9 Genius Ways To Repurpose Gardening Gloves Inside And Outside The Home

Gardeners tend to hoard their handwear because they've gone out of their way to choose the best gardening gloves for every job. Often the gloves range in condition from new or barely used to filthy or even torn. There are fancy ones, and there are utilitarian ones. There is usually a stash of singletons, left adrift after the other glove went missing or got ripped to shreds and tossed pulling weeds. 

If you fit the profile, you ought to know better: You tend your garden with care to show your love for the earth. Before you buy yet another pair or throw your old ones to the landfill, consider the creative ways you can repurpose garden gloves inside and outside the home. Here are nine ways to upcycle gardening gloves, including using them to sculpt bowls, make lampshades, and create garden gnomes. Some projects will require clean gloves. But don't ditch the pitchfork if your gloves spent too many days in the dirt. Just follow the best method for cleaning garden gloves. If you want to reuse a less-than-pristine pair, there is also a way to deodorize smelly garden gloves with a kitchen staple.

This is probably the easiest gardening glove transformation you can tackle. With gloves in any condition, poke drainage holes in the fabric and fill with soil for your seeds. The gloves should then be fastened with laundry clips to a surface such as a planter or stand on their own alongside a structure if robust enough to do so. If placed indoors, make sure to situate the gloves in a warm place that gets sun. Glove planters are great for small plants, such as herbs.

Use gardening gloves to fashion a lampshade. If you are one of the legions who believe in never discarding an item, this will work perfectly with a used lampshade, either from home, rescued from the side of the road, or snagged at a thrift shop or garage or estate sale. The gloves ought to be clean and smelling nice, since they will spend time in their new home inside the home. The lamp base can be used or new, an added bonus. Gloves can easily be affixed to the shade with a hot glue gun.

You can create whimsical, unique, and party-specific place settings by turning gardening gloves into utensil holders. Start with clean gloves, even brand-new ones already in your collection. Make sure the color or texture of the gloves vibes with your table setting. Fold down the cuffs and cinch each glove with twine or raffia, tying the cords firmly but with enough give for forks, knives, and spoons to be placed inside later. Then, decorate the gloves — paint them, bejewel them, or sew buttons upon them. These will become part of a meal's memorable moments.

Consider this an activity you can do over and over with the kids because of the endless color, fabric, and embellishment possibilities — making gnomes for your family garden. There are variations to this upcycle, including building the gnome inside a little flower pot stuffed with faux flowers. In a more involved but still fairly easy project from The World of Colors, you turn one glove into the gnome's body and the cuff of the other glove into the gnome's cap, using a painted wooden knob for the nose and decorating with butterfly stickers.

One TikToker uses gardening gloves to help her sew quilts. "I quickly learned after a few large blankets that your hands loose [sic] grip and slip, your arms can get pretty tired," reads the caption to @madebyrichidawn's video. "I read within a YouTube video comment section that I could wear gardening gloves with grips on them to make the whole process much easier ... It works great." Some suggest cutting off the fingertips of the gloves, particularly the pointer finger and thumb, for better hand control.

Let your imagination run wild like the weeds with this idea (no art degree required): Use gardening gloves to create folk art sculpture. The material list is short. Turn a wheelbarrow upright so that the handles touch the ground. Place a hat atop the wheel. Insert each of the wheelbarrow's handles into waterproof boots. Then, for the pièce de résistance, slip a glove on each of the two legs. This design fits most standard wheelbarrows.

Hand-painted gloves make great gifts, not just for others, but for yourself. (Imagine shielding your eyes from the glint of the sun and looking down to admire your gloved hands.) What's great about this repurpose is that you can customize gloves with any design or message. It's important to use a pair of clean gardening gloves crafted from plain cotton canvas. Either acrylic or fabric paint will do. Brushes may or may not be used, depending on the effect you're looking for. And, feel free to cover the gloves with glitter, buttons, sequins, or other materials.

Any kind of gloves make a fantastic starting point for a bowl, including those you use in the garden. You can also use this technique to create a small planter. Buy casting cement, following directions on the package for mixing, and then fill the gardening gloves with the wet material. (You can also incorporate spheres and other objects to create an even more imaginative piece). Wait for the cement to dry. Once ready, peel off the gloves to reveal the sculpture. Move the casts together to create the bowl, using more cement to fill in spaces. 

For this project, grab brand-new, colorful gardening gloves. If you don't have any, stop by a Dollar Store and choose a pair that coordinates with your decor. You'll also need ribbon and artificial flowers in colors that complement the gloves. After stuffing the fingers with any kind of material, glue the end of a long strand of ribbon to the inside of each glove. Fill each glove with flowers. Make two bows, gluing one to the front of each glove. Lastly, tie the long pieces of ribbons tightly at the top and hang.