The personal finance world is well-known for finding creative solutions to everyday problems. And most importantly, creative solutions that are on a budget!

This is true for a number of things, but in particular for furniture. Furniture can be expensive and hard to find, and even harder to find the right piece for your home or your special project. But here are five ideas for repurposing furniture that will go easy on your budget:

Litter Box Concealers

Even a cat-lover won’t deny that the litterbox is a real problem. Where to put it, how to conceal the smell, and how to make your apartment not seem like it revolves around your cat!

There are a lot of creative ideas out there for concealing your litter-box with used furniture. I myself turned an old-fashioned steamer trunk into a litter box solution, and many others have made litter box solutions from filing cabinets, bookshelves, and cabinets. It just takes a little creativity (and maybe a table saw).

Children’s Chairs as Plant Holders

Via Pinterest

Have your kids grown up and out of house? Use their old toys and furniture to make new, decorative items for your home. In particular, using a child’s chair as a plant holder has very cute results. This can be done by cutting into the chair, or simply placing the plant on the chair as a small plant-holder.

Ladders as a Bookshelf

Perhaps you’ve seen this before, but using a ladder as a bookshelf is another fun way to repurpose or store furniture. You can do this in two ways: set up the ladder on its stand and place boards on it for shelves, or mount your ladder to the wall and use as a small set of shelves. In this example, an antique ladder was hung open mouthed in a corner to be used as a bookshelf. Gorgeous!

Baskets as Light Fixtures

Most creative of all is using alternative materials as light fixtures. Young House Love did so by turning a basket into a pendant light, and also making an attractive overhead chandelier with hundreds of clothespins. You’ll definitely need to contract out for the electrician work, but the ideas and starting off points are endless.

Of course, you’ll want to make sure that whatever item you are repurposing is clean and attractive — hanging any old metal ladder on your wall might make you seem more crazy than frugal or creative. But there’s genius here somewhere in repurposing your old furniture for new uses.

Have you ever re-used furniture for a new purpose? Leave your ideas in the comments!