Life Hackery

The Christmas season is just around the corner, and you probably have in mind what you want for Holiday presents. Yet as much as you don’t like to think about it, you’re probably going to get three or four neckties for Christmas this year, adding to your growing collection of old neckties from past Christmas celebrations. It’s not that your friends are not thoughtful or that they didn’t bother buying you a gift that you could use, but neckties are easy and convenient to buy as Christmas gifts.

Whether you have a drawer, a shoebox, or an entire sack of old Christmas neckties, it’s a shame to let them go to waste. After you’ve picked through them to find three or four neckties that are worth keeping, it’s time to put the rest of the presents to good use. Here are eight ways for those old Christmas neckties to have all sorts of uses.

1. Christmas Tree Decorations

If you’re out of strands of tinsel, then some of those shiny silk neckties you got for Christmas make for great holiday decorations. Those colorful, gaudy ties that are not recommended for work are perfect for decorating the Christmas tree.

When using neckties as a Christmas tree decoration, make sure that you drape them far and away from strands of Christmas lights. If you have your Christmas lights on for much of the day, they can get hot and some of the frayed threads of the tie can catch fire. Light, narrow silken ties do just fine for this purpose.

2. Cravates

Scarves and cravates are perfect fashion statements for any season, particularly for the cold winter and the cool spring season. If you didn’t get a warm scarf or a cool-looking cravate for Christmas, then Christmas neckties would do just as well. If you won’t use the necktie as a shirt accessory, then it would probably look very good as a scarf.

To make a scarf out of the necktie, simply unravel the stitches at the back of the necktie, and flatten the cloth. Stitch together the edges and corners of the tie to prevent the cloth from unraveling and fraying. Depending on the quality and the color of the tie, it may even look like an original Hermès creation from a distance. (Learn how to wear a neck scarf)

3. First Aid

Christmas is a time for snowmobiles, skiing, and other extreme sports. The problem is that winter sports can be dangerous, and may result in injuries like sprains, pulled muscles, and even bone fractures. While there’s no substitute for the proper equipment and supplies in a first aid kit, it helps to keep some neckties with your first aid supplies. Neckties can be used for all sorts of emergency situations:

• When you need to immobilize an injured limb, two long neckties knotted together at the ends make an excellent sling.
• When you need to stem the flow of blood from a wound or a laceration, a folded-up necktie works as a good substitute for a compression bandage.
• A necktie is a good tool to use in a makeshift emergency tourniquet. Never use a tourniquet unless you absolutely need one, or if the emergency calls for its use.

4. Holding Stuff Together

While neckties are an expensive way to bale stuff like hay, old Christmas neckties are great to bind together old letters, cards, and other mementos. A necktie is essentially a decorative band of cloth, and it can pretty much bind and hold any two objects together. If you can do it with rope, string, or twine, then you can definitely accomplish the same tasks with a few old neckties. Here are some ways that you can use a necktie to hold stuff:

• Hang pictures, mirrors, portraits, and paintings on walls
• Hold together a collection of old letters or documents
• Hang mobiles for children above cribs and beds
• Hold together baskets, boxes, and other items when you move into another residence

5. Bag Straps

Deconstructed and ragtag bags are very chic these days, and many people make their own purses, handbags, shoulder bags, and knapsacks with old clothes and other items found around the home. If you’re looking for a strap or a handle for your own homemade deconstructed bag, then old neckties are perfect for this purpose.

While neckties are strong enough to carry a lot of weight, they are a bit on the thin side. If you carry a heavy load inside your bag, the necktie strap can cut into your shoulder. To avoid the problem, you can stuff the inside of the necktie with cotton padding to cushion the weight of the bag.

6. Book Covers

There are a lot of ties that may not look good on any of your dress shirts, but look good on something else. Neckties with an understated look can be used to cover many of your hardbound books. If you know how to bind books and you have a lot of unused neckties hanging around the back of your dresser drawer, then you can use them to cover old hardbound books. Here’s how.

1. Mark and cut the cover boards for the book or journal you’ll bind.
2. Unravel the stitches at the back of the necktie, and fold out the necktie until you get a wide strip of cloth. You may need two to three ties, depending on the size of the book.
3. Wrap the book with the fabric. It helps to slant the cloth a bit to cover as much of the book with a single tie. If one tie is not enough to cover the entire book cover, you may need to use two or more.
4. Glue the book together as you would a regular hand-bound hardbound book, and let it dry.

7. Quilts and Pillows

Quilting is an art that requires a lot of careful handiwork and expertise. If you happen to have a lot of unwanted neckties from past Christmas gift exchanges, you can use them for quilts. Many people have already made quilts out of old neckties. If you expect a lot of ties for the Christmas season, you can make a Holiday tradition by making quilts out of every unused or unwanted necktie you got as a present. At least no one can accuse you of not using those neckties for a useful purpose. (Learn how to quilt)

8. Note Clips

Chances are that you got a clip-on necktie for Christmas. Clip-ons are usually worn by kids, or by people who don’t know how to get that perfect knot on the tie. Most clip-on neckties are too short, and they end up inside that dresser drawer where you keep all your ties. Instead of allowing these useful but short ties to go to waste, you can keep one or two of them near the office or home phone. You can then use them to clip together notes from important phone conversations.

With all the unwanted neckties you’ve already received as Christmas, it’s still a wonder why people insist on giving them away as gifts. Now you can put these ties to good use. No matter how annoying or senseless a gift may seem, there’s always a good use for it.