alfreda89 | What have you repurposed?

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What have you repurposed?

As I unwrap things from my life, finding new places for them in the new apartment, I find myself holding a tiny (maybe 3" across) round saucer with etched dragonflies all over the bottom side of the saucer. When my parents contracted their living, and the three floor house became a one-story place, a lot of things my parents possessed left with my sisters and me. We alternated choosing first, and one of my choices was a small stack of these (I think 6, but I've only unwrapped 4 so far).

My sis the middle kid looked at me and said: "What will you use those for?"
"To set by places to hold individual tea bags," was my reply.
Mom looked pleased. "Those were individual ashtrays to put at each seat at the dining table."

They may be a tad small for teabags, but I enjoy using them that way. What have you found, in family or out, that has a new life with you -- a life far from its original use?

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hrmmm... I have the old china cabinet that my parents had in the dining room while I was growing up -- the buffet is now a combination china holder/room divider, while the breakfront is across the room acting as an impromptu bar/display case, but I'm not sure that's technically repurposing so much as multi-purposing, since it was originally created to serve some of those purposes...

The 7-drawer dresser now holds author copies rather than clothing (I just don't have that many sweaters!) and my dad's old student desk was pressed into service as an additional work surface in the kitchen (it will soon to to its new home in my sister's place, where she will use it for god knows what... we buy solid furniture and pass it down and around, you may have noticed)

other than that, I have a dozen pottery and glass bowls that serve a dozen different uses not relating to food -- they hold receipts, change, hair clips, business cards, and filled with salt they double as votive holders....

We are the same. None of my parents' furniture went to charity -- I even passed along an old purple settee to a friend, because we had no good place for it when the Ex and I moved to the Hill Country. I could use it now, of course, but will not ask for it back.

I wasn't kidding when I said I could outfit a new place in Indiana with stuff from the sisters' basements. It's GOOD stuff -- not just stuff, so no false feeling of poverty can bother me in my bad moments.

(it will soon to to its new home in my sister's place, where she will use it for god knows what... we buy solid furniture and pass it down and around, you may have noticed)

That is a great question. And one for which I have no answer. I cannot think of a single thing.

I do have a set of metal (steel? tin? don't know) coffee mugs that are painted different colors that I snatched from the real Cabin 77. They are waiting for the day when we can acquire our own cabin getaway. Same with my grandmother's old hanging spice rack.

I'll have to think on this more. Fun question!

I keep an eye out for puzzles, but again, I haven't turned them into wall pictures -- they're just waiting for a trip to the cabin.

My (*shame!*) unused gym bag now holds my hats, scarves and gloves out of season.

A leopard-print tapestry travel bag, a gift and so not me, holds some of my yarn stash.

A small metal popcorn canister (from the boy scouts, it think iot was caramel?) has become my dresser-top trash can (for cotton swabs, tissues, cotton balls and the like).

My ex-boyfriend from college now plays the part of my very-bestest-friend. :D

I do that with bags, too -- one of my Whole Foods bags holds my tubes of paint, another gimmee bag (freebie totes that were handed out like gimmee caps) holds my embroidery (sadly neglected since I moved to Texas. The wool makes my hands sweat and break out. Not sure if it was the heat or my psyche telling me I didn't have time to do crewel...)

Well, there's a reindeer Christmas ornament that is living the life of a sheep-chicken car air freshener!

And a brilliant re-purposing it was!

(This is an inside joke -- One year I found some fired clay ornaments, very primitive, that I attached sisal cord to and gave as small holiday gifts to my friends. I'd never seen incandragon set up for the holidays, in fact was not sure she had spiritual leanings for the season, so she got what I suspected was supposed to be the reindeer. Made by someone in Spain who had never seen a reindeer? At any rate, she has enjoyed it, which was the idea.

I've been thinking about it, and I have no memory of your asking me your spirituality questions...just talking about it indirectly when you asked someone else. Did we ever do that?

If I could just dump all the bad memories into the "stolen" pile and keep the good ones....

Hmm. I'm curious. What spirituality questions did you hear me ask someone else? And who?

I think it was four (maybe you had added a fifth) that you like to ask people when you think they will become friends. You may have asked W -- at a party at your home?

I repurpose things all the time. A pretty wooden tray I originally bought to display loose beads for sale turned out to be too large for the purpose, and now sits on my credenza corralling my office supplies. Some nicely-shaped plastic jars that originally held chocolate-covered ginger bites are being used for various odds and ends all around the house. Not to mention various plastic milk crates being pressed into service as impromptu stacking bookshelves...

Good idea, the milk crates. Just on the ends, or are they a solid wall that provide slight category sorting?

I keep cotton balls in the bathroom in a heavy glass candy dish with a lid. It's probably LEAD glass, now that I think about it. But it works really well for my purposes. :-)

My father (who is getting rid of things) recently gave me a chair he bought in England decades ago. It's not Chippendale but in that vein. It's a little fragile so it has become the holder for my ballad harp, whose stand broke to bits years ago. They look nice together by the fire, and they protect each other (the chair protects the harp from lying on the floor, and the harp protects the chair from large guests who would like to sit in it).

That's a good idea, about the chair and the harp. My harp was purchased before the builder put feet on them -- I could remove her bottom and send it for feet, but I just used it with low chairs. Her previous chair was eaten in storage by chlorine gas, so now that I will be able to play her, I have to work my way through what to sit on when playing. I hesitate to remove the feet, and driving to the maker is not possible, right now at least --

Grandma's oval bedroom vanity mirror, outlined in shells, is now a flat bathroom candlescape with more shells and river rocks.

Her chest of drawers is my crafting stockpile.

A tiny Easter basket holds my Q-Tips.

I use Mom's chicken skewers as coffee-stirrers.

Several things, mostly kitchen items, have been relegated to "decor". Including my crossbow.

And my whole house, which had been repurposed as a storage unit with a bed, is now being repurposed again to be a house fit to be sold. Yea! :>

Excellent! I know most people are hoping just to pay off the mortgage, but I will cross virtual fingers for you to get a tiny bit of profit, too.

Are we going to do a curb appeal attack on it? If it's not a hot day, I can find time to help. I've been warned don't do wallpaper, my one tip from a realtor I leap to offer.

I have a formerly horizontal French baroque style mirror from my girlhood furniture, that will be leaned against a corner to be a full-length mirror. I hope.

And my whole house, which had been repurposed as a storage unit with a bed, is now being repurposed again to be a house fit to be sold. Yea! :>

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What have you repurposed?

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You are not alone --

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LOL!

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Re: LOL!

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