Repurposed Items

[sam_gordon]

Does the classic milk crate count?

These things:

I worked at a small grocer in HS and laid claim to about a half dozen of these. They worked great in college 1) to help hauls stuff 2) as a pantry/bookcase, and are now back to storing things to stack in the basement.

 

[barkley]

Does the classic milk crate count?

These things: View attachment 825161

I worked at a small grocer in HS and laid claim to about a half dozen of these. They worked great in college 1) to help hauls stuff 2) as a pantry/bookcase, and are now back to storing things to stack in the basement.

just the other day after seeing some kind of hgtv 'great new idea' tip on upcycling those massive wooden spools into tables dh and i were talking about how everyone we knew in our 20's who moved out on their own had some combination of wooden spool coffee table, MILK CRATE shelving unit or cinder block/lumber book/stereo shelving as their initial 'interior decor'

 

[Imzadi]

I have numerous boxes of spare parts from various things we have put together, scrap wood, things that make no sense at all to keep, random screws and washers etc.. but every once and a while its exactly what I need to fix something.

My former employer had like 8' sections of metal conduit sitting out from when the building was originally built. I ended up cutting off ~16-24" sections and putting them with the spare tires in our vehicles.

That reminds me, NYC has a weird safetly law in which when people buy lumber from Loews or Home Depot here, the stores can't cut the lumber down for us, which is what the majority of those stores do and for free. I guess there is concern that there are not enough employees around to make sure the saws are not left unattended.

The stores don't really stock many shorter boards here. So, I haven't been able to buy any wood as an 8-ft board or full sheet of wood is just too unwieldy to try to bring home without a lot of problems.

A couple artists in my local Freecycle group listed that they had a lot of leftover 3-ft and 4-ft boards being discarded after their art installations came down. A few of us took several each. So much easier getting those sizes of boards home.

 

[gshanny]

I fix chromebooks where I work. When a kid kills one I save all the good parts so I don't have to charge kids when theirs has broken repairable parts. I use tubs I scrounge around the school, and tins and plastic containers to help store all the parts.
I made masks at one time. My final count was over 2500, with the majority going to school. I never charged for any of them. I then had all of these empty spools. I am not a great painter, but started painting partial Disney characters on them. They go to school and sit on my desktop at work.
I keep calendars and reuse them on the years that match up.
I bring home the gallon metal cans from the lunchroom, and all kinds of cb parts, and my dad scraps them for the metals.
I made a little Christmas tree decorated with nothing but computer innards.
I have used old pieces of wood for decorations. They were the cut ends from my porch painted up. My dad used the old porch boards to make things. Almost everything he makes is from recycled wood and ends up pretty. I have a cute little table on my front porch from his old picnic table.
I use old fabric for things. I will have to dig out the booties I made for my dog last year when it go about as frigid as we will be for the next week. They came from an old flannel top sheet. Those also come in handy when doing mud 5ks and no changing station.

 

[weewuvvdisney]

Along the same lines... many years ago, DW's employer had a paper shredder that wasn't working and was going to throw out. She brought it home for me to look at. I noticed the bin had a "tab" on the right and left sides of it, sticking up. Well, the left side was missing. The tab apparently hits a sensor to indicate it's inserted. No bin = no work. I literally turned the bin 180 degrees (so the tab that was on the right was now on the left). Shredder then worked. We kept it for 7-8 years before upgrading to a larger capacity one.

Not quite the same thing. We had a shredder that stopped working. Wasn't that old. I called the company and was told that it wouldn't work because the tab was bent out of shape. I took some tape and put it on both sides of the tab to keep it straight. Works now. Just have to be careful when replacing the head on top of the bin. To think that the company thinks its okay to replace the entire shredder because a plastic tab on a bin is broken - while the top portion which is the "brains of the machine" is still functioning. Todays thinking! Ugh!

 

[barkley]

I use old fabric for things. I will have to dig out the booties I made for my dog last year when it go about as frigid as we will be for the next week. They came from an old flannel top sheet.

it's a walk down memory lane for my kids when they see my pile of dust cloths-when they would wear out/out grow fleece pj bottoms i would cut off the legs and make cloths-you gotta figure how well they pick up pet hair, dust and such when you wear them so they work fantasticly to dust.

 

[Imzadi]

Not repurposing, but another "new-to-me" acquisition that I did end up "fixing."

Someone in our local Freecycle group listed her Dirt Devil vacuum for free as it lost suction. I had a smaller, similar model that I loved. It worked great, but it didn't have the hose & attachments that this one has. I listed it on the group a while back and some college kids picked it up. I figured this bigger vacuum might just need a new belt for the beater bar.

Brought it home, looked at the bottom and the beater bar was indeed not spinning. I could even twirl it by hand it was so loose. So it did need a new belt.

But, I also checked the hose to see how much suction it has. I noticed a whole bunch of hair and fuzz all over the inside of the hose. I followed the hose to the end, pulled it out of the vacuum and saw a huge, scary, grey fuzzy clog. I was afraid the previous owner may have sucked up a dead mouse. I took a pair of chopsticks and pulled out the two inch clog and found a water bottle cap lodged at the bottom of the hose inlet. It was small enough to get sucked up in the hose, yet got wedged behind some fuzzy debris and created a dam, stopping all the rest of the gunk behind it from going through.

I pulled the bottle cap out. It sucks like a dream now, especially with the beater bar belt replaced.

 

[sam_gordon]

I followed the hose to the end, pulled it out of the vacuum and saw a huge, scary, grey fuzzy clog.

My eyes are still waking up and I read "clog" as "dog".

 

[NotUrsula]

What a coincidence; I'm currently on the hunt for the top of an old china cabinet. I plan to turn it into a hall console with a new flat top (oak board I have in the garage already), and some fabric instead of glass in the panels, so I can use part of it as a laundry bin and part of it for shoe storage. I've been sewing for a half-century; I have PLENTY of fabric.

 

[barkley]

What a coincidence; I'm currently on the hunt for the top of an old china cabinet. I plan to turn it into a hall console with a new flat top (oak board I have in the garage already), and some fabric instead of glass in the panels, so I can use part of it as a laundry bin and part of it for shoe storage. I've been sewing for a half-century; I have PLENTY of fabric.

ask at thrift shops and charity stores if the ones they have on the floor with items displayed are actualy for sale b/c they frequently are. the places local to us won't take them anymore b/c they received so many china cabinets during the mass purges during covid so they sell them for next to nothing. if you have a local area 'freecycle' or facebook page you might put a shout-out on it b/c there are plenty of people with them that would offer them up for free just to get them hauled away (often just the top portion b/c they will keep the bottom as a buffett cabinet).