Lookalikes: objects repurposed around the house
 

What weird, funny, useful, even good looking things have you re-purposed around the house?

Needing a junkier belt for my work clothes and having a used timing belt laying around from my recent work on the car... I bring you a "lookalikes" special... a (timing) belt.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1408514433

Works nicely
:D

I bolted my jeans together at the button when it broke (defective riveting job from the factory). Just had to shimmy shimmy in and outta them like a girl.

Got tired of that loooong stretch to reach the lamp switch on the nightstand, disturbing the cat and my comfort. It has a rotary switch so I found a 8" length of light and flexy silicone rubber tubing and pressed that onto the switch for the neatest extension ever. It doesn't even look bachelor; it's totally concealed beneath the shade.

I like to run a fan about two feet away from my head in order to sleep; some of it is for the breeze but much of it is to mask the noise of the passing ****tards. :mad: Regular table fans just don't come small enough or go slow enough so I wired up a circulation fan from a scrapyard refrigerator (about 4" dia. blades). It's gotta draw a lot less than a table fan and it has the right amount of breeze and white noise.

Those perforated scoops they sell for cleaning cat boxes... I wonder if the dumb S.O.B.s that designed them ever actually used one??? :mad: Because sure, you can sift out the #2 with it, but it won't help you get one granule of #1 soaked litter. :rolleyes: So I also have a plastic child's beach shovel from the Dollar Store without a handle and it works just perfect! :thumbup:

None of my cars have cupholders big enough to handle my favorite ginormous mugs. The result was constant vigilance and/or constant spilling. I found a thin plastic potted plant holder- like they use at the store- that fits my mugs perfectly! :eek: It's an 8-holer; also good for tossing sunglasses, pens, water bottles, and you name it into. I place it in the car wherever necessary; usually on the passenger seat but if that's used it can go on the floor or on the back seat or even in the trunk. Man, I love that hack.

I put a digital wristwatch on the rear view mirror for a good clock.

I put a piece of very thin and light yet extremely tough plastic from a pallet slip sheet in my trunk. I cut it such that it covers the floor and extends up the sides a bit. It actually contains liquid spills to a high degree. I can put really filthy smelly things into the trunk and so easily clean it with a damp rag. No more hard to clean stinky sticky soaked carpets! :)

Seems ironic that the buckle would have the opposite effect of a "mechanics belt"

Our yellow lab is crazy and has separation anxiety issues, so we have to crate him when we're out. Fitting a large dog crate into the living room wasn't working, so I cut some MDF down to not much larger than the crate, used 2" strips of it to build a box under the sheet, laquered it all up and dropped it on top of the crate. Instant end table by the couch!

I'm also quite proud of my front yard container garden that I made out of 42 used 5 gallon buckets.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1408547326

I took an old electric water heater and old chest freezer and made a solar water preheater . The tank is good so I mounted it horizontally in the freezer, covered it with a sheet of lexan after removing the freezer lid, and ran the cold water in to it and the preheated water from it into my regular gas water heater. This has saved me at least $15.00 a month on the gas bill and works great for a very small investment. It still works after 10 years with minimum maintenance.

Who never did it at some extent? Right now I'm using a car plate as an incense stick holder.

Washing machine door = fruit bowl.

Door + two speakers = desk

I love the huge workspace, and it's easy to take apart for moving.

Two old, large windows, lots of leftover soup and veggie cans, 2 cans black BBQ paint, scrap ply nailed into boxes and leftover 1.5" PVC=2 Solar air heater units, one for each side of the house in winter.

Two pallets worth of oak (literally reclaimed by disassembling the pallets) +one old bus window for a viewing hole= 1) Solar powered Food dehydrator with one Window unit hooked to it and 2) Solar Powered Pizza Oven/Slow Roaster with two units hooked in. So free cooking in Summer/Fall and free heat for the house in Winter/Spring...

Couldn't use them one I moved to the Travel Trailer this year though, so the couple who own my old home got them thrown in for free. I got an e-mail from him last month asking if i'd ever used the Slow Oven to cure clay pots-no idea if it will work, but he's going to give it a shot...

self watering containers
 

Are they self watering containers, and where did you find the buckets?