Great Hunt: Breathing new life into otherwise worthless items for use around the home

Girlygeek

Made some great gift boxes from cereal boxes using the instructions at instructables.com search for "Gift Box from a Cereal Box"

beyondhelp?

we had an old settee with wooden base and leather seat. the leather had worn out and so it was time to go. The back of the settee made a lovely new bath panel though.

Paully232000

I use our old bathroom cabinet in the garage as a shelving unit.
Perfect for jars of screws and screwdrivers and other small tools which would otherwise be, no doubt, on the garage floor and when i need them will take longer than the DIY job to find them.

Cochonette

Whenever we decide a piece of furniture (wardrobe, shelves etc) has seen better days, we dismantle it and use the largest bits for boarding over the loft.

lesbro

My husband collects vinyl records in preference to cds but often has duplicates that he no longer requires. I used some to make a cake display buying the center supports on Ebay. Reinforcing with cds under the LPs helps. My niece was so impressed with them at her hen party.:j

kippygolf

Greeting card fronts/Postcards/Old calendars

I keep the fronts of nice greetings or Christmas cards and postcards, etc., then use them to cover the brand and labels on shoe boxes and their lids, for storing stationery, sewing bits, or anything else small. Or use the boxes without lids as dividers in drawers. I also do this with any posh carrier bags I get, to re-use as gift bags.

kippygolf

Unwanted carpet/Underlay

Is popular with local allotment holders, good for suppressing weeds. Offer it on Freecycle or a similar website covering your town.

tetra_2

Similar to Kippygolf, I use old rolls of wallpaper to cover large boxes, or small ones come to that, to store bits and bobs in. I do a lot of sewing too and have wallpaper-covered shoeboxes with a fabric colour swatch on the front to store "things of that colour" inside - ribbons, tapes, threads... works for me!

rosie383

Empty tupperware tubs which have lost their lids are used to hold extra bits for the wii on the tv console shelf. Another is on the shelf with clips and scrunchies along with detangle spray and hairbrush.
Off-cuts of wallpaper cut to size and used on top of kitchen cupboards to save having to scrub all the greasiness off during a springclean.

kathrynha

Our old kitchen units are now storage units in our shed.
Old vinyl records melt in the oven over a pyrex bowl, and they make nice retro fruit bowls.
Old cutlery holder now holds craft equipment.
Old broken plates I line the bottom of garden tubs with.
Old pallets from husbands work have now become the fence and gate around our front garden.
My old roasting tin has become part of a mini alter fire for my Guides
Any offcut wood goes in a large pile till Guide camp, when it becomes our cooking fuel