Though necessary for most of your summer activities, your cooler (like everything else) can become old, outdated, or too small for your needs. Maybe your cooler is dingy, and doesn’t perform as well as it used to. Or maybe you just bought yourself an upgrade, there’s no need to throw out your existing one.
Take a look at the ice box collecting dust in your garage. Unless it’s now broken beyond repair, it might be worth considering keeping it around for a bit. No matter what your reason is for replacing it, there are plenty of other ways you can use your cooler.
Getting Warmer
If your cooler has been out of commission for a long time, make sure to give it a good cleaning. Why? Because the insulation inside those plastic walls can keep its contents hot, as well as cold. Whether you’re sneaking some burgers home from a BBQ, or you don’t want cold soup after a ski trip, using your old cooler can keep you warm!
Contain Your Excitement
Once again, this one might need a bit of a clean, depending on how long your cooler’s been out of commission. Yet, it will be well worth it. No matter how long you’ve owned your cooler, it will still be waterproof and insulated. If you’re throwing a party and are lacking a punch bowl, try using your cooler. It’ll hold twice as much, and keep it cold for twice as long. All you have to worry about is making sure your drink is good and strong.
Soak Things Up
This is the last thing on this list that will need you to clean your cooler -I promise! In any case, we all know that summer can’t be complete without a park side BBQ. There’s no way you want your marinated raw meat to be in the same cooler as your fresh food, and drinks. That’s where your old cooler comes in. You can have different marinades for different meats, that need separate packaging inside. You can even have the entire cooler filled with the marinade for the juices to soak! Either way, you will want to use your old cooler for raw meats.
Box It In
Your old cooler can hold anything from pool chemicals, to cleaning supplies, and even paint supplies. Anything that needs storage can be kept in an old cooler. Because it’s leak proof, anything you don’t want spilling should be concealed. Putting it in your unused cooler will give you a way to hide them, with the added bonus of an organized container. Just remember that by storing chemicals, you can’t reuse the cooler for anything else!
When it comes to reusing your old, worn out, cooler, you can spruce it up beforehand. You can paint it in fun colors, add decals, and otherwise completely revamp it so it can be useful to you again. Make it your own, and make it work. There are plenty of things you can do with an old cooler, that might end up saving you money in the long run.
