Your suitcase doesn't suit you? Tired of lugging that luggage?

January 8, 2009 12:24 PM

If you’ve got a shabby old suitcase and want to give it a makeover, you could always découpage it. Or disguise it as a watermelon. If it doesn't have wheels, you can add some. If you aren’t traveling much these days, you could put a synthesizer in your suitcase. Or turn it into a pet bed, or a planter. Suitcases can be used as an end table, or turned into chairs and ottomans. The pockets from old suitcases make useful additions to bulletin boards. And if you have unused purses, here are some ideas on how to repurpose them. For info on getting rid of/transforming other types of baggage, see AskMe.
posted by orange swan (16 comments total)

I keep thinking how easy it would be to pick that watermelon suitcase off a conveyor belt. Everyone, but everyone, has a black bag. If you have one, you wind up standing by the carousel saying, "Hey, there it is!... No, that's not it.... Hey, there it is!...... No, that's not it..." Etc.
posted by orange swan at 12:40 PM on January 8

That watermelon suitcase is super cute. Of course, I don't have hardcase luggage, but maybe I'll keep an eye out for some that hasn't lost its key now.

Allow your children to decorate your old handbags and use them as toys. Children can have hours of fun with a hot glue gun and a needle and thread. They can decorate an old purse anyway they like for hours of fun.

Fathers across the country just felt their blood pressure go up 10 points at the gender neutrality of this suggestion.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:49 PM on January 8

What if I have a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace and a wound that will never heal? Am I just supposed to go waltzing Matilda?
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:08 PM on January 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

These were all very clever. I really liked the guest case and watermelon. The pet bed was cute too but my dog is the size of a small pony.
posted by shoesietart at 1:10 PM on January 8

I once saw a great DIY design for a laptop built into a suitcase. The creator recommended that a copy of DEFCON be included.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:15 PM on January 8

I love these posts and have made of habit of identifying them in the first line or two. I think orange swan should be verbed:

orange·swan
Pronunciation: \är-inj swän\
Function: transitive verb

: to give a new purpose or use to, in an artful manner -- "orange swan your old suitcase"
posted by exogenous at 1:24 PM on January 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

Pee Wee's Playhouse called...
posted by Zambrano at 1:28 PM on January 8

Fathers across the country just felt their blood pressure go up 10 points at the gender neutrality of this suggestion.

The suggestion only makes me nervous insofar as making my kids do something with needles can only end in a game in which they're pretending to be warring bees.
posted by GuyZero at 1:34 PM on January 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

Containers,now? Inevitably leading to casket crafting, I guess...
posted by jonmc at 2:07 PM on January 8

I used an old infant coffin as a cat bed. The plan was that it could be used as his resting place for now and forever. It was a really old brittle plastic coffin, though, so the cat outlived the coffin.
posted by queensissy at 2:44 PM on January 8

"Everyone, but everyone, has a black bag."
Mine is carefully chosen green. Easy to spot/ I am nobody.
posted by Cranberry at 3:04 PM on January 8

I used an old infant coffin as a cat bed.

I'm afraid to ask where you got the infant coffin.
posted by orange swan at 3:17 PM on January 8

An old infant is called an adult.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:27 PM on January 8 [2 favorites has favorites]

Man, the suitcase-synthesizer guy went through all that trouble making it look cool with the laser-engraved panel and fitting it into the cool suitcase, and it's a friggin' PAiA Fatman*? That's like getting some great artist to decorate your Yugo. He could have at least built some quality modular synth components in there.

* The Fatman is a really awful synth available as a kit that is only worthwhile for the fun of building it. It uses the lowest quality possible designs and components for its various parts, for example the VCOs are based around 555 timers.
posted by DecemberBoy at 6:01 PM on January 8

LOL, DecemberBoy.
posted by exogenous at 7:53 PM on January 8

I'm afraid to ask where you got the infant coffin.

Actually, my boyfriend had it in the garage. That doesn't make it any better, does it?
posted by queensissy at 10:40 PM on January 8