What Can I Do With My Spare Computer?

We all know the mantra of efficient product usage: Reduce; Reuse; Recycle. When it comes to computers though, changing technology and the need for tech-minded people to upgrade makes it hard to reduce consumption. This means we're plagued with the problem of old computers lying around our sheds with need of a good home or project to give them new life.

But thankfully, there are plenty of great ways to make use of your old computers. If you're a little bit crafty or have an artistic streak, there's plenty of ways you can turn your old computer into a real feature piece for your house. Check out these great ideas for your old computers.

Re-Use Your Computer

In many cities worldwide, there are a handful of community-minded geeks who tirelessly accept old computers and install an operating system which is cheap or free, such as Linux, on each of them. These computers are then either sold very cheaply or given away to needy people. An example of a computer donation service is interconnection.org.

In some cases, the refurbished computers are sent to schools in third world countries, while others are offered to students or welfare recipients locally. This will all depend on who's in charge of the program you find near you. Whatever the mindset of the group is, you can usually rest assured that someone somewhere thinks that your old computer is worth having - and these people will make sure one of these people gets hold of yours.

Computer re-use is a free way to get rid of your old machine and maintain peace of mind. If you don't have a program near you, find someone to donate to directly by talking to students you know or simply consider using a service like Freecycle.

Don't forget that old computers can easily be re-used in your own home as dedicated media centres, photo frames, etc. It might be a waste of the technology, but not as much as simply throwing it out.

Re-Cycle Your Computer

This is by far the least interesting option, but it should be noted that if you're trying to get rid of your old computer and neither re-use nor crafty projects appeal to you then you can recycle the parts properly. In fact, in many countries you actually must recycle the computer parts with an officially registered recycler to ensure each tiny part is disassembled and recycled properly. It might cost you a little bit, but by being green at least you know you're doing your best by the environment by recycling.

Re-Purpose Your Computer

Your computer doesn't need to be re-used as a computer. If the hardware is so out of date it's borderline antique, then you'd perhaps be more interested in a crafty, artistic project to make your house look like a real geek haven. Following are some of the best things you can turn your computer into.

Turn your old CRT computer monitor into a fish tank. It'll teach your kids that monitors weren't always two-dimensional! Here's a guide to make your own monitor fish tank, plus a photo of a working Macquarium by Eric Chan.

Create a piece of clothing or accessory artwork out of your old keyboard. The individual keys make for nicely geeky buttons, cufflinks or earrings. If you're really good, you can weave the keys into the material itself, like they did for this dinner jacket.

Here's some cufflinks created by The Birds In The Meadow [No Longer Available].

Where would a computer be if it didn't still get to have cats on it after it died? It's not even worth thinking about because there's an easy way to keep the cats: turn it into a cat bed.