7 Things To Do With Old Textbooks

By Madison White on May 14, 2016

Let’s face the unfortunate truth — you won’t get through college without some leftover textbooks lying around. Sure, you’ve tried selling them back to the university bookstore, but what good is $2 going to get you besides a mediocre taco?

They’re compiled into a stack in your closet or under your bed, and despite your pleading, your friends don’t want them either. Luckily, textbooks don’t have to take up space in ugly boxes hidden around your room. In this day and age of Pinterest and DIY, finding cute and unique ways to transform your former hassles into treasures is easier than ever.

Here are seven things to do with your old textbooks.

1. Knife block

Turn useless pages under your bed into something functional for your kitchen. To create a book knife block, you’ll either need a few smaller books or one large one (perfect for textbooks). There’s lots you can do to spruce up the outside with ribbons, paint, or other fun patterns and textures. You won’t ever need to go hunting in that knife drawer and prick yourself again with a new knife block made from books.

2. Shelves

So you’ve got the books, but don’t you need the shelves? You can make literal bookshelves from your old books to attach to your walls and hold all your precious knick knacks. Considering you’ll have to do some altering to the books to hang them on your wall, textbooks are perfect because you no longer need to be reading them. You won’t cringe by having to hang up one of your favorite classics. Plus, if you do have books you still like, you can store them on top of your book-bookshelves.

3. Tree

Whichever season you’re in, it’s never too early to start thinking about the festive season. Especially right before Christmas, various decorations can get expensive. Going all out for a real tree will cost you a pretty penny that could better be used for some stellar gifts.

Why not save some cash and make a tree out of stuff you already know? A tree made of old books is both fun and cheap, and unique. All your friends and family will admire your creativity (and frugality) when it comes to your festive decorations.

4. Book safe

Some of us get a little paranoid about keeping our important things stowed away. What better place to keep some of your valuables than tucked away inside a book no one will probably dare to open? A textbook safe is the perfect way for hiding your treasures from possible thieves. It’s really simple, just hollow out the middle of a book, place your things inside, and store just like any other book. Of all places to look for expensive things, nobody will crack open that boring old textbook.

5. Candles

You may not have enough space to keep the whole textbook around, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t utilize your old textbook. Whatever style of page you like, be it biology or literature, you can find lots of interesting pages to use for wrapping and decorating. One of the cutest ways to spice up your signature scent, is by making your pages into candles. Doing this is really easy, cute, and yields great results from that book you never use.

6. Blackout poetry

Perhaps you’re on the creative side, but don’t find yourself delving into many DIY projects. No worries, you can always use your textbook for something completely new. A trend in the poetry world is creating blackout poetry, where you color darkly over the whole page except for a few carefully chosen words that create a poem. Test your limits and use pages from books that may not seem poetic at all and see what you come up with!

7. Bedside table

Sometimes, when you’re a poor college student, finding furniture can be difficult and expensive. One easy way to avoid this problem is by using those old books as a bedside table. If you’ve collected enough (and you probably have) you’ll be able to make a bed-tall stack to put right next to your bed. You can leave them the way they are or glue and paint them all for a more cohesive look. But if textbooks are so good at putting you to sleep, might as well get some use out of them while catching some z’s.

If you do decide to do any of these projects with your books — props to you — but if you don’t, make sure the books still go to good use by recycling, donating or selling them. Plenty of schools are probably on the lookout for educational books and would massively benefit from the old ones you never use.

All images found via linked websites.

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