Having new gutters installed on your home is a great first project for spring, but what do you do with all of the old gutters that have been taken down off of your home? Here, you'll find a few ideas that'll help you find the best way to use or eliminate your old gutters to prevent them from ending up in a landfill somewhere.

Contractor Removal

The contractor that does the installation of the new gutters will likely offer to take away the old gutters for you. Sometimes, this does come with a small fee, but other times, it's included in the cost of the installation. Talk with your contractor to discuss the options and any fees associated with the services for disposal that they offer.

Create an Herb Garden

Herb gardens can take up quite a bit of space if you have everything planted directly into the ground. Instead of using up all of that ground-space, you can use the old gutters to create a vertical herb garden with very little space. The old gutters can be mounted to the side of your home, a fence, or simply attached to a frame. Once they are secured, dump a little gravel into the bottom, cover the gravel with soil, and get planting. You can create as big, or small of an herb garden as you'd like using this method.

Create Water Fun for Kids

Those old gutters will still carry water well enough to create a water-fun station for them to enjoy. The gutters can be attached to the fencing, walls, or structures in your yard, or you can build supports for them or dig trenches to place them directly into the ground. When putting the gutters together, you'll need to seal the seams – since this is just for fun, you can seal the seams quickly with caulk. When it's all done, the kids can float their boats down the river, see how far their floating ball will make it, or create all sorts of fun games to enjoy – the possibilities are limitless.

Catch Pool Water

If you have a swimming pool, don't keep yelling at the kids for splashing all of the water out. Instead, you can connect a piece of your old gutter to the nearest gutter and reroute the water from the downspouts to the swimming pool. To ensure that you don't end up with a bunch of debris in the pool, slide a nylon stocking over the end of it. Change it when it becomes full of debris.

Talk with your residential gutter installation professional to learn more about reusing or recycling your old gutters. 

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