it to her as the hutch piece of a dresser/hutch or desk/hutch combination. This is the piece that sits atop a dresser or desk for additional storage on top.

She laughed and responded, “Oh—no wonder it sat so low!”

I continued to instruct her on ways of looking at this piece from fresh perspectives instead of just off-the-cuff, rushing to get rid of something before actually giving it a hard thought and a second look.

• Turn it on its side, step back from it, and look at it. Does this position reveal any new uses or places to you?

• Turn it completely upside down and do the same thing.

• Elevate it, or imagine it elevated on a wall, dresser, or desk, or even with legs under it. Got any ideas yet?

• Try laying it flat, and imaging it as the base for a big square coffee table—covering the front completely changes the look.

• Maybe the color is what’s so objectionable now—try painting it as well as repurposing it. Some new hardware might do more wonders.

I’m glad to report that the formerly-unusable low bookcase got turned into a shoe shelf/key caddy in her mud room. The unit now sits upside-down, and keys and other paraphernalia we all dump right after coming in now go into the little door compartments (now at the top of the unit), where they’re out of sight. Boots, out-of-season shoes, and garden sneakers go in the shelves. Needless to say, she was very happy about keeping this piece out of a landfill and off the curb—it’s now the first thing she sees coming in. 

This Old Housewife:

 From an old article I previously ran in my column:

Turning White Elephants into Work Horses

Long ago, a fellow blogger had a photo of a rather odd piece of furniture on the front page of her blog, and she was asking what it was, and for suggestions on how to reuse it, dismantle it and turn it into something else, or how to get rid of it. She is a very conscientious frugalite, and didn’t just want to heave it to the curb.

Well, the standard raft of answers about CraigsList, freecycle, and classified ads showed up, but I had another answer. First, a question.

“Where did this thing come from—where did it originate?”

She didn’t know. She bought it at a yard sale, thinking it was a low shelving unit with two small doors in it.

I correctly identified it to her as the hutch piece of a dresser/hutch or desk/hutch combination. This is the piece that sits atop a dresser or desk for additional storage on top.

She laughed and responded, “Oh—no wonder it sat so low!”

I continued to instruct her on ways of looking at this piece from fresh perspectives instead of just off-the-cuff, rushing to get rid of something before actually giving it a hard thought and a second look.

• Turn it on its side, step back from it, and look at it. Does this position reveal any new uses or places to you?

• Turn it completely upside down and do the same thing.

• Elevate it, or imagine it elevated on a wall, dresser, or desk, or even with legs under it. Got any ideas yet?

• Try laying it flat, and imaging it as the base for a big square coffee table—covering the front completely changes the look.

• Maybe the color is what’s so objectionable now—try painting it as well as repurposing it. Some new hardware might do more wonders.

I’m glad to report that the formerly-unusable low bookcase got turned into a shoe shelf/key caddy in her mud room. The unit now sits upside-down, and keys and other paraphernalia we all dump right after coming in now go into the little door compartments (now at the top of the unit), where they’re out of sight. Boots, out-of-season shoes, and garden sneakers go in the shelves. Needless to say, she was very happy about keeping this piece out of a landfill and off the curb—it’s now the first thing she sees coming in. 

Your list of questions is perfect (with very slight modifications) for lots of things!  Thanks for the tips.  [as I picture myself turning things every-which-way with one hand on my chin, the other on my hip, and my foot tap-tap-tapping as I employ my imagination]

ooops

can't figure out links :I

Heh. We got a hutch from a friend who was removing it from her son's desk. It resembled a cabinet without doors. When placed upside down on the floor, it made a stable and serviceable bookcase for my young son.

 

I totally thought about you all when I went out by the dumpster at my work.  (Yeah, that didn't sound quite right but here's why I thought of you all . . .) They had moved a new server rack into the data center where I work and each of these racks come packaged with thick wood braces on the bottoms.  They just hauled the wood braces out to the dumpster to be hauled off.  I know you all would have done something completely ingenious with them, but, alas, there was no way to get them out to you.