Is your garage full of dusty boxes, unorganized tools, and dull storage totes? It’s time to spice up your space and take your organizational skills up to eleven! Your garage is the perfect space for keeping all the extra necessities of life, rotating seasonal furniture and decorations, and having a nice spot to work on your projects and hobbies. If you’ve wanted to reorganize your space but felt overwhelmed by the start-up costs, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to walk you through some super cheap and easy DIY projects that will help you get your garage organized and looking like a total storage haven. Get comfortable and ready to take notes because we’re going to dive right in.

Store Garden/Garage Tools With An Old Pallet

There are plenty of organizers you can buy to keep your various garden and garage tools organized, but there’s no need to spend the money when you have perfectly good equipment lying around! All you need is an old wooden pallet and some screws or anchors to attach it to your wall. Set the pallet against the wall, drill holes for the anchors, or screw it in place, and then slide your tools between the wooden slates. This is a super cost-effective and eco-friendly way to reuse old materials and create a rustic storage spot in your garage. If you don’t have an old pallet around, you can often find one for free!

Install A Pegboard Wall

Anyone who’s attempted to transform their garage into a storage haven knows the power of pegboards! Turning one wall of your garage into a pegboard wall will give you a spot where you can store all of your tools and keep the smaller items, like screwdrivers, pliers, and wrenches, easily accessible. It’s also very easy to attach shelving to a pegboard, giving you even more storage opportunities. Place a few different colored bins on the shelves to keep your screws, nuts, nails, and other tiny items properly stored and separated.

Use A DIY Storage Lift To Haul Boxes

Most garages have a small attic or crawlspace where you can store extra boxes full of seasonal outdoor equipment, holiday decorations, old hobbies, etc. Hauling boxes up the small ladder leading into your garage’s attic can be risky and hard physical labor. Instead of risking an injury or wearing yourself out, create a DIY storage lift like the one seen in this picture! You can use a pulley system to slide the boxes up the ladder and then go up and organize them in the attic.

Mimic A Mudroom In Your Garage

If your home doesn’t have a proper mudroom, then you’re probably struggling with storage space inside the home. A great way to reduce clutter in your entryway and put the space in your garage to good use is by mimicking a mudroom in your garage! All you need is a shoe rack or organizer, a couple of hooks to hang jackets, hats, and backpacks, and a cute little welcome mat where your family and visitors can wipe off their shoes. Not only does this prevent clutter from piling up, but it also provides a comfortable transition space from your garage into your home.

Upcycle Your Old Filing Cabinets

Most people would simply throw away their old filing cabinets, but you can turn this piece of furniture into an excellent storage compartment for your garage tools! Remove the draws to create empty spaces where you can place rakes, shovels, leaf blowers, and other gardening equipment. Then, you can install a pegboard on either end of the filing cabinet to hang smaller tools like painting equipment or other items. Not only is this a great storage option, but it’s very eco-friendly because you’re preventing that filing cabinet from ending up in a landfill!

Use An Old Shutter For A Shelf

Once you start upcycling old materials, you’ll realize there’s a secondary purpose for everything! Instead of throwing away your old shutters when you replace them, turn them into shelving for your garage instead! These shutters won’t be able to hold a ton of weight, but they provide plenty of storage space for light items like extra pillows, sleeping bags, empty bottles/containers, and more! A little creativity goes a long way toward protecting the environment and providing you with unique storage opportunities.

Use Wall Tracks To Store Big Items

Finding creative ways to store smaller items in your garage isn’t tricky. It’s finding a way to store all your big, bulky items without creating disarray or dangerous spaces that give most people a challenge! However, there is a super easy and affordable solution waiting for you. All you need is to install some metal tracks along one of your garage walls. These tracks are strong enough to hold up bicycles, step ladders, and even full-length shelving units! Installing wall tracks in your garage will seriously change your entire storage game.

Use Bungee Cords To Bundle Tools Together

Many garages have a space with exposed beams that often get left alone. You can turn this awkward space into a little storage compartment with the help of some nails and bungee cords. Just hammer some nails into the beams (make sure they’re even!) and then use bungee cords to hold bigger tools inside the space. It’s a great way to make use of every bit of space you have, and you likely already have all the supplies you need lying around in your garage, so all this project will cost you is ten minutes of your time.

Install Corner and Over-The-Door Shelving

Whether you have a lot of hobbies, a large family, or a lot of general items you need to be stored in your garage, it’s essential to make use of every inch of space you have. Plenty of garages have little awkward corners like the one shown in this photo, where there are only a couple of feet of wall space next to a corner. It doesn’t look like you can do much with this space at first glance, but it’s the perfect area to add some extra shelving! All you need is some wood cut to the right size and the proper installation tools. These shelves are the perfect spot for storing your recyclables, garden tools, or items you want out of reach of children.

Build Your Own Dolly

Do you need a dolly to help with your garage projects but don’t want to buy one? It’s super easy to make your own, and you can make one out of virtually any spare piece of wood or strong plastic you have lying around. You could even use an old cabinet door to create a new dolly! Just grab yourself some wheels, attach them to the bottom, and voila! You have a DIY dolly that will impress your friends and help you get your projects completed.

DIY Organizer For Fishing Rods

This DIY organizer will keep your fishing rods off the ground and separated from each other without costing you much. All you need is some PVC piping and a pool noodle to get started! Cut holes in the PVC piping and make sure they’ll fit the bottoms of your reels. Then, cut slits in the pool noodle and make sure the slits are evenly spaced with the holes in the piping. You’ll easily be able to access whichever rod you need without worrying about having to untangle pieces or lines!

Use PVC Pipes On Your Pegboard

You’ll discover there are a ton of creative uses for PCV pipes once you start reorganizing your garage. Cutting out pieces of PVC pipes and attaching them to your pegboard will give you a perfect place to hold all the small objects that you want within easy reach. Use the pipes to hold pencils, small paintbrushes, craft supplies, or whatever else you need organized. The best part about using PVC piping is it’s an incredibly inexpensive material and super easy to work with!

Use A Coat Rack For Extension Cords

Many of us keep extra extension cords, chargers, holiday lights, and similar equipment in the garage. It wouldn’t take you long to build an organizer rack like the one shown in the photo above, but there’s another option. Take an old coat rack, place it in your garage, and wrap your extension cords and other equipment around the hooks! This will save you time and money, and make it much easier for you to find what you need.

Use Bungee Cords To Keep Balls Together

Families with kids know the hassle of keeping track of all the footballs, soccer balls, and basketballs in the garage. This simple DIY hack will give you an easy spot to store these balls without putting them out of your kid’s reach. All you need are a few pieces of wood and some bungee cords. Attach the wooden slates to your wall, then drill holes for the bungee cords. Put the bungee cords in place and then fill the space up with the balls!

Create A Charging Station

What do you do when your tools need to be recharged? Do you lay them on a counter to plug them in and then invariably forget about them for a while? What you need is to create a charging station! In the picture above, you can see an open-concept shelving unit that holds all kinds of tools. There are holes drilled in the shelves that allow you to run cables through them, so you can charge your tools while keeping them in their proper place.

Mount Bikes On The Walls

There are tons of bike mounts available for sale, but it’s not difficult to create a DIY bike mount. Keeping your bikes up along the walls will open up a ton of extra space and prevent them from getting damaged when you’re working on other projects. Just install a strong metal mount to your wall like the one shown in the photo above and you’re all done! There are also options to hang your bikes vertically if you need even more room.

DIY Scrap Wood Wall Brackets

Things like folding chairs tend to take up a lot of space, but you can get them out of your way and safely stored with ease when you know about this DIY hack. Use some spare wood to cut out angled slates like the ones shown in this picture. Then, use brackets and screw them into the sides of exposed wall beams. You’ll turn this bit of unused space into an efficient storage solution with minimal time and cost!

Double Your Shelf Storage

One of the best ways to ensure you’re using up every inch of space is to get creative! Finding ways to double the storage space of shelving units will open up much more room in your garage. This simple DIY hack will only take a few minutes to get set up. Screw the plastic lids of small storage containers onto the underside of your wooden shelves. Then, fill the jars with rubber bands, nails, screws, small craft items, or whatever else you need stored, and screw the jars back on.

Use Pool Noodles To Protect Your Car’s Doors

Some garages have very limited space. Parking your car in the garage should be a simple task, but if you’re really tight on space, then you risk scratching the paint on your doors every time you get in and out of your car. A super simple and effective solution is to cut pool noodles in half and attach them to your walls. The pool noodles will absorb the impact when you open your doors and won’t cause any scratches or chips on your paint.

DIY An Overhead Storage System

Storing items against the ceiling is a great way to open up more space in your garage and get the things you aren’t using out of your way. There are tons of overhead storage units on the market, but these can be very costly, so give this DIY overhead storage system a try instead! You just cut pieces of wood like the ones shown in this picture and attach them to your ceiling. Then, you should be able to easily slide storage totes into the storage system.

Use A Shoe Caddy To Organize Paint

Those who enjoy doing a lot of projects that involve paint know the importance of keeping these containers properly stored. There are a lot of options for storing your paint cans, but this is one of the simplest and most convenient! Take an old hanging shoe caddy and place it over the back of your door or the side of a shelving unit. Then, fill each of the compartments with paint cans! You’ll be able to separate them by color, brand, project, or however else you need to keep them organized. The best part of this hack is that if some paint happens to leak on the shoe caddy, it’s no big deal! You can always get another one for super cheap if you want to replace it.

Use Your Garage Door For Extra Storage

Most people assume there isn’t much they can do with their garage door since it needs to be able to pull up and slide down easily. However, there are ways you can make the most of this space! Mesh bags attached to your garage door can hold light items like flip-flops, outdoor toys for children, and small gardening tools. There are also fishing rod racks you can purchase that are specifically made to attach to your garage door! This will free up some wall space for you to store other items that are heavier or bulkier.

Turn Old Fencing Into An Organizational Tool

Storing all your rakes, shovels, garden hoes, and other long equipment can be challenging. These things will fall over and get tangled up very easily if you don’t have a way to keep them separated from each other. This DIY hack gives you an excellent opportunity to put some of that old lattice fencing to use! Cut out squares of the fencing to put inside your organizer as shown in this picture. Then, place the tools handle side down through the latticework to keep them separated and standing tall.

Create Another Level

When you’re struggling with storage space in your garage, adding another level is a simple and easy fix. These drop-down storage units will provide another level of storage space and can easily hold heavier items and totes full of various tools and supplies. Buy one from your local home improvement store or DIY it if you’re super handy! This is also the perfect spot to put things you want out of reach of young children or pets.

Rehome Your Freezer

There are tons of good reasons to rehome your freezer in your garage. Maybe you need more storage space in your kitchen, or maybe you’d like access to cold drinks in your garage. Perhaps you love to fish or hunt and want the freezer in the garage so you can easily store your fresh meat. Whatever the reason is, moving your freezer into the garage can be a very helpful trick! Whether you have a compact chest freezer or a full-length model, it will fit well in your garage.

Use Chalkboard Paint On Your Shelving Units

Many people will suggest labeling your shelves, especially if you’re putting plastic totes on them, to keep track of your stuff more easily. But what happens when you need to rotate stuff around? Then you have to rip off old labels and attach new ones- unless you try this hack! Use chalkboard paint on your shelving units and label everything with chalk! This way, when it’s time to rotate things, you just erase the previous label and write a new one.

Choose Wire Shelving

Wood and plastic shelving units aren’t always the best solution. If you live in an area with a lot of rain and high humidity, then your risk these materials becoming moldy and damaged over time. Wire shelving is an excellent alternative because it’s strong, easy to clean, and doesn’t become moldy or rusty as easily as other materials. Knowing the right materials to use in your area will save you from having to replace your shelving units in a few years and makes it much easier to keep them clean!

Don’t Compromise On Aesthetics

There’s no need to compromise on the aesthetics of your garage when doing an organizational overhaul. Ugly gardening tools, rough half-finished projects, painting equipment, and other items can make your garage look dank and unwelcoming. Use cute storage containers, fabric cubes, bright colors, and closed cabinets to keep your garage looking bright and inviting!

Reuse Old Kitchen Cabinets

There’s no need to go out and buy all new cabinets and countertops for your garage when you can install the old ones from your kitchen! This is a great time and money-saving hack that will always give your garage a unique feel. If you aren’t redoing your kitchen, then search local groups online to see if anyone else is doing some home renovations. Many people will give away their old kitchen cabinets for free in exchange for not having to pay to throw them away.

Choose The Right Lighting

Installing the wrong kind of lighting can turn your garage into a dim and spooky place. Make sure to use LED bulbs to give your space plenty of bright, vibrant light. Use overhead lights when possible, and attach wall lights to shadowy areas. It’s also helpful to let as much natural lighting inside your garage as possible, so make sure to open your blinds whenever you’re spending time in your garage!

Add A Laundry Nook In Your Garage

While you’re working on reorganizing things and upping the efficiency of your garage, you should consider adding a laundry nook in your space. This is especially helpful if you don’t have a dedicated laundry room in your home, and it gives your garage an even more productive feel. You can add storage containers and shelving units around your washer and dryer to hold laundry soap, dryer sheets, paper towels, scrub brushes, and more!

Use A Curtain Rod

Some items are very cumbersome to store and create a bit of an eye-sore in your otherwise stylish and functional garage. So, how do you hide these big and bulky items from sight? Install a curtain rod and use a long curtain to cover the items from view! This works especially well if you have a little nook or “clutter corner” in your garage that you want to keep out of sight.

Use A Tennis Ball To Help You Park

Let’s face it- not all garages are spacious, and some barely allow you to park your car inside. If you have a smaller garage and you need to park your car inside, then you need this hack. Hang a tennis ball on a piece of string from the ceiling of your garage where your windshield should be when parked. You’ll never bump against your storage bins or risk scraping your paint on the wall again when you start using this hack!

Use Locking Cabinets For Dangerous Equipment

Garages are often a place where dangerous equipment gets stored. No one wants their child to get a hold of their power saw or leaf blower. Instead of locking the entire garage at all times, invest in a few large locking cabinets like the ones in this picture. These cabinets are large enough to easily fit large equipment like leaf blowers or power tools and they can easily be fitted with different types of locks. Make sure you’re also storing any flammable or other dangerous materials behind these doors!

Store Extra Tires Up High

Extra tires take up a ton of room on the floor of your garage or in the bed of your truck. There are simple wall mounts you can buy that only take minutes to install. These wall mounts allow you to store your tires high up on the wall, out of reach of children or pets, and safely waiting to be used. This is a great option for storing different sized tires for your vehicles and will save you time when you need to quickly grab a spare tire.

Create A Kid’s Corner

Kids love to be involved in what the grown-ups in the home are doing. Rather than try to keep them out of the garage while you’re working on your latest project, try giving them their own safe, dedicated space to play near you. Put in a little table, a soft rug, and some toys. Your kids will love playing in the garage while you work, and they’ll be less likely to come and interrupt your project every few minutes if they have some toys to keep them engaged!

Create A Cute Screwdriver Rack

Screwdrivers are notoriously hard to store. Most people just throw them in a draw and shift through them when they need one, but that’s not very efficient. Instead, create a cute screwdriver rack like the one shown in the picture above. All you need is a spare piece of wood and a drill. Drill holes in the wood, and then attach the wood to your wall or pegboard. You’ll have an easy organizational system for your screwdrivers that is both stylish and functional.

Store String In Old Coffee Cans

Keeping old string, twine, or rope sitting in a drawer will guarantee it gets all knotted up. Rather than spending ages untangling your string every time you need some, try this DIY hack instead! Use some old coffee cans to store your string, twine, and rope. Cut holes in the top and feed out a bit of the string. Now, whenever you need a length of string, you just pull it from the hole in the top of the can.

Use Magnetic Strips To Hold Everything Up

Smaller tools and objects are easily lost and misplaced in garages. For a unique storage idea, try installing magnetic stripes along your wall where you want to store these objects. You can easily attach paintbrushes, pliers, wrenches, and other tools along these strips. For pencils, tiny paintbrushes, and other tools, throw them in a couple of soup cans and attach those to the magnetic strips!

Create A Gardening Corner

Keep all the items in your garage organized by category. Have one wall for all your tools, one area for a laundry nook, and one space just for gardening supplies! Grab some metal storage units to keep your soil, extra potters, small tools, and other equipment. If you put your gardening corner next to a window with plenty of direct sunlight, you can even keep a few potted plants in your garage to brighten up the space.

Use Clothespins To Hold Small Objects

Small objects you use every day, like hats, gloves, and bandanas, deserve their own little storage space. This super easy storage board allows you to hang these little objects with clothespins, so you can easily remove them and replace them whenever you need them. You can hang this board anywhere you have a little free space in your garage, and it’d make a great addition to your gardening corner.

Use Buckets For Small Items

You can use little buckets to hold all your golf balls, tennis balls, frisbees, and other fun outdoor equipment. A simple Sharpie will easily label these buckets, and they’re super easy to hang anywhere in your garage. Take the whole bucket outside with you and let your kids go crazy- if you dare!

Reuse Your Old Golf Caddy

What do you do with your old golf caddy? Rather than throw it away or shove it in your closet, put that caddy to good use! They make excellent holders for gardening tools or outdoor toys. The best part about this trick is you can pick the whole caddy up and bring it outside with you when it’s time to do yard work or play. Then, replace everything and carry it back inside. This is a super functional and helpful organizational trick!

Vintage items are a great deal of fun to hunt for, especially in summer with farm auctions and yard sales galore. Many vintage things that might not immediately seem useful as garden decor can be repurposed and upcycled into stunning and unique pieces for your backyard oasis. Vintage plates can turn a bare wooden fence into a stunning art display while various parts of sturdy galvanized metal can create floral showpieces. Even items like old ladders or damaged teacups can be useful with a little bit of elbow grease and creativity. Read on for 45 vintage garden decór ideas to spruce up your yard!

45. Hang vintage plates in a garden area for special tea and cookies.

Vintage plates are a dime a dozen at many thrift stores, antique shops, and even garage sales. Thanks to not being food-safe and taking up a fair bit of display room, decorate vintage plates have been rapidly falling out of favor over the years, leading to low prices and abundance availability. With that in mind, now is the perfect time to upgrade your outdoor spaces with beautiful vintage plates! They can be hung along your fence to make a stunning border. Broken in half or partially buried, they can also create an incredibly elegant garden border.

44. Paint a chair and place some flowers for a secret garden vibe.

Have you ever gone to a thrift store and found the most beautiful vintage chair, but the seat is broken? Typically, that leads to sadness and frustration at a beautiful chair lost. However, if you keep outdoor and garden decorating in mind, those busted chairs could be a huge boon! Chairs with broken seats, especially those with busted caning or rattan, make excellent plant stands! You can sink a pot into the damaged part of the seat, so it looks like flowers are growing right out of the chair. Even functional old chairs can be turned into adorable plant stands, mostly if painted in a fun color.

43. Plant flowers in an old wheelbarrows for a rustic, antique feel.

While working vintage wheelbarrows tend to fetch a premium price due to their robust construction and durability, those that have lost to the ravages of time; that is, they are no longer usable for garden work tend to be pretty reasonably priced. Sometimes they are even given away on swap and upcycle groups. A vintage wheelbarrow that can at least stand stationary and hold a bit of weight is the perfect backdrop for a cute selection of flower pots full of colorful annuals. Trailing annuals are another great choice, as they will add a bit of whimsy to the old wheelbarrow’s frame.

42. Keep your metal ladder safe in the shed, but pull out the wooden one as a vintage plant stand.

While we would never advise standing on a vintage ladder, pick one up if you have the chance at a rummage sale or thrift store. Old wooden ladders, especially those with wide planks, are ideal for plant stands, inside or out! When refinished or painted a cute color, a vintage ladder can hold a surprising number of pots and hanging baskets, especially if the wood is still in decent shape to protect the wood from the outdoor elements. The tiered stands replicate the look of much more expensive new leaning desks and ladder-style bookcases.

41. Use a tea set – including the pot, cup, and spoon – to create your own DIY wind chime.

Much like vintage plates, vintage teacups without matching saucers are incredibly abundant and often as cheap as 99 cents or less. For a teacup chime project, you could even use stained or chipped cups since these defects won’t be noticeable from a distance. There are many ways to create a teacup wind chime, with varying levels of skill required. The simplest method is to tie the cups together from a wind chime base using staggered twine or rope lengths. More advanced approaches can include drilling through the cups to make more secure chimes.

40. Get a galvanized bucket and repurpose the old-school metal tub as a flower planter.

While galvanized buckets and other standard pieces of farm equipment may fetch a pretty price in urban markets, you’ll likely be able to find them readily at junk jaunts or farm auctions in more rural areas. Galvanized metal, which is made to withstand outdoor conditions, is ideal for beautiful, rustic outdoor planters. Make sure you add drainage holes to anything you intend to use as a planter or use a very loose potting mix that will allow water to drain away from your plants’ roots to avoid root rot.

39. Galvanized basin vining planters are another way to go vintage in the garden.

If you’re in an area where you’re lucky enough to find an even larger version of a galvanized bucket like a washbasin, you can get into all sorts of fun decorating. A basin is large enough to accommodate additional items like a trellis, allowing you to create a vining planter. Look for a beautiful vining annual, and plant that in a large galvanized basin with some trellis behind it. Chicken wire would give the most rustic look, while a wood trellis would provide a more industrial feel. Gently tie the plant to your trellis as it grows, and by mid-summer, you’ll have a stunning lawn centerpiece.

38. Mason jars are great for a rustic, chic look — in this case, they are used as hanging candle holders.

What vintage design project could ever be complete without the pure beauty and utility of a mason jar? Those ever-present multi-functional and reasonably priced glass jars can serve countless roles in a garden decor scheme, but a uniquely whimsical idea uses them to create lanterns. Battery-powered LED candles inside mason jars mounted with brackets or hung from the rope can create fairy light-like chandeliers or rope lights that bring a bit of magic to a porch or garden. When filled with citronella candles, mason jar lanterns can even provide some much-needed pest relief.

37. Add a splash of color with vintage coffee can planters — the more metal, the better.

If you brew your own coffee or keep an eye on your local recycling groups, you’ll no doubt be able to find some large metal coffee cans. Many vintage shops also offer vintage metal cans for very reasonable prices, especially if the old labels are primarily worn off. If you can get your hands on some nice metal cans, try painting them with a matte finish in various bright colors like turquoise or orange. Once painted, mount them to your fence with zip ties or brackets for colorful, lightweight flower or herb planters. Coffee cans are also easy to puncture with nails to create drainage holes!

36. Speaking of metal, try a pitcher as a planter. Pair it with red roses for a romantic look.

Vintage metal pitchers are incredibly elegant and come in a wide range of styles, from very functional farmhouse simplicity to far more ornate Victorian-inspired designs. If you don’t have access to vintage pitchers, they are also very commonly reproduced and sold online and in many hobby stores. Pitchers make an ideal planter for plants that like to cascade or spill downwards like creeping jenny, purple heart, or sweet potato vine. The image of a plant gently pouring out of your pitcher planter will make a lovely, gentle focal point for any garden display.

35. Create an instant hit with this vintage sink planter.

A vintage sink will be a more challenging item to come across than a simple pail or pitcher, but if you can manage to snag one, it will be worth its considerable weight in decorating gold. Vintage enamel sinks, especially apron sinks, are a beautiful and sturdy addition to any yard as a planter or planting bench. Used as a potting bench, a vintage sink unit provides some ample counter space for potting as well as a broad and deep recessed area to catch dirt or store tools. Used as a planter itself, the large sink can hold many annuals with room on the side countertops to hold additional pots of flowers or herbs.

34. Illuminate your garden as quick as the clap of your hands thanks to whimsical string lights.

While this item isn’t vintage itself since vintage string lights are hard to find and typically unsafe to use due to lead and poor wiring, vintage-style string lights from a home improvement store are a great way to add some illumination to your decorated garden. Bare vintage-style bulbs are a great way to incorporate the vintage style and evoke the feel of an old-time barn dance. Vintage lights can lean towards the rustic or the industrial, depending on your preferences, and come in a wide variety of styles to fit every taste. However you use them, and whichever style you prefer, string lights are a must for a whimsical garden space!

33. Install a door entrance to your garden and you will enjoy who comes to knock.

Suppose you’re renovating your home and have spare doors or have access to a building store like a Habitat ReStore. In that case, you should consider using a vintage door to create a magical gateway into your vintage decorated garden! Using a vintage door and frame, or just a vintage door suspended from a pole or fence post, creates an incredibly welcoming sight at the border of your garden. Paired with a rustic fence, a doorway makes sense of space and an invitation to your garden. Consider adding a hand-painted rustic welcome or monogram sign for an even more personalized touch!

32. Wagon wheels are an immediate win if you want to create a rustic, vintage garden.

Whether vintage or new reproductions, wagon wheels are an iconic part of vintage, farmhouse, and Southwestern style decorated gardens. They are ideal both as a backdrop for a planted perennial bed or as a hanger or background for a collection of potted annuals with their great size and beautiful spokes. When using a new wooden wagon wheel, be sure to seal the wood with a varnish or paint to ensure it won’t rot over a few seasons of use. If you get heavy snow, you may want to store them in a garage over the winter to reduce decay and wear. With large wagon wheels, try hanging a small basket of bright annuals from the top for a fun, radiant look.

31. Birdhouses should grace your outdoors as much as possible.

There are a few pieces of outdoor decor that are more charming than birdhouses. With their tiny windows and adorable Hobbit-like round doors, they bring a touch of whimsy and a faerie garden-like feel to any outdoor space. If you wish to decorate with birdhouses and use new reproductions intended only for decor, or vintage birdhouses that are no longer structurally sound, cover the entrances with a bit of plastic or tape to ensure a bird doesn’t try to nest in an unsafe house. The cute decor is excellent, but keeping your local birds happy and healthy is even better!

30. Metal bucket fairy gardens are a fun DIY project with your children.

Another great use for large galvanized and other types of metal buckets is to create adorable little fairy gardens. Fairy gardens typically feature miniature versions of popular houseplants and annuals and decor similar to aquariums, like small houses and tiny fairy figurines. To make an outdoor fairy garden, look for tiny ground cover annuals or perennials, small mosses, and dainty flowers. Many garden centers are not selling plants specifically grown and selected for fairy gardens, and some even sell miniature decor to go along with them. A great craft for children is to create small houses or furniture out of Popsicle sticks.

29. Repurpose a sewing machine stand into vintage garden decor.

Sewing machines used to be so large and heavy, being often crafted entire of cast iron, requiring their own large and very sturdy wood and metal stands to be used. These stands, now often found as furniture without the incredibly heavy old sewing machines, are ideal for use as a planter, with the former recessed housing of the device making a perfect basin for plants. Old fashioned English garden plants like daisies and lavender look incredibly charming in a vintage sewing machine stand, as do nasturtiums and other more old-fashioned blooms. Plants that vine or cascade down from the basin also give the shelves a whimsical, aged look.

28. You can build a garden station by repurposing a wooden stand.

Anyone who is even moderately into gardening knows just how useful a dedicated potting bench can be. Trying to re-pot plants, even house plants, indoors is an incredibly messy task that will leave any surface (and the floor) littered with dirt and leaves. A simple vintage dining room table is an ideal potting bench to place outdoors next to a shed or garden. Paint an old table or varnish it to protect it from the elements. Attach storage hooks to one side to hang your tools, and you’re ready to re-pot and divide your plants like a professional!

27. Build a small storage shed using a log cabin concept.

Vintage windows are very on-trend for several DIY projects from Christmas and welcome signs to photo displays. A great outdoor use for vintage windows is to create hanging tool storage on a fence or shed, or even a tool storage backdrop to a repurposed table planting bench. Once you’ve found a vintage window, treat any exposed wood to prevent rot if you intend to leave the window uncovered to the elements. Then, use any mounts you would like, ranging from vintage doorknobs to hooks, to create storage and hanging space for all of your garden tools.

26. Purchase a metal dress form and place it in your garden instead of your wardrobe area.

If you want to add a very chic and feminine structural element to your garden, look no further than a vintage or reproduction dress form. An older version of today’s sewing mannequins, the metal ribbing on a vintage dress, makes them an ideal trailing structure for vining garden plants. A clematis trailing up a vintage or reproduction dress form would be a truly stunning centerpiece for a full-sun perennial garden. Ivy of any kind would also be gorgeous, but you’d have to prune it regularly to keep the ivy from completely overtaking the form. Any trailing plant would be an attractive choice, so unleash your inner garden designer!

25. Set an old-school dresser outdoors and plant some flowers in the drawers for a fast and easy vintage stand.

It seems like every yard sale or estate sale has at least one old dresser that’s either seen better days, is a bit too big for modern tastes, etc. While these dressers may be a terrible fit for your home, consider your yard! Dressers, when treated against rot and mold, can be beautiful, rustic planters. Whether you use just the drawers or the entire dresser, the drawers are a great size and shape for succulent planters, vining plants, or any annual your heart might desire. You’ll want to make sure any exposed wood is painted or stained to prevent rot.

24. Nail large spoons to a wooden beam. Bend the handles so you can hang coats, hats, or flower baskets.

Vintage silverware is useful for all sorts of indoor DIY projects, from curtain ties to napkin rings. What might surprise you is that they have their uses in outdoor decorating as well! You don’t have to worry about rot, like with so many wood projects, and vintage silverware is easy to find at thrift stores and garage sales. When choosing silverware for hanging little planters from, while it may be counter-intuitive, you want to avoid nicer sterling silver pieces as these are much softer and able to hold far less weight than silver plated. Bend the handles, mount them to your fence or another flat surface, and hang a cute little pot from them with a bit of twine!

23. Label your herb garden using rustic silverware makers.

Unlike the potted plant hanger project we just discussed, for this project, you should keep your eyes out for vintage sterling silver pieces, as their softness will come in handy for stamping the names of your plants onto the flattened spoon faces. While this project takes a bit more elbow grease and dexterity, you will end up with beautiful, one-of-a-kind row and plant markers that will last for years to come thanks to their metal construction. There are tutorials online to hammer sterling silver spoons flat and then use a metal stamper to stamp in your plants’ names.

22. Monogram succulent planters will enhance your garden and only take a few supplies.

Many big box stores, garden centers, and hobby stores now sell large, hollow letters made from metal, glass, and wood. These cute accent pieces are ideal for filling up with succulents to make beautiful little gardens that can welcome people to your property all summer and add a bit of green to your home in a sunny spot all winter. There are fantastic tutorials online for making succulent hanging planters. However, the most critical step is to find a material that will hold your potting mix and the plants tightly against the frame, like wire mesh or heavy-duty landscape fabric.

21. Antique doorknob herb dryers are the ultimate way to create a vintage garden space.

There are few sights more homey and welcoming than seeing bunches of beautiful, aromatic fresh herbs hanging to dry. While there are many automatic herb dryers on the market, like dehydrators, and fancy racks that can dry many herbs at once, we recommend a far simpler solution for the rustic, vintage garden. In a sunny, breezy spot in your yard, whether it’s along a fence, next to a shed, or on a patio, select an area. Next, mount an eclectic combination of vintage doorknobs, far enough apart that bundles of herbs won’t touch each other and high enough that children and pets won’t be tempted to play with them.

20. Vintage soup ladles are simple yet lovely as succulent hangers.

Succulents are one of the few plants that can thrive and often enjoy small planting spaces and being relatively rootbound. This fact, along with their low water requirements, makes them ideal plants for small, decorative hangings. Try mounting a cute vintage soup ladle to a fence post, wooden light post, or other decorate vantage point in your yard in a very sunny spot. Once installed, put a small amount of gravel or different extremely well-draining soil (or puncture a hole in the bottom of the ladle) and plant a couple of small succulents for a whimsical, farmhouse touch.

19. Instead of throwing away that rusty watering can, plant a flower in it and place the decor in the garden.

Much like a vintage or old fashioned pitcher, a beautiful old watering can is capable of creating a truly stunning centerpiece, especially when mounted to look as though it is pouring out some beautiful trailing or cascading plant. If hunt from its handle, so it looks like it’s pouring, a watering can planter can be an incredibly eye-catching sight. Fill the planter with something that traits beautifully like eucalyptus or sweet potato vine. To add an extra bit of sparkle, try suspending a few wires with crystal beads from the spout to give the effect of falling water in the sun!

18. If you want an enchanting garden, teapots and cups are a must.

If a teacup wind chime doesn’t add enough whimsy and Old English charm to your garden, the next step up is a teapot and cup garden stake DIY project. While vintage teapots are harder to find than teacups and may cost a bit more, a new reproduction teapot can easily be used to replicate a vintage feel. For these projects, mount a teapot to a garden stake, whether through drilling the pot and attaching with a screw, hot glue, or any other method you find through a trustworthy DIY tutorial (or your own know-how.) Then, stake a teacup below the pot, as though it is about to receive tea. Beaded wires can be hung from the cup’s spout to simulate the appearance of water or tea being poured!

17. It only takes a few minutes to transform a kitchen strainer into a vintage flower pot.

We’ve mentioned a few times throughout this list that succulents require proper draining, whether through well-draining potting mix or gravel or adding drainage holes to their planters. With the vintage strainer succulent planter, the drainage problem is automatically solved for you! Vintage strainers are easy to find and often come in fun, unique colors like avocado or harvest gold. These colors pair beautifully with many succulents. The draining holes that make the strainers useful kitchen tools also make them ideal for succulents, prone to over-watering and rot!

16. Spray paint an old bike and place it in your garden with a couple of flower baskets.

If you happen to have a vintage bicycle lying around, or you find one at a tag sale or vintage shop, they make relatively weather-proof and adorable pieces of garden art. Bikes can serve numerous purposes, being precious objects of art in and of themselves. But they also provide baskets that make beautiful planters and horizontal beams that can work for support hanging planters or even window boxes. The most important step for using any vintage bicycle as the decor is to ensure it has a complete paint job that will protect it from rust, mostly if left outside year-round. As long as you keep rust at bay, a vintage bicycle can be a beautiful garden focal point for many years!

15. If you want to have a vintage garden, you should have a birdcage somewhere in there!

Birdcages are having a significant moment for floral decor. Many big box stores and hobby stores are now carrying reproduction vintage birdcages. Some even modified to direction work as planters, as a love for the ornately wrought style comes back into vogue. Whether you use vintage or reproduction, a lovely metal birdcage can be the perfect home for any plant. This range includes annual, perennial, or even house plant flowers, but they especially shine when planted with something that can vine and reach up and out through the bars, like a bird taking wing.

14. Hide modern-looking (or plain) nursey boxes in stylish baskets instead.

While many of us rush to replant a beautiful new plant as soon as we get it home from the nursery, this may be a bad idea. The reality is that some plants don’t like to be transplanted, and some even thrive in the root-bound, well-draining conditions of a nursery pot far better than a ceramic or terra cotta pot. If you have recently purchased one such plant, but don’t like the simple black or green plastic of the nursery pot, try using a vintage wicker or wood basket to hide the pot, while still allowing for draining and airflow. If you use a plastic-lined basket, be sure to empty any standing water after watering your new botanical friend to avoid rot!

13. Paint some old wooden crates and fill them with vintage wonders like plants, books, and birdcages.

Much like vintage windows and vintage birdcages, old shutters have a significant moment in the home decorating world. While they are often pictured being used to display photos or indoor window coverings, vintage shutters can be used throughout the garden to mount window-boxes full of gorgeous annuals. Suppose you don’t want to risk water damage to your siding through traditional window boxes. Why not put some beautiful old distressed shutters on your fence, shed, or just partially buried in the ground and mount some lightweight, moss-filled window-boxes to them for a cottage garden look?

12. Install a couple of wooden posts and attach a wire gate for the entrance to your garden.

Proper vintage fencing is often hard to find and collected by hobby farmers for their acreages and outbuildings. It can also be quite heavy and sometimes dangerous, especially if you haven’t had a tetanus shot in a while! Thankfully, many companies make modern reproductions of safer and more lightweight material that mimic some beautiful vintage styles. Once you find a style you like, try pairing some vintage-style fencing with a vintage wooden door to create a truly magical garden entrance. Or, use a vintage gate at the bottom of a driveway for a secluded, vacation-home like vibe.

11. Find some retro coffee pots made of metal to enhance your vintage garden.

If vintage coffee cans aren’t enough caffeinated art for your garden, vintage coffee pots are another fantastic idea. Old coffee pots are cheapest when they lack their lids, making garden-ready pots cheaper and easier to find! Enameled metal pots are an attractive choice. But any variety of old coffee pots can make for an incredibly cute planting. If you’re planting an annual that lovers water, you can throw in some soil and go to town. But if you want to plant something like a succulent in a coffee pot, you need an extra step. You’ll want to make sure you include gravel in the planting medium to ensure drainage.

10. Tie antique cheese graters to a post and plant flowers inside of them for a unique vibe.

If space is lacking in your garden or backyard, wall planters are a great option to grow flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Cheese graters are a perfect choice, as they can be screwed onto a fixture of wood upside down and are already designed to provide excellent drainage for your garden plants. These cleverly designed planters can be found at yard sales and flea markets quite easily. Create a unique display by mounting several in different sizes onto a wall in your patio or yard. They could even be spray painted to make a more colorful statement or blend in more easily with your existing backyard style.

9. Set up a vintage fan — don’t worry if it doesn’t work.

These garden decorations are full of life as they lend their vintage style to your backyard or patio. Fan blades can be salvaged from flea markets, and the older they look, the better for this project. This DIY project uses four salvaged fan blades and a table leg that serves as the dragonfly’s body. Tutorials can be found online to guide you in creating this garden decoration. As the metal hardware on the fan blades is usually already distressed to fit the vintage style, after assembling, your dragonfly needs nothing more than to be carefully placed in its position to keep a watchful eye on your garden and plants.

8. If you don’t have a complete tea set, make a wind chime with vintage spoons.

Silverware can usually be found in abundance at yard sales and especially flea markets, at budget-friendly prices. Gather a collection of various utensils, or just one type, all spoons or all forks, for example, which would make a unique statement piece. By drilling holes at the end of each piece, you can easily string the silverware up and create an eye-catching wind chime to add to your backyard decor. Other accents could be added, such as glass beads or other metal embellishments, adding another level of interest to this unique garden decoration. The silverware could be mounted with a clear fishing line to a metal ring, or even to a vintage plate or bowl to finish off the project.

7. Use a vintage metal box spring as a garden planter.

An antique metal box spring can make a great addition to your garden space, as it can serve as a unique planter option for displaying and growing several plants in a small area. The frame will not weather or rot as quickly as wood and will stand up to the outdoor elements for many years in your yard. Small pots can be mounted to the frame to grow a variety of flowers and even herbs. Another option is to use the bed spring’s spiral design as a ready-made planter, just line with peat moss, add soil and drop plants right in. Herbs can be grown in this style of planter and succulents, which can create a beautiful work of art when planted in a group.

6. Teacups aren’t only great as planters — they also make beautiful birdfeeders.

Vintage plate ware has yet another use with this easy DIY project that is perfect for your vintage garden. You can easily find vintage plates and cups at a yard sale or flea market. Just attach the teacup to the saucer on its side; make sure you create a space for the birdseed to “pour” out from onto the saucer. This idea is a charming little feeder for your feathered friends to perch on and eat while they visit your garden.

5. Use old-school wagons or vintage toy trucks as planters.

Metal toy trucks are the perfect vehicle for a creative way to grow plants in your garden or on your patio. These trucks come in many different sizes, styles, and finishes, and the older, the better, as any imperfections add more character to this great vintage planter. Adding a coat of paint if you desire will not detract from the vintage feel these trucks can add to your garden. The truck bed can be planted with shallow-rooted plants, such as succulents; even the cab can be used as a planter, with plants in the windows on each side.

4. These garden arches are easy to find and create a romantic garden area.

Chances are you or someone you know a couple of these wooden ladders lying around already. First, decide on the dimensions for your archway based on where you want to place it. You can set this arch in an entryway to your garden to create a welcoming feel, or even nestle the assembled ladder arch into an area where vines can be grown across it. The look of the wooden ladder immediately puts an antique touch on your garden space.

3. Create a milk jug planter and your garden will appear vintage right away.

Antique milk jugs are a classic vintage addition to any garden. They have that unique, old-world charm and can be planted with tiny, flowering plants or vines that will help decorate your space and add a vintage vibe at the same time. Milk jugs can be found at yard sales or flea markets, and they are ready to go with a weathered condition that showcases their classic vintage appeal. Most planters have great character as they are with their worn metal finish, but adding a coat of paint is also a great option to add a burst of color in your yard as well.

2. Stack glass plates and cups in your garden to create color-faux stalks.

Vintage glass plates, bowls, and cups can be easily assembled to create this eye-catching project. To do this project, find various plates and cups in different sizes and coordinate or contrast colors to create a beautiful flower sculpture that will also act as a suncatcher as it hangs out among the flowers in your garden bed. Pinwheel hardware kits can be purchased online to give you all the necessary tools to assemble these fun, colorful works of art for your garden.

1. Place antique-looking keys throughout the garden for an magical atmosphere.

There are a number of items that create a vintage theme, including bicycles, birdcages, and tea sets. Any type of rusty metal that you can place in the garden also works. Keys are one of those pieces that can join the list of vintage pieces. You can tie keys to a tree branch, let the hang like leaves, or place them throughout the garden. If you have a gate, place the actual key to that gate in the garden. It will create an enchanting vibe that is completely nostalgic.

A life hack is a process or action which makes life easier, eliminating or making bearable the chaos which ordinarily makes life frustrating. The word is relatively new, but the process it describes is as old as humanity. It can be a shortcut for managing daily activity, a tip on how to complete a task quickly and with a minimum of discomfort, or a trick through which a problem is circumvented. In other words, humanity has been developing and using lifehacks since time immemorial. As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9 there is no new thing under the sun (KJV).

Back in the early 20^th century, cigarette packagers included cardboard inserts in their packs, used to stiffen the sides and keep the cigarettes from being crushed. Some decided to include pictures on the cardboard in the belief that obtaining the entire set would entice smokers to continue to purchase their brand of cigarettes and the industry of baseball cards was born. Others printed directions on unusual means of solving mundane problems. Newspapers and magazines printed such tips too, and they survive down through the ages, some of them simple and some no longer really necessary. Since celluloid collars and cuffs are no longer in vogue, for example, removing stains from them is no longer much of a concern. But many old tips survive. Here are just a few.

1. Keeping wooden furniture clean and the surface shiny

The housewife of yesteryear wasn’t able to grab a can of furniture spray polish and in a few strokes restore a piece to a deep sheen. And it was very much the housewife’s responsibility to do so, unless she was fortunate enough to have a husband who agreed to employ a maid. Many did, the number of servants employed by a household was often a sign of class standing. Even if a maid was employed, it was still the wife’s role to ensure her husband’s house was presentable at all times, and without the myriad of household products available today inventiveness was often necessary to assist her in her tasks.

To make a polish which made the heavy wooden furniture and wooden highlights throughout the house glow, paraffin, which was readily available, was mixed with vinegar (the versatility of vinegar is itself an ancient lifehack). The solution was roughly half and half, and to mask the smell of the vinegar some drops of citrus, or other essences such as rosewater would be added. The concoction was applied to wood with muslin cloth, or other cloth, and polished dry. The wood was cleaned by the vinegar, polished by the paraffin, and though a husband might not have noticed the effort, he was at least offered no reason for displeasure with his wife.

2. Removing ink stains was a problem born with fountain pens

One reason shirts for decades were worn with disposable cuffs was the staining which occurred when using pens. For similar reasons collars too were of celluloid, making them disposable rather than scrubbing them to remove stains induced from hair tonics and perspiration. With the advent of fountain pens, which were also a status symbol, ink stains from pens which leaked or exploded blotted shirts, and removing the ink was a difficult process. Ink stains are still a common reason for the premature disposal of shirts long before they have passed their prime.

The housewife or laundress of the past had a simple solution for removing ink stains, which worked on some other common stains as well. Although it worked best if the ink was still wet, or the stain was still fairly new, immersion in milk for a few hours saw the stain merged with the fluid, after which the shirt was washed normally. Bear in mind that most shirts of days past, at least dress shirts, were of cotton, linen, or another natural fiber, rather than materials of blended man-made fibers, and there was no such thing as permanent ink, which flows from many marker pens today.

3. Perfectly prepared potatoes were no problem with this tip

There were many cookbooks of the mid-to-late 19^th century which treated potatoes with disdain. Mrs. Beeton, whose cookbook was entitled. Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management regarded potatoes as, “…narcotic, and many are deleterious” (she also found lobster to be unpalatable). But potatoes became a large part of standard diet in the 19^th century, and remain so. One of the primary means of cooking them was boiling and it was also easy to boil them too long with too much salt, or too little, leading to a poorly flavored and mushy result.

A simple tip to prevent such a disaster was to simply add sugar with the salt when the water had come to a boil, which ensured its dissolving quickly and evenly. Once boiled sufficiently the potatoes were drained and returned to the heat and the pot shaken, allowing them to dry evenly, and the wise cook completed the task with perfectly textured potatoes to present at table. Whether they would be succulent enough to alter the opinion expressed by Mrs. Beeton would be anybody’s guess. Most likely they would not.

4. Candles could be easily fitted to a candlestick with a simple act

Candles which don’t fit candle holders because they are either too wide at the base, or too small, have always been frustrating. Though they no longer serve the purpose as the primary source of light during the evenings and on dark days, they still are prevalent in the home, as mood lighting, as a source of scent, and as decoration. In the past, they were primarily for light, and since they were often carried from room to room it was necessary to ensure they were snugly lodged in their holders. Paring down a too-thick base was messy, and often yielded less than satisfactory results.

So did melting some wax in the bottom of the holder and placing a too small candle in the pool, in the hope that it would hold the candle upright once it hardened. A far more reliable solution was to immerse the end of the candle in hot water, softening the wax. Once pliable, the candle end could be molded to the necessary width using the hands, protected by gloves or a towel. They would then be properly and safely fitted into the candleholder, which remained free of lumps of previously melted wax.

5. A use for potatoes of which Mrs. Beeton may have approved

Doing laundry was a bit less convenient for the housewife of the past; it was often set aside for a single day of the week, as were other housekeeping chores. She also had to deal with mud to a greater degree than today; roads and streets were often unpaved and passing carriages sprayed mud from their fender-free wheels. Placing clothes soiled with mud and stains from mud in the wash tub left her to wash water muddy, rendering it useless for the rest of her laundry. Either she could change the water and the expensive soap it contained, or she could devise a means of cleaning mud stains from garments before they entered the tub.

If she chose the latter, she could prepare the clothes for laundering – today it would be called pretreating – by rubbing the mud-stained garments with peeled whole potatoes. The potatoes were raw, and when they became too muddy they were simply rinsed with fresh water. When the potatoes could be rubbed across the stains without extracting any more mud the clothes were ready for immersion in the wash water. The rest of the washing was thus protected from being exposed to the mud, and the potatoes were simply thrown away.

6. Another use for the humble potato was common in smart homes

Gardening was a popular hobby during the Gilded Age among the middle class, though less for the vegetables it yielded to the table and more for the flowers it provided as decorations for the home. Cut flowers were sold by vendors in the streets of cities and in the markets. Vasefuls of flowers not only served as decorations, but as air fresheners in homes which had no circulating heating and cooling systems, other than open windows if the season allowed. But since freshly cut flowers were just as prone to wilting then as they are today, several means of extending their freshness and appeal were practiced.

One was the addition of a bit of sugar to the water. Aspirin, which is used for the same purpose today, was not readily available. Another means was the removal of the flowers from a vase, snipping the ends of the stems, and wrapping them in hot, moist towels. When returned to the vase they were reinvigorated. Another means was through the use of potatoes to prevent the flowers from wilting, without the use of water. Cut flowers were inserted into holes cut into raw potatoes, allowing them to be arranged, or transported, without water. They were said to last as long as a week when so arranged.

7. Polishing leather shoes and boots

Men used to get their shoes and boots cleaned while going about their daily business, using bootblacks and shoeshine boys. They were often found in or nearby barbershops, for some a daily stop in order to get shaved. But a shine stand wasn’t available at home, for the most part, and no self-respecting housewife would allow her husband to leave for his daily business wearing soiled or scuffed boots or shoes, anymore than she would allow him to appear in public wearing a soiled collar or a ragged and torn coat. Shoes which were marred on the way home, or in the home, needed to be made presentable within the home, one of the many duties of the lady of the house (or the servants).

Scuffed, soiled, or tired looking leather was easily reinvigorated through the use of either vinegar or lemons. Vinegar or olive oil would be used to remove stains and residue from tar or other detritus picked up walking about town. Then the entire boot or shoe was rubbed with a cut lemon, until the lemon was drained of its juice. After the footwear dried it was buffed with a soft towel, giving it a soft luster which was the envy of the boot black. Straw hats, popular in the summer months, were treated in the same manner, keeping them clean and smart in appearance.

8. Removing foreign objects from the eye was a common problem in the past

The air in cities and towns was filled with flying objects detrimental to the eye in the days before the automobile and paved roads. Cinders from fires were common. Dust was raised on dry days by horse drawn wagons, taxis, and carriages. Dust was further added to the air by servants beating rugs and drapes to clean them. There were several kinds of smoke filling the air, wood smoke, coal smoke, tobacco smoke, and ashes from all fires were tossed about by the breeze. Nature added its gifts to the air, such as gnats and midges and other miniscule flying pests.

Foreign objects landing in the eye were common, and likely people were just as susceptible to having an eyelash land there as they are now. Eyedrops were for the most part unknown outside of the balms available from doctors and apothecaries. In the home a simple method of removing a foreign object from the eye was used. A small drop of oil was placed in the corner of the eye near the tear duct, allowed to sit for a moment or two, and then gently wiped away after it flowed down the cheek. The irritating object, whether ash or lash, stuck to the oil and was thus safely removed.

9. The United States Practical Receipt Book

The word receipt was used interchangeably with the word recipe in early cookbooks and household guides until the late nineteenth century or so. In 1844 the publishing firm of Lindsay and Blakiston of Philadelphia, released the United States Practical Receipt Book, which was a collection of lifehacks, to be taken advantage of by the well-informed of the day. Among the hacks were simple instructions on how one could make one’s own condoms out of sheep intestines, readily available from a butcher. “Used to prevent infection or pregnancy”, read the guidebook, in instructions which consisted of a single paragraph.

The book suggested mixing rose oil, castor oil, lavender oil, and a hefty dose of “good Jamaica rum” to create a solution which would then be used to, “occasionally anoint the head” after shaking the bottle vigorously. The solution was intended to invigorate the scalp and restore hair growth. It also recommended a daily washing of the hair and scalp, with “good old Jamaica rum” to prevent the hair from falling out. One cannot help but wonder if the homemade condoms were more effective than the homemade cure for male pattern baldness.

10. Making beer from the shells of peas

The art of shelling peas had all but died out before the foodie craze brought it back, but in the mid-19^th century and the early 21^st the problem of what to do with the discarded pods presents a problem. Particularly for those for whom waste is aberrant. In 1844 a solution was offered. By simmering the shells for three hours and adding wood sage or hops, a liquor was produced and set aside to ferment. “The wood sage is the best substitute for hops, and being free from any anodyne property, is entitled to a preference”, according to the Practical Receipts Book.

Several further hacks are listed in the book, including the means of improving the flavor of coffee (add chicory), mixing drinks using liquors such as whiskey and gin, and a method of preparing a coffee substitute, using a powder made from dried and ground acorns. Since beer made from peas, or more accurately the empty pods, would likely emerge from fermentation with a pronounced green color, it could probably be used as a hack to create one’s own green beer for Saint Patrick’s Day, should one be inclined in celebrating the feast in such a manner.

11. Robinson Crusoe developed a rash of lifehacks

To some, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (the full title is too long to be presented here) is the first true novel written in the English language. Defoe wrote the novel as if it were an autobiography of the protagonist, whose name was Robinson Kreutznaer, and based it according to some on the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish traveler who survived 4 years marooned on a Pacific Island. The book first appeared in 1719, and has been in print in one form or another ever since. In the story, Crusoe arrives on an island following a shipwreck and aided by some tools he managed to salvage from the vessel is forced to learn to survive.

Crusoe had corn with which to make bread, but lacked all of the tools necessary to complete the processing of grains from plants to steaming fresh bread. He created them all using whatever was at hand. Tree limbs served as threshers, a cutlass saved from the ship served as a scythe. From the wood of a tree, he fashioned a crude mortar and pestle to grind the dried kernels into flour, and the cloth of shirts and neckcloths served to sift it. Throughout his stay on the island, Crusoe used the materials at hand to make his life more bearable, during his many other adventures which kept him on his toes throughout.

12. The Boy Scout Handbook contained numerous tips which would later be called lifehacks

In the United States, the first edition of what is known as the Boy Scout Handbook first appeared in 1910, as the Official Handbook for Boys: A Handbook of Woodcraft, Scouting, and Life-craft. It drew heavily on the earlier British Scouting for Boys by Lord Baden-Powell, though it Americanized much of its predecessor’s British flavor. While many of the hacks it presented were for situations unique to scouting activities, others applied to everyday life, and are still useful today. Some applied to the kitchen in the home as much as when preparing food beside a campfire. One such example is determining if eggs were fresh.

Few things are as detrimental to an appetite for eggs in any form as the revelation that one is rotten. Though clearly stamped use by dates has greatly reduced the probability of encountering a rotten egg in the modern kitchen, the possibility still exists. When in doubt as to the freshness of an egg, the Boy Scouts recommended simply immersing it in water. Fresh eggs sink to the bottom, while those of dubious quality float on their ends. Floating eggs thus identified could be discarded without opening them and revealing the unappetizing mess hidden within the shell.

13. Enhancing the light from a single candle

It is rare to have to fall back on candlelight as a source of illumination nowadays, especially with flashlights part of most smartphones, always at hand, it seems. Temporary losses of electrical power are about the only time candles are resorted to for lighting, and when they are the brightness from a candle can be enhanced through as simple expedient suggested by the Boy Scout Handbook in its 1950 edition. It was especially useful outdoors, when the light from a single candle could both be increased, making it visible at a greater distance in an emergency, while at once protecting the flame from being extinguished by the wind.

A glass jar or bottle, taller than the candle, can be employed as a shroud for the flame. Simply breaking the bottom of the vessel allows it to be slipped over the candle. A bottle with rounded shoulders beneath the neck worked best for the application. The bottle protected the flame from the wind, and the glass acted to enhance the glow emitted by the flame, creating both a signal lantern and a brighter light in the vicinity of the bottle. The simple trick created a more useful lamp in the home, and a more reliable source of light when outdoors, the true milieu of Scouts the world over.

14. Even flattening a nail had a right and wrong way to go about it

Nails driven all the way through wood are common, and a common hazard for some. They were driven all the way through because they were too long for the purpose for which they were employed in the first place. Often the error is compounded by an attempt to pound the protruding sharp end of the nail flat into the wood, which usually leaves the point exposed, ready to snag whatever it encounters. Correcting the first error can be accomplished without performing the second, leaving a hidden sharp point ready to rip through clothing or skin. All that is required is another nail, presuming one has a hammer already in hand.

Before hammering the point flat, the second nail, or other round object such as a piece of wire, is laid horizontally beside the offending nail. The latter is then hammered down towards the wire. This causes the point of the nail to curve over the wire, directing it back toward the wood it has already penetrated. Once the guide wire or nail is removed the point of the nail is then driven down into the wood which it buries itself within, no longer exposed in a position from which it can inflict discomfort or damage to the unwary.

15. Manage busy lifestyles by adding more time to the day

The modern lifestyle can be and often is hectic and pressure-filled from arising in the morning through retiring at night. It often seems that the myriad of devices designed for the purpose of making daily life more manageable, and creating more leisure time, in fact, do the opposite. Communication is constant, and the pressure to respond to every message, whatever the source, eats into all other activities. Nearly all devices are thought necessary to clean the home, do the laundry, cook the meals, balance the books, go to work, meet deadlines, complete projects, and schedule time off, require someone to operate them, and the pressures on time are enormous. Relatively few have household servants today.

Mrs. Beeton was not aware of virtually any of the pressures of modern time, beyond those necessary to maintain a home and have meals prepared on schedule. Still, she listed many pressures during her day too, and suggested that they could be dealt with successfully through two simple means. First was the preparation of daily schedules in the form of lists, with each task checked off when accomplished, as a measure of success and a source of further motivation. She also suggested that those unable to complete their lists successfully because there wasn’t enough time in the day could easily remedy the problem. She suggested simply getting started earlier through the expedient of getting up earlier.

16. Life hacks were Benjamin Franklin’s stock in trade in his Almanacks

Benjamin Franklin began printing his famous work Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1732, using the pen name Richard Saunders. It was published every year through 1758, and was one of the most widely read publications in colonial America. Besides including weather forecasts for the coming seasons, astronomical observations, puzzles and riddles and other fare, it included tips in the form of practical suggestions for the use of various items, and the pithy sayings of Poor Richard, many of which were what today would be considered lifehacks, in all matters of daily living and human interaction.

Franklin is not generally regarded today as a man who practiced a life of moderation, though in truth he was for his day and age. He particularly recommended that life could be more productive and pleasant by being moderate in consumption of food. “A full belly makes a dull brain” he exhorted his readers, pointing out senses numbed through overindulgence at meals. In a later edition, he was more forceful writing, “A full belly is the mother of all evil”. There are those who believe that Franklin, the inventor of bifocals, the Franklin stove, the armonica, and the lightning rod, among many others, was also the inventor of tips and practices now called lifehacks.

17. There are lifehacks present in the works of Mark Twain

Those who for whatever reason deem it necessary to disguise themselves as members of the opposite sex will find a tip in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which, if followed, will lend an air of authenticity to their disguise. When Huck disguises himself as a girl to see what he can learn about the townspeople’s thoughts on his disappearance and presumed murder he visits a local widow. As they talked, she grew suspicious over his appearance, and after suggesting that she was unable to hit nearby rats with a lump of metal, asked Huck to attempt the throw for her. She dropped the lump of metal into his lap, and his reaction confirmed her suspicion that he was a boy disguised as a girl.

Therein lies the tip. She later explains to Huck that a girl, when something is dropped into her lap, would open her legs to receive it, catching it in the folds of her skirt, whereas a male (programmed by nature to protect what he holds most dear) would react as Huck had, clamping the legs together in response to the sudden intrusion of the object. Coupled with the fact that Huck had forgotten the name he originally gave her, substituting another, and didn’t throw like a girl, she deduced that he was a male in disguise. Useful information for impersonators, and indicative of the fact lifehacks from the past can be found in many diverse sources.

18. Preserving fresh eggs without refrigeration

Until the advent of commercial refrigeration, eggs were seldom purchased in amounts which exceeded what was desired for immediate consumption. Many households raised their own chickens and produced their own eggs. In the absence of springhouses and other means of keeping them cool, many ideas about the preservation of eggs, which were checked for freshness by a process known as candling, were offered to consumers (candling was the process of observing the content within an egg using the light of a candle behind it). Most agreed that sealing the shell from being exposed to air lengthened the time an egg would remain fresh.

One method described in the first decade of the twentieth century sealed the eggs by burying them in table salt. The process required eggs to be freshly laid, and completely inserted into a box or tin filled with salt, which was then also sealed and stored where they would be kept dry, and as cool as possible. It was important that the entire egg was completely immersed in the salt, with no part of the shell exposed to the air. The cool and dry component of the process likely had more to do with the eggs remaining fresh for an extended period, if in fact, they did so at all.

19. Homemade fire extinguishers that resembled Molotov cocktails in reverse

Fire extinguishers for the home and especially for the kitchen are readily available commercially (and highly recommended by experts) but for those who prefer to make their own, there was a formula used in the early twentieth century. They contained water, salt, and salammoniac. It was possible, and somewhat common, to substitute sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, for the latter. A half-pound of salt, quarter-pound of baking soda, and a quart of water were mixed into quart bottles, preferably made of fragile glass, and stored in a handy spot.

If a fire broke out in the kitchen, or elsewhere in the home, the intent was to throw the bottle into the center of the conflagration with enough force to shatter the bottle, allowing its contents to smother the flames. Depending upon the type of fire, such a device would be as likely to ignite flammables in other areas due to the dispersal effect of the bottle hitting the flames (a grease fire, for example, could splatter all over the room). In such a case the fire could require multiple bottles, thrown at the multiple fires which would be a likely result of the use of such an extinguisher.

20. Stopping a “mad dog” was evidently a needed social skill in the past

There were several methods of safely fending off the unwanted attentions of a mad dog in days past, with the Handbook for Boys describing one, which was repeated in several other publications and collections of tips for dealing with life successfully. It presumed that whenever out in public, a Scout would be equipped with a walking staff or stick, as well as the neckerchief which was part of the Scout’s uniform, and the wide-brimmed hat. Any could be used to fend off the dog, which would turn to disabling the defenses before striking at the defender, mad dogs being mad, but presumably not stupid.

By distracting the dog by proffering the hat or neckerchief on the end of the stick, or simply the end of the stick itself, the animal could be maneuvered into a position favorable for “giving you the opportunity of disabling him with a kick”. However this method, as noted, was entirely dependent on being properly equipped with a distracting device and a stout stick when the dog chose its time for attack, and unless one was (the Boy Scout motto was Be Prepared), one was more likely to have to rapidly arrive at another method of dealing with a mad dog.

21. Dealing with people who won’t shut up

Encountering someone who simply won’t stop talking is a hazard to life and has been since ancient times, as history recounts. In daily life, it is common to encounter someone who simply cannot give it a rest, whether the subject being of some importance or simply trivial inanity. It can be a friend temporarily annoying, a complete stranger standing in a seemingly endless line not moving, or someone seated beside on a public conveyance. The modern defense of inserting earbuds may be resorted too, but sometimes the desired atmosphere is simply one of peace and quiet. There were lifehacks in the past which could be called upon.

One is to quote Shakespeare, though this defense comes with some risk. It may encourage the talker to simply enter into a discussion of Shakespeare, unless delivered with the proper scorn. “Give thy thoughts no tongue” (Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3) might bring about the desired silence, though woe unto them who utter it unknowingly to a Shakespeare fan. One might also quote Poor Richard, delivered with a sigh, “Teach your child to hold his tongue, he’ll learn fast enough to speak”. But it may be best to observe self-consolation, from Poor Richard, “Since I cannot govern my own tongue, tho’ within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongues of others?”

22. Returning to cooking at home opens the way to return to old cooking tips

In the late 1990s, a trend began which continues, that of preparing meals at home, using fresh locally produced ingredients whenever and wherever possible. Prepackaged, “complete” meals are delivered to the door, grocery stores reintroduced the delivery of foods to the home, and cooking returned to a place from which it had temporarily been exiled. With it comes the need for old tips which made the chore easier to be reinstated. Few are new, though some seem to think they are. Most are skills and ideas developed over centuries by cooks to ease their task.

One such is the use of an inverted clear pie plate, or casserole dish, or glass baking pan, over the recipe card or cookbook page being referenced while preparing a meal. The glass protects the page from being soiled from the efforts of the cook, and at the same time acts to enlarge the print and images on the page. As household cooks learned to use this technique, which goes back decades, they also found that the weight of the dish prevented the pages of the cookbook from flapping.

23. Many of the techniques of kitchens past apply to the modern equipment in kitchens today

The 1940s housewife would often grind meat in her own kitchen for the preparation of sausages, meatloaves, or other preparations rather than purchase it already ground from a butcher. As the foodie trend developed in the late 20^th century, home cooks began taking advantage of new meat grinders and attachments for other kitchen appliances to do the same thing. They then blended the meat with bread crumbs, to stretch it and to use as a binder. But it isn’t necessary to use previously prepared bread crumbs, as is so often done.

The 1940s cook would use bread crusts in the same grinder in which the meat had been ground, which had the function of cleaning the remaining meat from the grinder and producing the filler to be added to the meat, once blended with the desired flavorings. The method eliminated the wasteful throwing out of bread just past its peak freshness, made cleaning up easier, and helped stretch the household budget for food. It had the additional benefit of freeing cabinet space otherwise occupied by cartons of breadcrumbs. It was just one of many kitchen hacks which found a resurgence as cooking became once again a favorable home activity.

24. Cleaning methods from the 1940s can replace many household cleaners

In the 1940s, salt and vinegar were used for many of the applications later supplanted by expensive chemical cleaners. When items boiled over on the stove, salt was liberally applied to the overflow on the stove’s surface, soaking it up and preventing it from burning and smoking heavily. Later it was wiped away. Salt was used to perform the same function on the floor of the oven. A mixture of salt dissolved in vinegar was used to remove tea stains from china cups and saucers. Vinegar was also used to remove a dull finish in aluminum pans, or apple peels were boiled within, accomplishing the same purpose.

Cast iron skillets and pans, once properly seasoned, seldom had bits leftover which required scouring (which ruins the seasoning of the pan) but when they did 1940s cooks used the trick of adding a bit of salt in vinegar and bringing it to a boil, lifting the burnt-on bits from the surface. Cider vinegar was used to wash hands to remove the smell of onions, fish, and other undesirable odors. Stains on the hands from chopping vegetables such as beets were removed by rubbing them with a raw potato. And long before a box of baking soda was marketed for the purpose of deodorizing refrigerators, containers of vinegar occupied the appliance for similar reasons.

25. Hacks from the 1940s are still pertinent in the 21^st century

During the 1940s and 1950s Popular Mechanics offered an annual book to its readers called Home Kinks. The kinks, which correspond to the more modern hacks, were for the most part submitted by readers and selected by the magazine’s editors. Many are available online. In one issue, seven plywood trays were attached to a wooden stake by the stake penetrating a hole in their corners. Each was separated from the preceding by a wooden collar. When the stake was driven into the ground, each tray could be rotated outwards in a manner that resembled a hand of playing cards, creating a portable picnic table for several picnickers.

Another brilliant and still useful idea appeared in 1946. When painting by dipping brush into can, the can quickly became covered with paint from scraping excess from the brush. A reader suggested taking the lid from an empty can and cutting away the center portion, leaving intact the rim which attached to the can and a lip wide enough to accommodate a paintbrush. When opening a new can of paint, this lid replaced the one removed and the lip is used to clean the side of the brush of excess paint. When the job was finished, the scraper lid was removed and the remaining paint could be resealed with its original lid, with both lid and can free from excessive paint blocking a seal.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“How well do 100-Year-Old Lifehacks Hold Up?” Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics. May 16, 2017

“How to Remove Ink Stains: 12 Household Solutions”. Editors, Readers Digest. Online

“The Book of Household Management”. Isabella Beeton, 1861 edition. Project Gutenberg. Online

“Housekeeping in Old Virginia”. Marion Cabell Tyree. 1879. Online

“Cassell’s Household Guide”. Cassell, Petter and Galpin, editors and publishers. 1869 edition. Online

“The Skillful Housewife’s Book”. L. G. Abell. 1853. Online

“How to make condoms, 19^th century style…” Sarah Griffiths, Daily Mail. September 16, 2015

“The United States Practical Receipt Book”. Lindsay & Blakiston. 1844. Digitized online at Internet Archive

“The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”. Daniel Defoe. 1719

“Boy Scouts’ Handbook, 1911 Edition”. Boy Scouts of America. Project Gutenberg. Online

“Poor Richard’s Almanack”. Benjamin Franklin. Compilation edition, 1914. Internet Archive

“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Companion)”. Mark Twain. 1885 edition. Project Gutenberg. Online

“Cigarette Cards: The Lifehacks of 100 Years Ago”. Therese O’Neill, The Week. July 9, 2013. Online

“James Beard’s American Cookery”. James Beard. 1972

Many of you may be familiar with hoarders because of the TV shows depicting the lives of people who hoard their belongings until it’s nearly impossible to live in their homes anymore. Even though the media has only recently brought it to light, hoarding is not a new phenomenon. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Hoarding disorder is a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them.

A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs.” Hoarding has been going on for as long as people have been alive, but many of these people have been forgotten. Here are some of the most famous examples of hoarders from history. 

The Collyer Brothers Literally Passed Away In Their Hoard of Stuff

Two of the most famous hoarders in history were brothers Homer and Langley Collyer. Both of them were very accomplished in life. They attended Columbia University, where Homer earned a degree in law and Langley studied engineering. Their father was a wealthy gynecologist, so the family had a lot of money. These brothers never married, and lived with their mother in the family’s Harlem brownstone until she passed. One of the first things they began collecting was newspapers, because Home went blind temporarily, and Langley wanted to let him catch up with the news. As time went on, Harlem became increasingly dangerous. This caused Homer and Langley to become isolated in their home. They would only go out food shopping at midnight, and pick up trash they found on the side of the road to add to their “treasures”.  

Years later, the police received an anonymous tip that there were bodies in the Collyer house. When the police and fire department arrived, they found so much trash that the brothers had built tunnels to crawl around from room to room. They discovered the first brother, Homer, had succumbed to starvation and heart disease. The second brother, Langley, was found three weeks later buried in trash just 10 feet away from Homer’s body. He had met his end by asphyxiation. Police theorized that Langley was trying to crawl through a tunnel to bring food to Homer when the trash fell and crushed him. The estate was split up, and the house was torn down. Today, the site of their home has been turned into a small park.

Artist Andy Warhol Stored Thousands of Pieces of Junk in Cardboard Boxes

Andy Warhol is an artist who became famous in the 1960’s for his pop art and short films. Some of his most famous pieces were his images of Cambell soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. He began making “time capsules” of his life, but they were actually filled with random things. Andy Warhol sealed away a total of 300,000 items in 610 boxes over the course of 13 years. Some of the items included were magazines, photographs, letters, toys, watches, stamps, and even old Cambell soup cans that were now rotten from decades of decay. This sounds like a lot of random junk, but Andy Warhol actually curated these boxes to be considered a work of art. A British art historian named Tim Marlow said, “There is an element of surrealist about Warhol. These odd, disparate objects put together have a kind of curious poetry.”

When it was time to open the boxes, The Andy Warhol Museum sold tickets to fans of his work to witness the event. One person even paid $30,000 just to have the privilege of opening the last box. To a lot of people, this just seems like a lot of trash. Andy Warhol held onto this stuff for decades. Even though it was neatly packed away in boxes, doesn’t it still count as hoarding? But since he was a famous artist, it’s interpreted as “art”.

Thomas Jefferson Hoarded a Massive Book Collection That Still Exists Today

Not many people realize that former President Thomas Jefferson had a massive book collection. Calling him a “hoarder” might sound a little harsh, but it was truly massive. In 1770, Jefferson’s childhood home called Shadwell tragically burned to the ground. When he wrote about the fire, one of the first things he mentioned losing was his massive book collection. We’re not saying that the books were the cause of the fire, but it’s well known that having a lot of paper around your house is a fire hazard, because of how flammable it is. 

Over the next ten years, he made up for the loss by collecting thousands of books for the library at Monticello. In 1814, the British burned the nation’s Capitol and the Library of Congress. Once that library burned, Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection was the largest in the country. After the fire, Jefferson kindly offered the library his collection to replace what was burned. They agreed, and purchased 6,487 books for $23,950 in 1815. Tragically, there was another fire on Christmas Eve of 1851, which destroyed two-thirds of the books Jefferson had donated. In recent years, generous grants have helped the Library of Congress to reassemble the antique books that were lost in the fire, so that the Jefferson collection could be complete once again.

Cousins of Jackie Kennedy, The Bouviers, Were the Inspiration For “Grey Gardens”

Mother-daughter hoarders “Little Edie” and “Big Edie” Bouvier were famous for more than just being hoarders. They were also the cousins of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The Edies both lived in the lavish Grey Gardens estate in East Hampton, New York. Big Edie was abandoned by her husband, and left without alimony. Little Edie tried and failed to become an actress, and moved back in with her mom. Both of these women were living in absolute squalor. In 1971, the Suffolk County Health Department entered the home and cited several code violations. They had a 5-foot pile of food cans stacked up in the dining room, and there was human waste in one of the bedrooms. Jackie Kennedy felt so guilty and embarrassed that she sent her cousins $32,000 to help them survive and fix up the house as much as they could.

This story circulated the newspapers in the 1970’s, but The Edies became world-famous after the documentary called Grey Gardens premiered in 1975. Despite everything she had been through, Little Edie still played it up for the cameras by singing and dancing. It became a huge cult classic, especially among people who loved musical theater. Years later, in 2009, a movie also called Grey Gardens premiered, starring Drew Barrymore. In the movie version, we see the backstory of these women’s lives before they became hoarders. A series of traumatic experiences were to blame for them becoming reclusive. After her mother passed away, Little Edie sold the house and moved around. She even had the opportunity to be a paid performer in New York City, and made friends with her new fanbase. 

Ida Mayfield Wood Hid Her Riches and Lived in Hoarding Squalor

Two sisters, Ida Wood and Mary Mayfield lived together in the Herald Square Hotel for 24 years. On May 5, 1931, 93-year old Ida left her hotel room to ask for help, because her sister was sick. When hotel employees and the rescue team entered the room, they found  “yellowed newspapers, cracker boxes, balls of used string, stacks of old wrapping paper and several large trunks.” The sisters never allowed maids to enter their room, and they had breakfast delivered to them daily through room service. Aside from the trash that had accumulated in the room, it was clear to everyone that Ida had not bathed in a very long time. These sisters weren’t your average hoarders. They also accumulated cash, jewels, bonds, and fine silks. For whatever reason, they were hoarding their riches and living in squalor as reclusive widows.

During the financial crisis of 1907, Ida went to her bank and withdrew $1 million in cash, carrying it out in her purse. She reportedly told an employee that she was “tired of everything”, and checked herself into the hotel. Every time Ida gave a tip to the bellhop, she claimed that she would soon run out of money. Clearly, she had a fear of revealing her wealth to the public. Unfortunately for Ida, she was declared incompetent after she revealed herself to the world. The hotel forced her to leave the room. It was later revealed that Ida Mayfield’s real name was Ellen Walsh. She was the daughter of a poor Irish immigrant, and she changed her name in order to attract a wealthy husband.

Artist Bettina Grossman Had So Much Artwork, She Had No Room to Sleep

An artist named Bettina Grossman lived in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City from the 1960’s until her passing in 2021. She produced a massive amount of art, and kept most of it in her hotel room. There was so much artwork in her home that she had to sleep on a lawn chair in the middle of the hallway. In order to make space, Grossman hung a lot of her pieces up in the hallway of the hotel. However, in 2011, the hotel demanded that she take all of the paintings down, due to a renovation. In the last 30 years of her life, Bettina Grossman became a recluse, and rarely left her hotel room. Rent skyrocketed to a minimum of $4,000 a month in modern times, but Grossman was able to afford to continue living there because of New York City’s state rent regulations. 

A Dutch filmmaker named Corinne van der Borch created a documentary called Girl With the Black Balloon about Bettina Grossman. There is also a second documentary about her called Bettina. Both of the movies show everyone how she used the hotel room as her home, studio, and storage space. During both films, the camera crew tried to help Bettina organize her work on shelves so that she would have more space. But that was quickly used up again once she made more work. In 2006, the Chelsea Hotel attempted to evict her, because of the state of her apartment. But they failed to do so in court, and she was allowed to stay there until her passing.

Edmund Trebus Became Famous After Appearing on TV

In the United Kingdom, the BBC’s equivalent of Hoarders was a TV series called Life of Grime. Edmund Trebus became famous when he appeared on the show in 1999. Trebus lived in his 5-bedroom house where every single room was filled with junk. Many of the rooms were filled with his collection of vacuum cleaners and cameras. He was living in the house alone without running water or electricity. His hoarding was discovered after neighbors complained, because the home was attracting rats, and everything smelled like rotting trash. Trebus was using his backyard as a toilet, because his indoor plumbing no longer worked.

When the Health Department arrived to help clear out his home, Edmund Trebus was furious, telling everyone to get off his property. He was a Polish war veteran, and survived living in the concentration camps during World War II. Finally, they cleaned his house. It took 30 days, and they filled up  five large trucks and 11 skips with trash. But two years later, Edmund Trebus had done it again. His house was filled with trash all over again, and he appeared on a second episode of the show. When he passed away in 2002, The Guardian wrote up a lengthy obituary about him, which tells his entire life story. 

William Randolph Hearst’s Real-Life Hoard Inspired Citizen Kane 

Multi-millionaire William Randolph Hearst was a famous businessman and newspaper publisher. Just like your average hoarder, he collected random items like “door knockers, warming pans, tile stoves, musical instruments, pipes, and lanterns.” He also had a more expensive and high-class collection of fine art. His collection was so massive, he owned 25% of the global art market all on his own. Yes, fine art is a smart financial investment. But Hearst truly went to the extreme. He even bought an entire Spanish monastery, and had it shipped back to the United States. But many of the pieces were lost on the journey.

William Randolph Hearst inspired the movie Citizen Kane. In the movie, we see a massive collection of art and random objects held in a warehouse. This is where he kept his precious “Rosebud” sled that we see at the end of the movie. By 1937, he had spent so much of his money that his massive business empire was on the brink of bankruptcy. He was forced to sell many of his paintings. Today, the pieces that were left in his collection are still on display in Hearst’s former home. There are also 170 pieces on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II Had a Castle Full of Curiosities 

So far on this list, we see that even people who grew up in a wealthy home or succeed in business could still be capable of becoming hoarders. It only makes sense, then, that a political leader would also be bitten by the collecting bug. In the 1500’s, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II hoarded a massive collection of “arms and armor, coins, books and manuscripts, portraits, and masterpieces of fine craftsmanship.” He also collected taxidermy animals, tusks, bones, and other scientific pieces. His uncle, Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, was also an avid collector. These two men competed with one another as to who could have the larger collection of curiosities. 

At one point, Rudolf’s collecting reached a point of mania during a time in his life when he felt very depressed and bored. He bought so many things that he ran out of money. Over time, he became more and more reclusive, and rarely left his private apartment in the castle. At a certain point, he ceased to function at his job as the Holy Roman Emperor. Like most hoarders, he was clearly suffering from some sort of mental illness. However, he wasn’t holding onto trash like most hoarders out there. Many of the pieces he collected were stunning works of art, and many of the pieces are still on display at The Met to this day.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Collected Animal Heads

Most people recognize the name Archduke Franz Ferdinand because his assassination was the catalyst to begin World War I. But before he died, he was known for being a hunter who felled nearly 275,000 animals throughout his life. He kept meticulous records of every animal he slaughtered. His record was 2,140 animals in one day. According to those who knew him, Ferdinand “radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence and recklessness.” Of course, it wasn’t enough for him to just shoot birds or deer. He collected exotic animals from hunting trips around the world. His Uncle, Franz Joseph, the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, called it “mass murder.”

Some people might wonder what an avid hunter is doing on a list of hoarders. While many of his “prizes” were used to eat meat, he also collected taxidermy pieces of these animals in his home. After his world tour in 1893, he brought back an entire ship filled with the animal bodies he hunted like tigers, koalas, kangaroos, and so much more. There were so many pointy antlers hanging on his walls that he reportedly needed a servant to help him walk down the hallway so that he wouldn’t get “impaled by antlers”. Some of his trophies were really grotesque, like the foot of an elephant that was turned into an ashtray.

Fashion Designer Karl Lagerfeld Had a Massive Book Collection

Karl Lagerfeld was a fashion designer who was famous for working with Fendi, Chanel, and of course, his own collection. Just like Thomas Jefferson, Lagerfeld collected books. But his collection would have put the President to shame, because he amassed approximately 300,000 volumes. In the past, he collected other things. But he was once quoted saying, “Today I only collect books, there is no room left for something else. If you go to my house; I’ll have you walk around the books.” Like most hoarders on this list, he was living in a fire hazard. He kept his books stacked horizontally, rather than vertically, because he could fit more books on the shelves that way. The collection is entirely hardcover books, because Karl had a wasteful habit of ripping the pages out of paperback books when he was done reading them.

According to newspaper reports,  “Karl Lagerfeld is going underground — to find creative storage space for his sprawling 230,000 volume book collection. “It’s a big problem, no?” asks the passionate bibliophile, ever the master of understatement. His solution: a storage facility at his house in Biarritz — underneath the tennis court. The 20,000-square-foot, climate-controlled subterranean complex will also include a photo studio, but the centerpiece of the project is a 10,000-square-foot, 20-foot high space where he plans to erect a library. What’s next, the return of the sexy librarian at Chanel?” Lagerfeld passed away in 2019, but there is no record online as to what happened with his book collection. However, he had established his own bookstore in Paris back in 1999, so there is a chance that the books were sold there. 

Film Director Stanley Kubrick Hoarded His Memories in Cardboard Boxes

Just like Andy Warhol, director Stanley Kubrick liked to collect things in boxes. He put away photographs from the film sets of his movies like Eyes Wide Shut and Full Metal Jacket. But he also had hand-written notes and newspaper clippings included as well. When Stanley Kubrick passed away, his wife asked a documentary filmmaker named Jon Ronson to go through the boxes and film the process of uncovering his collection. When Ronson came to visit the Kubrick home, he was shocked to find that over half of the entire house was filled with cardboard boxes. His family had never cataloged the entire collection, but estimated that it was well over 1,000 boxes. He also collected books on an extreme level. For example, he had an entire room filled with books by Napoleon. 

Unlike most hoarders, Kubrick at least kept his collections organized. They were all neatly stacked on shelving and labeled on the outside. He even went to the trouble of paying a box-making company to produce the perfect sized box for him to continue his collection. When Jon Ronson was done, he premiered his documentary titled Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes in 2008. Kubrick left instructions to burn a lot of what he left, after it had been filmed. One of the more fascinating bits left behind in this collection is the research from a movie he was working on called Wartime Lies, which was about the Holocaust. However, it was so upsetting to research, that Kubrick never actually made the film. The rest of the boxes were donated to the University of the Arts in London. 

Actor Johnny Depp Has a Huge Collection of Hats

If you’re a fan of Johnny Depp, you may have noticed that he wears a lot of hats. But what most people never get to see is the fact that his hat collection is so huge, they took up two entire rooms in his house. Sure, we’ve seen some massive celebrity closet tours before. But to have two entire rooms full of hats is on another level. Vulture chronicled just a few of the hats Johnny Depp wore out in public since the 1980’s. But hats are just one of the many things that Johnny Depp collects. 

On top of collecting hats, Johnny Depp is known for wasting his riches on random purchases that nearly sent him into bankruptcy. He has a huge collection of 200 pieces of artwork, guitars, 45 luxury cars, and movie memorabilia. One of the most surprising things he collects is limited edition Barbie dolls. Despite the fact that he has multiple residencies, Johnny keeps his collections in 12 rented storage facilities. So his main living space looks relatively clean and liveable, unlike most hoarders. In fact, he has been called “the world’s most organized hoarder”. The positive thing is that if he ever truly goes bankrupt one day, he has all of these valuable art investments ready to sell in case he needs to bring in more cash.

John Q. Benham Has the Largest Book Collection in the World

Earlier on this list, we already mentioned two huge book collections from Thomas Jefferson and Karl Lagerfeld. Those will pale in comparison to John Q. Benham’s massive collection of 1.5 million books. According to Guinness World Records, “As (the books) have filled up his house, most of them must be kept in his six-car garage, two-storey building and piled under tarpaulin outdoors.”Some people might label nearly all of the Guinness World Record holders as “hoarders” when you really think about it. But there are massive collections of all sorts. The one major difference between your typical Guinness World Record-breaking collection and John Benham’s is the fact that most people keep their collection safe in a room in their house.

According to Rare Book Hub, there is another man out there who also claims to have 1.5 million books named Anke Gowda. However, he has never counted or officially verified the exact number of books he has kept on his property. Fifty years ago, he made a promise to himself to collect at least 1,000 books per month. Since he was originally from India, Anke Gowda collects books that were written in 20 different Indian languages. He also collects stamps, coins and paper money, movie posters and newspapers on the side. At first, Gowda filled his entire house with his book collection, and only left a small corner to sleep on the floor and cook. Eventually, he received help to build a 24,000 square foot structure to put in his library, and volunteers helped him take care of the collection.

Alexander Kennedy Miller Hoarded Millions of Dollars Worth of Cars and Gold

If you watch shows like American Pickers, you already know that a common thing for male hoarders to collect is old cars. Doesn’t matter if they’re piles of rust or fully working vehicles. Alexander Kennedy Miller was the son of a wealthy stockbroker from Montclair, New Jersey. He studied mechanical engineering, and began collecting vehicles and license plates from the time he was a teenager. As he grew older, he got his pilot’s license and even began collecting airplanes and a helicopter. Even though Miller was spending thousands of dollars on his massive collections, he and his wife lived as recluses. They wore clothes that were described as “rags”, and almost never left the house except to go to church. 

Alexander Kennedy Miller passed away when he was 87 years old. After his passing, Christie’s auctioned off the collection that was left on his 81-acre property. He kept his car collection hidden inside barns and sheds. Unfortunately, many of the vehicles were invaded by raccoons and other animals. Even though many of these cars were in rough condition, they still estimated that they would bring in around $1.5 million from selling his collection. On top of that, investigators of the estate found over $1 million worth of gold and silver that had been stashed away under the floorboards of one of the buildings on the property. However, it turns out that he never paid income taxes his entire life. So naturally, the IRS sued the estate for all it was worth.

How did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

Collecting: An Unruly Passion: Psychological Perspectives. Werner Muensterberger. 1995.

The Cautionary Tale of the Harlem Hoarders. Messy Nessy Chic. 2017.

7 Famous Hoarders. David K. Israel. Mental Floss. 2009.

Historical Figures With Enormous Collections. Melissa Sartore. Ranker. 2019.

The Secrets of Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules. BBC. 2014. 

Everything Was Fake but Her Wealth. Karen Abbott. Smithsonian Magazine. 2013. 

Johnny Depp: Hat Hoarder. Harper’s Bazaar. 2011.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand ‘radiated an aura of strangeness,’ killed almost 300,000 animals.

Paul Ratner. Big Think. 2018.

Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes. Foto8. 2014.