My friends and family think I’m funny when I go to garage sales.
My purchases often include things in which they feel might be pointless. For instance, one acquisition was an old wooden baby cradle. It was not in the best shape, and my goodness I am certainly not having any more babies. So what was it for?
I thought it would make a great storage “container” of sorts. In fact, I thought it would
look really pretty if it was refinished and painted. I sanded the scratches out of it, and then went ahead and painted it. It turned out beautifully, and I even reconsidered actually using it. In fact, I kept wondering if any of my friends would wind up having a baby so I could give it to them to use. However, that is not likely, so I of course, decided to keep it, which was my original plan.
I love to reuse items, or find new uses for items that might not have been designed for what they are used for.
Magazines and Books
In my family room, I needed a place to corral all the magazines we subscribe to.
As a family of seven, with a broad variety of interests, we just had a lot and we needed easy access to them. The cradle was the perfect alternative to our dilemma. The interior of the cradle was just wide enough to hold some of the wider magazines and they stand up nicely
and are very easy to flip through. Periodically, we just go through and pull out the outdated ones, and add any new magazines.
Firewood
Another great use I found for the baby cradle came unexpectedly. In the middle of packing up our house to get it on the market, we had emptied out all the magazines and packed what we wanted and tossed the rest. The cradle sat empty next to the fireplace. One day as I was cleaning, I tossed the extra firewood into the cradle to get it out of the way. I never put it back. I love the way it looks. The only thing I would change about it, is the fact that I painted it, and it would look better and more rustic if I had left it natural wood.
I am on the lookout for another so we can have two. I hope these gave you some new and innovative ways to use your old baby cradles or even bassinets. Don’t forget, a baby cradle is nice for a child to play with as well. They can put their baby dolls in there and gently rock them to sleep or use them to store toys.
Can you think of other ways you can reuse a baby cradle? Or are there any other inexpensive ways to fix one up? Please feel free to share!!
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Reusing What You Have – Baby Cradles