One of the things about being choosy nerds and buying slightly higher-end items — pens, watches, lighters, lightsabers — is that they tend to come in very nice cases. This always seems like such a nice thing when we buy them, and it gives us that moment of “ooh shiny” that is so delightful and endorphin-releasing.
The problem is, if the packaging is too nice, we have no idea what to do with them. I mean, you can’t throw them out! They’re much too nice for that! But… then… what do you do with them to justify having piles of boxes everywhere?
I’ve got a pile of Fossil boxen all over the place. When you buy one of their watches, they give you a very nice case to go with it. But then you get home, put on the watch, and realize that this little case that’s perfect for a watch… is useless when the watch is on your arm where it belongs.
Or is it? How do you repurpose beautiful packaging materials? What uses have you found for them?
I bought my son a pair of Beavis and Butt-Head boxers. The tin they came in is an excellent way to hide the unsightly spare toll of TP.
<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6731907615_8a1da2e9a6_m.jpg" width="500">
Good thinking. Hide that unsightly roll of toilet paper in something that is designed to look like a roll of toilet paper.
I'm saving up for one of these to hide my toaster.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/meekssandygirl/toaster.jpg" width="500">
Image courtesy of http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=31…
Butt-head: I'm gonna get a tattoo of a butt!
Beavis: Oh yeah, well I'm gonna get a tattoo of a butt, on my butt!
Butt-head: Oh yeah, well I'm gonna get a tattoo of a butt that has a butt-shaped tattoo on it. And I'm gonna get it right on my butt!
Beavis: Yeah, me too!
Picture here. Somewhat NSFW for being man ass. http://fyeahtattoos.com/post/455119328/im-gonna-t…
I do have several hundred 35mm film canisters that I have been trying to find a good use for for about 15 years. Any ideas?
It drives my wife crazy that I save the little plastic tubs the lunch meat comes in, but I do use those in the basement for hardware and on the reloading bench.
Well, since you have reloading hardware & film canisters…
Way back in high school, a friend & I filled a 35mm canister about half full of gun powder, stripped the ends of a piece of lamp cord, and shut them in the lid. The other end plugged into an extension cord that we ran across the street from the park to his house.
The noise made after we found the outside outlet led to the fastest winding of a 100' extension cord ever witnessed by man, and our rapid retirement to the basement to play Atari for several hours.
Good memories were had by all!
Don't know if you play many board games, but I've found that film canisters are excellent for storing and organizing the various small pieces that come with nice Euro-style board games. Special bonus – the number tokens from Settles of Catan fit perfectly in the canisters.
+1 for Settlers!
Once we watched a friend's 1-ish year old daughter. When we pulled out her snack, it appeared to be in a Hillshire Farms plastic tub. Upon closer inspection I discovered it was in fact some sort of fancy dog food container, like this:
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41soKqFRPtL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="400">
I come from a family that washes Ziplock bags and re-uses them for years, but that is just a bit to far on the re-purposing.
I use my 35mm cans for quarter storage. It worked great for all the years I lived in apartments with communal coin-fed laundry. I still use them occasionally for self-serve car washes, it's easier to handle than a roll of quarters there.
I'm not sure which item you mean. Are you talking about the container that the film itself spools from in the camera or are you talking about the plastic one with the snap-on lid that the film roll was packaged in? Of course, if you're old enough you remember when these canisters were metal with screw-on lids.
We always used the plastic canisters for anything small that needed waterproofing. Matches will stay perfectly dry in these for starting campfires. You can even glue a piece of sandpaper on the lid for use as a striking surface. They're also great for storing spools of thread and sewing needles for emergency repairs. Your wife could use them for jewelry storage when going on overnight trips as it would hold most stud-type earrings and necklaces too. My wife suggests using them for carrying OTC medications (antacids or aspirin) or vitamins when you're going somewhere and you don't want to take the larger original packaging. It's amazing how many Tums will actually fit in these things; handy for your briefcase, satchel, purse, or lunchbox.
Disposable, one-shot (pun intended) silencers?
Pity me I've got the 35mm, the 120 and all these Minox
tins and plastic containers as well!
The Chinese joint across the street sells soup
in 32oz containers I use those for tea & coffee grounds
for the compost, screw storage, impromptu funnels, mix
ing epoxy & resins,etc. And they hold food, too.
Make a guitar from your old packaging materials.
Cigar Boxes:
<img src="http://reddogguitars.com/sitebuilder/images/34-398×289.jpg"/>
Altoids Tins
<img src="http://www.instructables.com/image/FEKFI4MFDTDOCEJ/Altoids-Tin-Guitar.jpg" width=500 />
[youtube AHUHwDwbujI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHUHwDwbujI&feature=related youtube]
[youtube WhwbxEfy7fg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhwbxEfy7fg youtube]
This will seem like trolling,but that is not my intention.
Are those all your watch boxes?
Are you hoarding watches?
Do you see some future use for more than one watch?
Do you have a polarization problem that overcomes your watch?
Enquiring minds need input.
The lead photo reminds me of my wife's original intention for her lunchbox collection , which was to fasten them to the kitchen wall and use them as storage for smallish things like spices and sauces and such and free up some valuable cabinet space in a funky cool way. We eventually decided against it, but amassed enough for her to carry a different lunchbox to work everyday for a couple of weeks (some of which I showed off in one of the scavenger hunts), which reminds me..Why no more Scavenger Hunts?
There was only one entry in the last scavenger hunt, so they gave up.
I never even got to use my power line insulators. (I mean, for anything, ever)
I used to have a couple of those. They're good for paperweights and occasionally doorstops. Or you could use them to insulate power lines.
I'd have played in the last 2 hunts, but I was out of town for one and didn't have any of the things for the next one.
You mean like this?:
<img src="http://www.ahts.org.au/images/ndArt1/cd_422-200×302.jpg">
Those are an interesting and sane thing to have, I have these instead:
<img src="http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/376994374/Disc_insulator_disc_suspension_insulator_string_disc.jpg" width=500>
They're probably about 25 kilos each. Obtained* during an ill-advised trip up a decommissioned logging rode in a lowered Cavalier. The poles along it had been chainsawed down and hauled off, but they left the insulators.
*There was totally a guy standing there who said "you can have these nobody cares", and I'm not just making this part up as an 'this story may contain some translegal escapades' joke.
Yes, I was referring to the thing in the first pic. The second: I dunno what you do with those.
If you had actually climbed a pole and filtched that off a live power line, it would be pretty impressive that you are still able to talk about it. Or type about it. Or breathe.
As to the first one, put an LED underneath,
glue some fiddly bits to it, and call it an
"Dalek xmas decoration"……
The second one, hook to a pole in a pan,
fit a aquarium pump and some water- waalaa!
Instant meditation waterfall!
Or make one hellova windchime.
What time is it?
Jus-ti-fy? I don't know that one.
Remember when computer games used to come in big dictionary-sized boxes? I've got a huge pile of those. For no reason.
I guess I could come up with some sort of weird filing system. Medical paperwork goes in the Max Payne box, power bills go in the Duke Nukem box, credit card stuff goes in the Unreal box, tax stuff goes in the Thief box. That would work.
I have like forty Altoids tins at my work I can't bring myself to throw out, but I have no idea what to do with them. If I get up to 200, I'm building a suit of armor.
Back in the day I'm sure everyone remembers when AOL used to send out CDs like they were penny candy to get folks to sign up for Internet service. Making lamps seemed to be the most popular thing to do with them. This fellow in the UK made an interesting variation on the "traditional" lamp shape. Be sure to click on the Nighttime View button for full effect.
http://neil.fraser.name/hardware/lamp/
I've kinda always gone with that old Edison saw
about having inspiration and a pile of junk.
As I look at an item,I try to dismiss it's
original name/function and look at it
thusly: what's it made of? What are its
properties? Dimensions? etc.
Look at its possibilities- what can it be?