We’re huge fans of repurposing here at Lifehacker—squeezing extra and usually clever uses out of every day objects. Here’s a look back at out some of the most popular repurposing posts from 2009.

Rain Gutters as Cable Management Tools

We’re all about creative cable management here at Lifehacker, so we were instantly drawn to reader Seandavid010‘s rain-gutter cable management setup. Granted, you can find other cord-wrangling solutions, like the one Adam used when he made his cordless workspace, but the rain gutter approach yields impressive results. Sean was nice enough to send in his entire step-by-step, check out the full post to see it.

$5 IKEA Coat Hanger Offers Solid Cable Management

Weblog BitsOfMyMind shares a very simple idea that turns an inexpensive coat-hanger rack into a simple and streamlined cord management solution.

Back when Adam detailed how to go cordless in your workspace, he championed a $10 cable management add-on from IKEA. Many readers wrote in and said they couldn’t find the IKEA wire-manager he used, so this clever hack is a welcome addition to our cable-wrangling bag of tricks.

Open a Bottle of Wine with Your Shoe

Got a bottle of wine on hand but no corkscrew to get it open? You can argue all you want about whether or not the guy in this video really needs more wine, but you can’t argue with the results.

Make Cookies in 90 Seconds with Your Waffle Iron

Baking cookies in your oven is fine and all, but if you want to turn out some tasty cookies in a very short time, consider turning to your trusty waffle iron. Turns out you’re only 90 seconds away from crispy, chewy, cookie-goodness.

Create a Cat Haven from Ikea Shelves

The climbing trees at pet stores are ridiculously expensive and take up tons of floor space. Help your kitty jump to a royal view, Super-Mario-style, without cluttering your floor or wasting money.

Remove Splinters Using a Banana Peel

Bananas are a good source of potassium, but turns out the peels can do more than just store the fruit. Apartment Therapy outlines seven ways to put used peels to work, including removal of those inconvenient splinters. Photo by keepon.

Get More From Cheap Vodka Than a Hangover

Sooth headaches? Clean razors? Kill bees? Vodka is handy for all sorts of uses besides the traditional one. The clear and high-proof alcohol can be used for all manner of tricks. Photo by Carsten Lorentzen.

Coke Can Clean Your Toilet in a Pinch

When your toilet’s got rings and lime scale stains and you’ve got no cleaning gear on hand, grab a can of Coke out of the fridge.

Turn IKEA Cabinets Into a Cordless Desktop Stand

The new iMacs, and similar all-in-one LCD desktop systems, make for a mostly cordless computing experience. Using two pieces of IKEA furniture meant for laptops and modems, you can hide the remaining wires and up the elegance.

Disposable Mugger’s Wallet Gets You Off Scott Free or Gets You Beat Up

A mugger’s wallet is a disposable second wallet that you’re more than happy to give away to a mugger. It contains a few bucks, a non-essential ID, but not much else that would endanger your identity.

DIY Car Dash Camera Mount

Ever wished you had some high-speed chase footage after you finished tearing down the freeway after crooks? Of course you have! You need a quick, cheap DIY camera mount.

Remove Stubborn Batteries and Other Cool Magnet Tricks

As if the sheer magnetism aspect of magnets wasn’t magical enough, weblog Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories points out 17 very cool tricks that put your magnets to great use. For starters, a strong magnet can be the perfect tool to remove batteries from the grips of a stubborn spring.

Use Vicks VapoRub To Cure Toenail Fungus

We’ve heard that Vicks VapoRub can cure toenail fungus before (it’s also helpful when you’ve got a cold!), but the New York Times recently put it to the test. The results: The thyme in VapoRub can in fact do the job.

Repair a Broken Ethernet Plug with Zip Ties

We’ve all been there at some point: You’ve got a perfectly functional Ethernet cord that somewhere along the line had its tab broken off. Don’t buy a new one or re-terminate the cord. Fix it with zip ties.

Open Beer Bottles with Bic Lighters

If you lack for a piece of paper, a ring, or just don’t want to risk bursting another bottle, Wired explains the time-honored tradition of popping the top with a Bic-type lighter.

Outlet-Hanging Charge Station For Your Small Gadgets

If a full-sized charging station is overkill for your single cellphone or iPod, try this smaller gadget cradle that mounts neatly on a wall outlet. Craft blog Zakka Life put together a simple tutorial for making a cradle that’s perfect for single, regularly-charged items—the kinds of things you dump out of your pockets upon returning home.

Have a favorite post from 2009 that highlights a clever use or novel way to repurpose an everyday object? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Gadgets stands are usually begrudging buys: If your gadget needs a stand, it probably should’ve come with one; if it could just sorta use one, it’s hard to justify the cost. The solution? Make your own damn stand, for nothing.

Gadgets stands, from iPods and ebook readers to HDTVs and laptops, are some of the most accessible DIY projects out there—no circuit diagrams, static bracelets or soldering irons here, just cheap, useful, approachable projects. Here are a few of the best.

The cardboard box: Download the instructions, print them out, cut up a box, and slide it together. Hey presto! Laptop home theater. Bonus feature: it’s recyclable.

Laptops

Why you want one: It’s easier on your wrists, keeps your notebook cool (especially low-to-the-ground models, like MacBooks), and can give you some space to stow accessories. Taller units make watching TV less painful.

The ring binder: Accomplish all of the above goals with your kid’s leftover school supplies, or a $5 trip to Officemax. Poke holes for ventilation, thread various wires to make it more like a full-service laptop dock, and slide peripherals underneath for maximum convenience. Bonus feature: plenty of available ring sizes, binder-stuffing adjusts your viewing angle.

The coat hanger: Like the cardboard box, except with industrial-chic styling, and some semblance of adjustability. It looks a little precarious, but hanger devotees assure us: it’s sturdy(ish). Bonus feature: the higher elevation matches well with external monitors.

iPod/iPhone

Why you want one: Aside from often doubling as a charging dock, iPod stands make the hunched-over, arms-out process of video-viewing a little more bearable. With a good Twitter app, news aggregator or music streaming service, or just the native media interface, it can also let you use an iPod Touch or iPhone as a quasi secondary display.

The binder clip: Devised for older iPods, the binder clip is timeless, unless Apple someday moves away from the dock connector. Bonus feature: if you feel this is too simple, you can make a much more complicated one out of, like, 20 clips.

The paperclip: Just as simple as the binder clip, but in landscape. Plus, you might not have binder clips laying around; you do have paperclips. Bonus feature: crudely adjustable.

The business card: You just need a spare business card, a pen, a ruler and the ability to fold paper for this one. Bonus feature: It’s utterly disposable.

The Kindle

Why you want one: For reading?

The bedhead: Designed by the dude behind XKCD, this twisted coat hanger is for reading while lying down, sideways. Bonus feature: there’s a page-turn lever built in.

The Bookend: Book accessories past a future, living together in peace. This hardly qualifies as DIY, actually, since you’re just bending a metal bookend a little bit. Bonus feature: it’s probably tougher than your Kindle.

HDTVs

Why you want one: Because a having TV stand or mount is a given, and they universally cost too much.

The Easel: It should go without saying: get a strong easel for this one, not some flimsy elementary school toss-out. But it’s clever, for smaller sets, and adjustable. Craigslist is your friend on this one.

The Diner Table: A little more involved than the easel hack, but much more gratifying. Discarded restaurant tables+crappy old desks and/or coffee tables=a fun afternoon of beginner-level woodworking and a place for your HDTV to live, in (some kind of) style. Bonus feature: may smell like bacon, or cigarette smoke.

A streamlined son to Dealzmodo Hacks, Hackmodo is a weekly guide to getting your hands dirty, tech-style, and hopefully saving a few bucks. If you’ve got any hacks or tricks you’d like to see featured here, let us know.

What do you do with a coat hanger, some rubber bands, an Altoids tin, and ten minutes of free time? Why, you make a miniature catapult, of course. You can easily sneak this into just about any office meeting. Happy Friday!

Via Gizmodo