Vanity drawers get new life.

I hate throwing things away that I know could be used for something else. I save breadties, I bag up plastic bags for the food pantry, I save all kinds of containers...I think I'm a little bit of a hoarder. I feel that, if there is another use for something, why not go ahead and reuse it. Yeah, usually the reused item isn't as polished or as manicured as its original purpose, but it does save resources and much of the time...not always, it saves us money.

This past month, my wife and I had our upstairs bathroom redone. It was a total gut, down to the lathe and the joists. I tried reusing or saving as many of the items that were ripped out as I could. The shower stall was reused, the toilet was reused, I saved the old shower doors, medicine cabinet and the vanity top and am still looking for a use for those.

One of the things I saved was the old drawers from the vanity. I didn't have anything specific in mind to do with them, but I saved them nonetheless. Well, the other day, I found my reuse for them. I decided to build a shelf for my son's room. Here are some before and after pictures of what my 4-year-old and I did with them...

Using the drawers as puzzle pieces, I manuevered them until I liked the way the shelf was going to look.

I then used the old drawer handles as my fasteners. I did have to do some extra drilling and nipping for the bolts, but really I tried to reuse even the same predrilled holes from before.

Once I had the pieces mounted and fastened the way I wanted them, I gave everything one last tighten.  I then went to the local Tops Hardware store and bought a can of spray on primer.  I also bought a can of black spray paint, but once I got the primer applied, I kind of liked the way it looked, so I just left it.  Here was my finished product.

So, now we've got a shelving unit, made from reused materials and one can of spray paint.  The total time involved was about 3 hours combined, and the total cost was about $1.98 for the spray paint. Now, my son can put his hotwheels, puzzle boxes, or whatever he wishes on it. I can take, too, comfort in knowing that the hard work put into those drawers 15 years ago can be reused for another 15.