Products With Other Uses

Thinking Out of the Product Box

-We often find ourselves needing products that do not exist or cost much more than your willing to pay. I like to find new uses for different products I find or like, but really have no use for the way they are. I love resale shops and junk yards to get my imagination rolling. I never find anything I can produce in quantity there, but I can create something for myself or retain the idea to see what I’d need to make what I envision.

That’s how I came up with my idea for the Beta-Orb. I kept finding clear glass globes, usually from leaking rose globes, at garage sales and resale shops and thought there must be some kind of use for these. My first creation had a macrame hanger for it, with vines in that jelly like alternative to soil. It worked quite well actually, for starting roots on clippings that I’d take from my plants. Then, when we got a betta fish, the cats kept getting into the water or kept knocking it off the counter, so I had to come up with a safe environment for the fish. I had some old chain from a light that broke, so I made a wire harness to go around the rim of the globe. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. I kept making improvements and soon I had a product I liked very much. I’d like to use bigger globes, but it drives the price too high, unless I used plastic and I refuse to do that, for several reasons.

There are all kinds of products that are already being manufactured that serve a variety of purposes. Like the shower caps I mentioned in my Useful Kitchen Items Not Meant for the Kitchen post. I love turning old useless things into something useful and finding new uses for common products. Each of these posts will contain at least 3-5 ideas you may find useful.

Products With Other Useful Uses

1. Ceramic Teapot ( spouted from bottom of the pot ) 

This item can be used for a couple different uses, besides, home decor or tea. One is as an orchid planter. It allows you to easily drain off excess water after watering. The roots can get plenty of air and they won’t rot out.

The other use is as a fat separator if you don’t currently have one. Pour your drippings for gravy or sauces into the pot and the fat will rise to the top. As you poor from the spout that is spouted at the bottom of the pot, you will only get fat free liquid, until the fat on top of the liquid reaches the spout.

Tall ceramic coffee pots work nicely as a decorative watering pot for your household plants. A pretty way to keep water handy to give your plants a quick, room temperature, drink or add fertilizer for feeding. The spout allows you to feed close to the soil, so the fertilized water stays off the leaves. Keep away from pets and children.

I saw the coolest chandelier made from a teapot as the center and then the tall tea cups and saucers were upside down, with the lights inside them. Very unique, I may have to try that one some time. I think I’d put a white globe below the teapot, with a bright light in it and have my cups and saucers upright with low watt bulbs in them, for mood lighting.

2. Large Television/ Entertainment Centers

I didn’t have a closet by my door and hated having to walk down the hall to hang up our coats or jackets. Living in Michigan, we always have hats scarves and gloves to tend with as well. I liked using my hall closet for games and storage, so I needed a closet, but couldn’t afford to build one yet. I had just the place for a large entertainment center. One with doors and lower drawers is perfect to turn into a closet or wardrobe, you can place anywhere you have room. When using a product for what it is meant to be used for, you’ll pay a much higher price if it’s still useful. An entertainment center is so much less expensive than a wardrobe and can inexpensively be transformed into one. I love the drawers for storing seasonal weather items, like, gloves, flip flops, umbrellas, hats, scarves, fanny packs and so on. You may have to put a little work into it, but you can find them used, in excellent condition at many resale shops, pretty cheap. If I had the space, I’d be buying them up to transform and resell on craigslist or some other local selling platform.

Take lower shelf inside for VCR and move it to the top then mount a closet rod under the shelf. You may need a new board for the back if there are big openings in it for the back of the TV and or cables, but it’s very easy to tack a new one on. If you choose to have no shelf or leave it low for shoe storage, you can mount a small light in the top to better see your items hanging there.

Some other uses I’ve seen for these are, kitchen cabinets for tiny homes with sink and stove top integrated into the unit. A use for the lower profile ones, are child size play kitchens. These require ones with a tall section on one end, to transform into the refrigerator. It should have two lower cabinet doors rather than drawers you can use for an oven door and one as a cabinet for storage. Here is the link to pinterest examples for this project. Do not use ones with drawers for this project, it presents a possible danger of tipping over if child pulls them out and stands on it. Be sure to test for safety before allowing your child to play with it.

You can also make a nice bar or even a china cabinet out of these products. Cut them down and put a new top on for a useful coffee table. Put a long cushion on top for a nice bench with storage space. Now that televisions are slim and can be mounted on the wall, many people find that their rather expensive entertainment center is no longer useful for what the products were intended for. It may have another use, with a bit of modification. Do you have a need for something that one of these units could be used to make products you can use?

3. Wooden Headboards

I had a nice maple headboard that I no longer had a bed for and it needed repairs where the rails went into the posts. I hated to throw it away, so I cut the posts off, removed the spindles and used the wood to make a nice shelf with hooks to hang things on by the door. I used the large scalloped edge top for my shelf and attached the narrower straight board below, flush with edges for my hook mounts. All I needed were some hooks, something to touch up my ends that I cut from the posts and a few screws. I still have a piece of my childhood, it’s just a nice shelf, not a headboard any more.

Here is a great website with examples of reusing headboards and they are really great ideas. Beware though, this site contains a lot of advertising, be careful what you click on. The benches are very creative, I must admit I may have done that, if my headboard was high enough on the post and the one post wasn’t all tore up, to spur the thought myself. Some of those benches would be nicer with some custom made cushions that you could attach by drilling some holes to pull the ties through or tuft them with big buttons.

4. Wall Mount Glass Soap Dish

These products make good ash trays for in the bathroom if they have deep removable dishes. You can also mount one by your door with the No Smoking sign. Just put a little cat litter or sand in it and it’s a great place to put the butt, instead of flicking it into the yard before your guest walks into the house.