When most Indiana University Surplus Store customers see items like a countertop full of non-functional brass lamps for sale, they keep browsing. But store manager Todd Reid knows someone will come through the door with a vision for giving them a second life.

“This is a real artsy community, and they just blow me away when they come in and tell me what they’re going to do with something that they’re purchasing,” Reid said.

He said that creativity is central to the mission of IU Surplus, where recycling is the last resort. Surplus helps redistribute university property, and the store sells items that IU no longer needs.

The hope is that people will reuse or repurpose the items, and Reid is often amazed by the end result. He routinely receives emails from customers explaining what’s become of items they purchased at the store.

Here are a few of the creative ways people have transformed items from IU Surplus into treasures.

An IU ‘I do’

Jennifer Snodgrass’ daughter and son-in-law both went to IU, so it seemed only fitting to give a nod to their alma mater when they got married in September. With the help of friends, Snodgrass bought enough chairs for the wedding ceremony and reception. The family sanded and refinished all 70 of them and repurposed a library reference desk they had previously purchased from IU Surplus into a bar. “It was truly the centerpiece of the reception,” Snodgrass said.

Thinking outside the box

IU Surplus had several large wooden crates it needed to get rid of due to lack of space. A Bardstown, Kentucky, family transformed some of them into a tractor-themed play set. And an Owen County family deconstructed some of the crates to build bases for a couch and several beds in their DIY camper bus, saving them thousands of dollars in lumber.

 

An empty canvas

Francisco Ormaza is a multidisciplinary printmaker and has repurposed several items from IU Surplus for his work. Rather than using expensive paper or muslin, he purchased bed sheets to print his large woodcuts on. He said IU Surplus is one of his favorite places to go in search of inspiration and affordable materials for his home studio. “It’s always great to look around at the ever-changing sea of oddities and to give things a second or third or fourth life,” Ormaza said.