If your garage is chock full of old ladders, you understand the substantial space they take up. From aluminium to old-fashioned wood, ladders are necessary household tools that usually collect dust over the years. Instead of tripping over them, think more creatively. Your home benefits from these ladders both inside and outside with a little abstract thinking. Try a few of these ideas to organise the home and get rid of the ladder clutter in the garage.

Hang or Display Your Plant Collection

Set your ladder on a patio and start adding small plant containers to the rungs. Allow plant tendrils to hang down the ladder for a unique and natural look. Even allow those clinging plants to wind around the ladder, mimicking a trellis. You'll have to evaluate your ladder's shape to make plants fit on the rungs, however. Alternatively, try hanging air plants in glass terrariums from some of the rungs. Although you can't fit many within the ladder, it becomes a focal point within the space with glistening glass.

ladder-plant

Form a Unique Fence Around a Sandpit

Once you build a sandpit in the backyard, it's hard to keep the kids out of it. Make a distinct statement and a protective barrier around the sandpit with wood ladder sections creating a fence line. Simply detach the ladder's sides from one another and bolt to the sandpits wood edging. You have an instant fence with character and without a huge investment. The kids will love peering through the rungs as they form sandcastles.

Organize Those Books

There never seems to be enough room for book storage, especially if you read them quickly. Stack your books flat or align them vertically for the best use of space. The books themselves become decorations as the binding provides colour and some patterns to the space. Arrange the ladder in several orientations too. Some decorators choose a basic lean-to arrangement while others literally bolt the ladder to the wall in a permanently open shape. You make all the rungs useful as "shelves" when levelled with the floor below.

ladders-books

Open up the Toolbox

If you have one of those short, metal stepladders, try using it for household toolboxes. Take the bottom half of a metal toolbox approximately the same size as the ladder rung. Bolt it to the rung and add more to the other available rungs. Place hammers, screwdrivers and other basic tools in these open boxes and keep this display in the garage. If anyone is looking for a hand tool one day, they have a quick and easy way of finding the item without rummaging through drawers.

Drape Towels on the Rungs

Keep the entire family dry by using a ladder in the bathroom, mud room or laundry room. Hang towels on each rung, but don't just use white towels. Make the ladder more of a decoration by using alternating towel colours. No one will ever go searching for a towel, dripping water across the entire home.

ladders-towels

Before you create any makeshift furniture with these ladders, test them first. If you have a rung or two that cannot hold weight, remove it or throw out the ladder entirely. You still need a sturdy ladder to hold all the items' weights, from several towels to heavy-duty plant containers.