Several weeks back, my son came to me and was complaining because his books on his dresser kept falling over. He wanted me to buy him some bookends to help hold the books up. So I started looking around at the prices for some that would match his room. Ha! The prices were outrageous for anything that was made for a child, and honestly even grown up style bookends are pretty crazy.
I found a few cheaper ones, but they weren’t very heavy and would not have held his heavy science related books as well as his enormous collection of dragon hardbacks, that he enjoys.
I even thought about using bricks, but have you ever introduced a twelve year old boy to a brick? I can only imagine the creative uses he could have found for that brick…maybe a whole new article!
So what did I do about it? I decided against the bricks and I turned to my frugal ways.
Since we are still getting our house ready to put on the market, we have moved a lot of items down to the basement. So, I started combing my basement for items that were more than likely on their way out and into the trash anyway. I also looked in some of the boxes we had already started to see what options I had there.
Here is a great list of some items that I found and tried to see if they could make perfect bookends. These can be adapted to fit various rooms in your home.
- Jars filled with marbles or colored sand for weight.
- Flower pots filled with marbles or rocks for weight.
- Child’s piggy bank filled with change for weight.
- Books laying flat and stacked.
- Baskets filled with various items, perhaps as storage.
- Stuffed Animals or dolls wedged just right can hold up a small stack of books.
- Large Mugs or Steins can be filled with change or marbles and used to hold up a fairly large stack of paperbacks.
While I am sure there are dozens of other things you can use, I am hoping these provide you with some great general ideas.
If you know of any other items that make great bookends, please share!
Have a great weekend and I will see you again on Monday!
Related Articles:
Reusing What You Have – Baby Stuff
Reusing What You Have – Dresser Drawers
Reusing What You Have – Baby Cradles