If you've got nothing else in life, you should at least have some creativity. Not only does it help you express yourself, it can also get you out of some real jams. You don't necessarily have to be MacGyver or anything but having an eye for the potential in things will come in handy when you least expect.
If you don't believe me, check out how the folks below used their creativity, and how it paid off.
This little hotel grew a pear tree next to it that is a win-win for both the guests and the tree.
The tree gets a bit of extra warmth to help it grow more fruit and if the season is right, the guests can reach out their windows and pick fresh fruit right off the branches.
Hey, nobody said that a house made from sticks has to be ramshackle or ugly.
However, this is less about function because it's an art installation by Patrick Dougherty. You have to think that, although it's beautiful, wind would sweep through that house with ease, even if a big bad wolf might have trouble blowing it down.
When I was a kid, we'd decorate our school books with stickers but nothing requiring the tech that went into this.
A clever kid used his GameBoy's camera and a GameBoy printer to reel off a bunch of memes to cover his school book with. Nice work!
If you have an old glasses case kicking around — as so many of us glasses-wearers do — consider using it to store a face mask in.
It's so much better than shaking out purse crumbs and/or pocket lint and then inhaling what you've missed.
One person didn't have quite the right size of lid on hand for their pot, so they came up with this solution: suspending an almost-right lid over top with a chopstick.
They'll probably want to use an oven mitt to remove it but hey, it works.
To trick their cat into actually using the cat bed they'd bought, this owner covered it in a shirt they had worn. It did the trick.
"Had this bed for 6 months and he never used it. Now he sleeps in it every night!"
Telephone booths have long gone by the wayside, leaving Superman with a more awkward clothes-changing situation and a bunch of empty booths all over the place.
So someone re-purposed this one into a small free book exchange, which works nicely as both a public location and one that's not subject to the elements.
Spotted outside an antique store, someone made at least one fan with their literal flower bed.
Not a bad way to brighten up the area and it clearly attracted some positive attention, too.
I'm not sure I would ever have thought of a more appropriate way to study for a botany exam than building a plant's cell structure out of vegetables.
Honestly, if my high school biology teacher had done this, I might have paid more attention.
If you don't do much plumbing work, you probably don't own a drain snake. But of course, you'll still get drain clogs that need some persuasion to break up.
So here's a cool, creative idea: just cut a few notches in a cable tie and presto, you've got a tool to pull hairy clogs out of your shower drain. Enjoy.
"My brother scored a pumpkin while it was small so it grew with the name on it," the uploader of this pic explained.
Mind you, why anyone would want to do that is not clear. Maybe Toby wanted to stake a claim to a jack o'lantern to carve well ahead of Halloween?
At a sporting goods store in Germany, customers have access to a pool in-store where they can try out canoes or kayaks before taking the plunge on a purchase.
Sure, it must be costly to have that in a store but talk about taking an extra step for your clientele.
If a bathroom is going to be covered in graffiti, it may as well be covered in newer, more interesting graffiti than the same old jokes, don't you think?
Well, one pizzeria in Seattle went ahead and covered theirs in graffiti that can only be read in the mirror. Might be a good way to get folks to wash their hands, too.
"Wife didn’t have a bundt cake pan... I thought her solution was pretty ingenious," wrote the uploader of this pic.
I have to admit, I wouldn't have thought to wrap a jar in tinfoil and just stick it in the middle of a springform pan. Nicely done!
"My Aunt made a couch for my cat," the uploader of this pic wrote.
Not sure if the cat needs its human's shirt to spend some time on it but at the very least, it looks like that little couch is a welcome addition as a scratcher.
Those dessicants that you find in the pockets of clothes you order can be put to use elsewhere, too. This person puts a bunch in their toolbox.
Just think, with all those little packets soaking up moisture, the tools are much less likely to get rusty.
Sometimes you'll see folks attaching a dryer sheet to a fan to get some fresh scented air. Sticking fragrant herbs like rosemary or lavender on a fan would do the trick too, apparently.
"I’ve been eating so much pistachios that my wife got me a bouquet of them for my birthday," the uploader of this pic wrote.
You have to admit, it's a unique gift that shows you're paying attention, if nothing else.
That's one way to make sure you don't mix your golf gloves up with anybody else's. Might be a decent conversation starter at the 19th hole, too.
"I put my gum inside this pill bottle so people think I’m taking medications and don’t ask for gum." A bit fiendish and selfish but hey, sometimes you just don't want to share, amirite?
So points for the cleverness.
