Tuesday, July 6, 2010

10 Ways To Reuse It: Phone Books


Do phone books stack up at your house? My old one hasn't even been used much before I get another one left on my doorstep. Pretty soon my desk drawer is full of old phone books that we've just shoved in there. Here are some amazing and crafty ideas to turn these giant wastes-of-paper into some pretty useful stuff.

  1. Make a Book Safe. Cut out a square of pages in the middle of the book under the cover and you now have a secret hidey hole.
  2. Shipping. I regularly sell stuff on e-bay. Phone book pages are great packing material because they are thin and the pages crinkle up really well.
  3. Booster Seat. Duct tape a few phone books together and you've got a FREE booster seat for that kiddo that doesn't quite reach the table. If you want to, you could sew a cover and wrap the books in quilt batting first for a little extra padding and decoration.
  4. Make Seed Pots. I've done this with newspaper but phone book pages work just as well. Go HERE for directions.
  5. Unique Gift Bows. Use THESE instructions and make yellow (or white) gift bows for your packages.
  6. Coffee Table. Wow, wouldn't THIS be a conversation piece. This is a really neat looking table.
  7. Occupy Bored Kids. Just how many paper airplanes or origami animals can your kids make with the hundreds of pages in a phone book? We're talking hours of quiet, I MEAN summer fun for your kids.
  8. Desk Caddy. Use these directions to make a really cool desk caddy to organize your pencils, pens and other odds and ends.
  9. Paper Flowers. These directions used newspaper to make adorable paper flowers. I'm sure you could use phone book pages as well and adorn all kinds of things with your creativity.
  10. Get Some Exercise. Remember step aerobics? Build your own step with phone books and duct tape, rent a free aerobics video from the library and you've just created your own gym.
For more great ideas go see WFMW!

10 comments:

Christy said...

Great tips - I feel like having a paper airplane contest right now, too bad all the kids are in bed!

Nikki said...

Very clever! I especially like the booster seat, aerobic step, and the gift bows.

Catherine said...

Wow, this is an amazingly timely post - our phone book hit our door early this morning. EVEN THOUGH I OPTED-OUT! WHAT? I guess if I can't reduce, I've got to reuse. Thanks for the tips!

Roxie700 said...

I keep a phone book in our car and it is very handy to look up an address.

I also keep a couple of them wrapped with duct tape to be used when we have to change a tire. It was very handy last year when we had a flat on the side of the road that was very uneven. The phone books helped level the jack for changing the tire.

NeedANap2 said...

Or call your phone company and ask they not give you a phone book. :)

QAMom said...

That reminds me that I covered one in white paper, decorated it with stickers and my daughter's name then covered with clear contact paper so she could use it as a stool. She just needed a few extra inches when she first started potty training.

My monitors at work don't adjust in height, so I've got them each sitting on three phone books :)

Candi said...

I love the Booster seat idea! So smart!

Unknown said...

These are some really useful ideas!

Milena Barrett said...

I just wanted to say I'm a big fan of your 10 ways to reuse it!

Love it!!!!!!!!!!!

abbamom said...

We had a house rabbit and one of the things she liked to do was dig. One of our books recommended that we put out phone books for her to "dig" in. It made her a lot happier :)