I like to do recycle crafting, which overlaps a bit with some of your ideas.

I use old clothing for most of my small sewing projects. I also modify clothing that would be unwearable for one reason or another. I have one shirt with itchy sleeves. The sleeves are lacey. They rest of the shirt is solid. I plan to make that into a sleeveless shirt.

My weight fluctuates a bit. I have done various things to make clothing small and to make it larger. Right now I am loosing weight. So I will be tweaking some things to make them smaller. This may include modifying back something I once altered to make bigger!

This is more recycling than repurposing, but I found some notebooks at work to recycle. I work in a very large office building. Often when people toss office supplies they put it in a box labeled trash out in the hall. This way other people can claim stuff that is not covered with icky stuff from the regular trash. So today I found a box with a bunch of spiral notebooks. Could someone be tossing a bunch of unused notebook? Well it turned out they were used, but only partially used. This person had an organizing system where each subject had their own notebook. And each month had their own notebook. Most of the notebooks were only 1/3 to 1/4 used. I grabbed a few and tore out the used pages. More notebooks to support my compulsive writing habits! I mean my taking careful, detailed notes.

I have claimed four so far, but may pick up some more throughout the day.

My office is actually pretty good with giving me money for supplies. So I really do not need to this. But my frugal instinct and my recycling instinct just kind of took over.

 

Oh, boy, where to start?

I hate paying a big price for items sold specifically for camping. And I'm great at repurposing. You can guess what happens around here when you put those two facts together.

This is still a work in progress but I'm repurposing a camper cabana meant for an R-Pod which is short with a rounded roof to work with our tall, pointy Aliner. Cost: $180 NIP vs. $800 for retail cabana.

Cat litter pails and a roll of garage sale Contact paper made a great storage system in the camper. Cost: $1.50 for pails and fifty cents for the contact cement.

A scrap of 1x2, some cable ties, and a cup holder meant for scrapbooking makes a great cup holder for our camp recliners. A TV remote holder that drapes over a recliner arm, cut in half and modified, made two handy pockets to hang off an arm of each camp recliner (not shown). Cost: $5 for two cup holders and $1 for TV remote pocket thing.

Odds and ends from the garage left over from other projects and/or items replaced in the house, plus dispensers reused from the motorhome, add a lot of convenient storage in the camper. Cost: About $4 for support chain.

Toaster oven carry case made from sunroof storage case for our defunct Cadillac. Cost: Basically nothing.

Dutch oven cooking table #1, made from a large roaster pan and a folding stainless steel stand I have no idea what to call. Cost: $2 for stand, $1 for roasting pan on the top, $4 for tool clips to hold roasting pan on.

DO table #2, made from camp stools 2/$1 (seats were trashed), more tool clips, and large cookie pan found in garage, total around $10. The little side tool table cost fifty cents.

Former placemat transformed into Crock-Pot storage case for camper. I think I paid $1 for eight of the placemats.

Former insulated lunch bag repurposed to hold three DOs, $3.

Wire baskets and Tupperware box repurposed as pull-outs that make a world of difference in organization and convenience in camper fridge. Cost: $2 for wire baskets from dollar store, T-ware free from SA. Mustard bottles repurposed for condiments because they're a perfect fit in the fridge door, free.

DO table #3. This is the one that actually stays in the camper because it folds to nothing, weighs nothing, and would easily hold over 100 pounds of food and iron. Cost: $3 for camp stool, broiler pan salvaged from local appliance recycling area, $4 for tool clips. It has a carry bag repurposed from canvas that used to be the backer on an old rug, free.

Instead of buying an expensive dog bed for camping, I repurposed a spare cheap bag chair and added sides to it so the dog wouldn't fall out. Cost: Chair, nothing since we had extras, less than twenty cents for ripstop for the side pieces.

Pillar candle holder repurposed to use as a booster seat for the the #5 DOs, since their legs are too short to stack over the top of the lid handles of the larger DOs. Cost: Fifty cents and I wish I could find one more.

I have a million of 'em, but you get the idea.

 

Wow! Amazing. You've nailed it. Everything is great. Re-used mustard containers, wire racks. Very nice.

 

I love notebooks too. Can't get enough of them. And binders. I have a hard time throwing them out. I like crafts and artwork as well and have found that once my friends and family know that too then they buy me art supplies and Michael's gift cards. Do you find that too? I have more than enough sketchbooks, pens, colored pencils and charcoal (I draw mostly but I do have a set of oil and water paints). A nice thing too is that art supplies go a long way. I have 10+ year old colored pencils and micron pens. I may have found a cheap framer too so that will be nice. As of right now, that's my biggest expense, custom framing.

 

I sometimes use cloth instead of matting when I frame stuff. I just stitch a border together and then press the edges nice and straight. Wide ribbon works nicely too.

I found some more repurposes I did for camping.

Not exactly a repurpose, but a modification (mod). When we sold our last canvas pop up after buying the Aliner, we kept the bunk fan/lights that originally clipped to the canvas support poles over the bunks. We knew we'd want to use them somehow in the new camper, but it had no pole to clip to. So I removed the clips on the top and added the chain so they would hang from the bubble window frame. I also converted them to LEDs and added 12v jacks to the ceiling light so the fan/lights could be plugged in. The fans are small but work nicely to circulate air over the beds, and the lights keep us from blinding each other using the ceiling lights.

I added mesh to the fronts of this folding cloth shelf thing to make a hanging cabinet for our canvas pop up. I actually did two of these. It worked out very well for some food storage in the camper. We really tried to like these in the A frame but unfortunately they didn't work out at all.

This former hanging toiletry bag is our camper office. The bottom pocket has our Peterson Field Guides and the other pockets have note pads, pencils, and other assorted officey things.

I repurposed the very first tent we had when we got married almost 41 years ago, a used canvas jobby, and made covers for all the Aliner's cushions.

I got this plastic box at GW for fifty cents, cheap because it had no lid, which I didn't need anyway. Then I cut down some plastic drawer dividers that were in the old camper so they would fit in the plastic box. The box is a perfect fit on the shelf under our sink. Our Aliner had no drawers, so I had to create a 'drawer' for flatware. It's worked out great and so far we haven't pulled it out onto the floor.

I knew this plastic milk crate was the right width, but too long for the space behind the cassette potty. But cut down, it's a perfect fit and works great to hold bug spray and other camping necessities.

 

~I love seeing your projects, Spirit Deer. They are immensely practical and useful ideas, unlike most results you will get in online searches for repurposed projects. It seems most crafty folks out there prefer floofy/gifty/decorative projects. I like things I can use, not just look at or dust around.

Love the the cosmetic bag for the office, BTW. :thumb: I might be able to use that idea in our camper for doggy paraphernalia. ~