Don't Toss An Old Alarm Clock! Try These 15 Creative Repurposing Ideas Instead

The alarm clock that once furnished your nightstand, helping you to get a better nights sleep, has gone kaput. While you may have had a love-hate relationship with this enduringly practical device, it would also be a shame to send it to the landfill. Instead, pull out that crafting or tool box and get to work transforming it into something useful or decorative.

Remove the movement and turn the hollow inside into everything from a sweet diorama to a photo frame to a home for teeny houseplants. If you're a tinkerer at heart, try fixing it, transforming it into another digital device like a weather station, or selling the parts as scrap. Display an old alarm clock collection in a rustic cabinet or use just one as part of a layered mantle vignette. If the clock still works but you're just tired of the design, stick a strong magnet on the back and attach it to your fridge or cover it in rhinestones, air dry clay, silk flowers, or decoupage.

Don a pair of gloves when disassembling a clock — whether analog or digital, they contain small, sometimes sharp parts — and make sure the device is unplugged or the batteries removed. If you're repurposing a working but vintage electronic alarm clock, replace the old cord, even if it doesn't look damaged. If your alarm clock feels warm or you see burn marks or battery acid leaks, take the clock to a professional for repair. When replacing worn out batteries, use the same brand.

Remove the clock face screen, take out the movement, and paint the exterior in the hue of your choice. Decorate the inside and put everything back together. Cottagecore themes are popular — think lace, ribbons, pastels, flowers, and filigree butterflies. Add a sleeping kitten lying on a rug that spills outside the clock or embrace the steampunk aesthetic. Creating a single dollhouse room with forgotten or favorite toys is a sweet craft activity to do with your kids. If you want something more adult, craft a boho-inspired interior instead.

To create a money box, open up the alarm clock and remove all the innards so it's completely hollow inside, then cut a coin-sized slot into the top. If the wood is chipped or cracked, patch it up with wood filler. Once the filler has dried, sand the body of the clock before painting it with craft paint in your favorite color. Decorate the interior back wall with leftover wallpaper or stick-on vinyl sheet and the front wall with a transparent glass or plastic, then fill with your coins.

A dismantled alarm clock makes an easy frame for treasured family photographs, miniature artwork, or nature prints. Glue a favorite photograph to the inside wall, replace the glass, and decorate the frame with paint, crafting embellishments, and faux foliage. These alarm clock turned framed art pieces make memorable gifts for loved ones celebrating everything from wedding anniversaries to a teen's sweet sixteen. If you're not that artsy, print out a meaningful phrase in an attractive font, cut the paper to size, and pop that inside the clock.

There's nothing quite so wistful as a vintage alarm clock sitting on a mantle, sideboard, or shelf amongst other interesting antique finds. Pair them with old books, ornately-framed mirrors, candlesticks, and pottery vases for a vignette that hints at simpler, quieter times. Keep safe when thrifting or otherwise sourcing clocks and watches from the turn of the 20th century. Some feature numbers and hands illuminated by radioactive radium. If you believe your alarm clock falls under this category, leave it intact; you risk exposure by dismantling it.

Are you an alarm clock collector? It's time to take those incredible timepieces out of their box in the garage and put them on display inside. Buy a vintage wall-mounted or tabletop curio cabinet with a glass front — we like this log-hued RZGZKLSH Vintage Countertop Display Case with Organic Glass Door for about $80 — and fill it with your clocks. A seemingly haphazard cluster looks best — think cluttered antique store aesthetic. If you can't find the right cabinet, you can also mount small clocks inside a deep wooden frame.

Dismantle the clock and paint the parts a neutral hue — you don't want it to distract from whatever scene you create. To channel those fall season vibes, fill the clock with mini pumpkins, faux foliage, and straw, and tie a gingham ribbon to the top. You can get even more creative with Christmas. Cover the cardboard backing with Christmas-themed wrapping paper and add everything from model forest animals and pine trees to Santa cut from old Christmas cards. Glue sparkly tinsel, snowy pine needles, or a seasonal phrase to the frame.

You can transform thrifted photo frames into adorable fridge magnets with a simple DIY, and you can do the same with old alarm clocks. They're a clock face in a steel or plastic frame, after all. If the alarm clock is small and lightweight, glue a strong magnet to the back. Alternatively, you can remove the movement and craft a new, more delicate frame using modeling clay. Or, paint the face of the alarm clock with chalkboard paint to transform it into a handy kitchen sign board for essential reminders.

Protect your vintage clock by covering the frame in cardboard and focus your artistic efforts on the outside, leaving the face and glass untouched. As suggested with the fridge magnet, craft your sculpture from a high quality air dry clay — a curled, sleeping dragon looks great on a vintage clock. A 10-pound box of Old Potters Premium All Natural White Modeling Clay costs about $30. If you're not a sculptor, turn a square clock into a mid-century modern living room using paper, watercolor paints, brush pens, and burlap.

Breathe new life into an old alarm clock with rhinestones. If you can bedazzle denim jackets, caps, and smartphone covers, you can bedazzle an alarm clock. In fact, it's even easier with plastic objects like clocks — you just stick on the sparkling stones in whatever pattern you wish and you're done! A huge pack of NIUBIER Self Adhesive Gems in Assorted Sizes costs about $7. Go demure and encircle the face of an antique alarm clock in a single row of diamantes, or cover the entire clock with bling.

Clocks and anything Victorian are peak steampunk-core aesthetic. Channel this vibe into home decor by covering an old alarm clock with a vintage-looking face in Victorian embellishments using FUNSHOWCASE Baroque Style Ornament Curlicues Silicone Molds for about $25, air dry clay, and a strong craft glue. Add a vintage-look patina using paint. Alternatively, cover the clock with molded or artificial foliage in romantic hues — think lilac, lavender, and plum, deep or light green, and blushing pink. Add birds, butterflies, or bits of old book covers for a touch of whimsy.

Probably the simplest way to refresh an old alarm clock that still works is to paint it. This could involve anything from painting just the frame of a 1990s clock in a bright retro rainbow pattern or adding trending design details to just the clock face to a complete overhaul. Stick with the Victorian theme we highlight above and use floral-themed tissue paper or decoupage sheets — a 24 sheet pack of Flonz Rococo Flowers Decoupage Paper costs about $12 — to cover your old alarm clock in blushing cottage garden blooms.

Cut the face in half and put it back inside the frame to form the pot of your clock planter. Fill it with soil and greenery. Choose houseplants that you barely need to water or get a 12 pack of HappyHapi Mini Unpotted Plastic Succulents for about $13. You could add a teeny porch swing and trees above the soil to create a backyard scene. Alternatively, turn a plastic alarm clock on its back, add some springs for legs and arms, and create a robot with plants growing in place of hair.

If you enjoy tinkering, you might be able to fix your old alarm clock. Even the dirtiest, dustiest, rusted out vintage or antique clocks are often repairable. The process involves a basic understanding of electronics and how clock mechanisms work, as well as some simple tools: needle nosed pliers, a variety of small screwdrivers, tweezers, wire cutters, small brushes, and a microfiber cloth or two. Discovered some missing or broken parts? You can source parts — vintage and newly-manufactured — on online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon or in speciality watch repair shops.

Since Arduino open source microcontrollers were released in the early 2000s, people have used its computing power for lots of projects, wacky and practical alike. Here's a project that falls in the latter category: converting an old-fashioned analog alarm clock into a weather information station using Arduino Nano. Struggle with turning your alarm off and then falling asleep? Another creative, albeit definitely silly, idea is to wire a key and lock into the alarm clock mechanism that you need to physically unlock in order to press the off button.

Teach yourself how an alarm clock works and maybe even make a little cash on the side by carefully dismantling a broken device. You're hoping to salvage usable parts, either for your own projects or to sell as replacement parts or scrap, so use similar tools to those listed in the repair section above. Old movements and vintage or antique alarm clock parts can be valuable to clock repair people, especially if the parts are no longer manufactured. Likewise, collectors are happy to swap movements from broken alarm clock cases into restored cases.