Unique Ways To Reuse 13 Old Household Items In Your Garden Instead Of Tossing Them

Most of us aren't particularly good at reusing things we already own, but we're getting pretty good at buying things at dollar or thrift stores and using them for something other than their intended purpose. Try shopping for these upcycling opportunities in your own closets and cupboards, where you'll find a rewarding bounty of objects you can rescue from the waste stream. 

It can be a little tricky to reuse things in the garden, of course, since some of your finest finds won't be weatherproof. But, take heart: When it comes to upcycling, the rules are a little different. True, wood furniture and doors won't last forever outside. But, they will usually last a few years, and will often look increasingly vintage or shabby-chic as they age. On the other hand, some things like old garden hoses are so durable that they'll take millennia to break down in a landfill. If you can rescue them for some practical use, you'll be meaningfully reducing (or at least postponing) waste and gifting yourself with a super-durable whatever-it-is that you create. 

Every garden has, at some point, had a plastic jug watering can or two. You know, a milk jug with a bunch of holes poked in the cap. But, that's not the only garden DIY project you can do with a milk jug. With a little care, you can use the handle and a select bit of the jug and craft yourself an on-the-fly garden hand shovel (sometimes also called a hand trowel). The trick to making this work is to select a jug made of stiff plastic.

If a plastic jug watering can seems a little gauche for your delicate houseplants, consider the wine bottle plant feeder. Just drill a hole in the screw-off cap of a wine bottle, fill it with water, and upend it in your potted plant. It should keep your potting soil moist until you return, unless your house sitter looks at all the upside-down wine bottles shoved into plant pots and decides to clean up a bit after what must have been quite the party.

Rain gutter gardens are a great DIY project, and a spare section of rain gutter can make a stylish, shallow bed for salad greens, strawberries, and any other plants that don't have deep root systems. For the best look, track down some old galvanized gutters, but you can certainly use newer vinyl, aluminum, or steel ones. The newer gutters (as well as the tubing used for downspouts) are also useful for building hydroponic rail systems.

Everyone loves windchimes, at least until the kids discover them. Windchimes have many uses, from keeping critters out of your garden to somewhat less material purposes. The classic windchime is a melodic affair of thin rods or hollow tubes striking a central clapper, but pretty much anything that creates a tinkling sound counts as long as someone finds it pleasing. Half of the fun of this upcycling project is collecting all the attractive metal pieces and figuring out how to combine them for the most pleasing visual and aural experience.

This bit of recycling is a lot of work to create, and it will probably be quite a lot of work to keep clean. But even if it turns out to take three times as long as you expect, it will totally be worth it. Colored glass bottles (you can also use other forms of glass, as long as they are smooth and won't pose a scrape hazard) are buried upside down along a garden path, with their bottoms making the pavers. The magic is supplied by any natural or artificial light source, which gets deflected and beautifully glowy, day or night.

This smart reuse is something you need, created with something you have, and very few people have thought of it before. Compost is often full of sticks and twigs and other oversized bits that will terrorize your rake and trowel for the whole growing season if you can't find a way to sift them out before you add them to the garden. Just use an old laundry basket, a bit of shaking, and voila! Sifted compost.

Those over-the-door shoe organizers have a number of surprising uses. For this one, poke some holes in the bottom of each compartment with an awl, fill it with potting soil, and get some seedlings going. It takes up practically no space and makes good use of those shoe organizers, which seemed to be used mostly for almost anything besides organizing shoes. Just make sure your organizer is made from plastic or a poly fiber that won't deteriorate too quickly in all the water you're about to douse it with daily.

There might be more colanders than actual humans in the United States, and half of those are surely used by gardeners for collecting, rinsing, and drying their veggie bounty. Let one take a walk on the pre-harvest side by turning it into a hanging basket complete with plenty of built-in drainage. Attach some chains or ropes to the edges, pop in some potting soil and a trailing or vining plant of some sort, and you have an attractive hanging basket that'll disappear from view entirely if it does its job well ... and it will.

There are many, many upcycling tips oriented toward making some use of garden tools in disrepair. These old friends, having been left in the elements one year too many or simply allowed to retire after long and wearing service, can take up a new post in your garden with a little thought. Perhaps the most useful is the bow rake head, which has the natural shape and temperament to hold other tools in your garden shed. Use a second one in your entryway to hold everyone's keyrings.

It's not every day that you find a way to use a cake stand in your garden, as they have a perfectly noble and necessary duty to perform in the kitchen, but they do occasionally proliferate after a family reunion or the like, and you can use them in the garden as bird feeders or as pollinator drinking stations. Feed birds during the lean winter months and water pollinators during the growing season by scattering seed or leaving some water on the surface, in an attached dish or tray. Add a few rocks in case you're not there for an emergency pollinator rescue.

If you've left a laminated door in the weather for a season or two, you probably know that they can disintegrate into a heap of slush in no time. But, an old solid wood door can be rather durable and thus make quite the statement if used in your garden with a bit of flair. Hang an old painted door on a brick wall for the illusion of a weathered portal to more wonders beyond. Or turn two old doors into the front of a garden tools cabinet.

Back to the practical for a moment. Ice cube trays might not be useful if you have an ice maker built into your fridge. So, if you have ice trays lying around catching dust, have them catch some seed-starting mix instead. Use the little compartments for individual seedlings, or slightly larger ones to house small succulents. You're probably going to want to drill or pierce small holes in the bottoms of the compartments for drainage.

Usually we think of "old household items" as things you might choose to discard if you can't upcycle them, but this brilliant idea makes use of your actual recycling, which you certainly will send to the bins otherwise. Somehow, a classic scarecrow transmutes junk into charm in the same way that a snowman turns organic waste into children's joy. CDs for eyes, a tin can nose, and a wardrobe of flannel, cargo shorts, and a t-shirt that says "Best actuarial office support specialist, 2004" will turn your recycling into the greatest scarecrow of all time.