My brother and his wife, both in their 70s, reuse, recycle and repurpose whenever possible. At garage sales and farm auctions, old bicycles and tricycles — many in good condition but discarded for newer models — sell cheap. My brother buys them (his inventory has reached 26) and converts portions of them into useful items — from handlebars transformed into a shovel and hose holder for the garage wall to two-wheeled mobile toolboxes. Some of the toolboxes are as big as an ice cream vendor’s pedal cart, with hinged covers. Each toolbox is stocked with a selection of tools particular to a specific repair job.
To haul rakes, hoes and other small equipment to his rented garden space several blocks from home, my brother designed a two-wheeled cart he can hook to the back of his bicycle. He returns with freshly harvested produce!
My brother has two other carts he uses almost daily. One is a two-wheeled platform cart fashioned from an ironing board bent in the middle so the legs become handles. A sturdy plastic tub can be set on the platform and loaded with bags of heavy groceries for easy wheeling to the kitchen steps. Together, in one trip, he and his wife can carry the week’s groceries straight into the kitchen.
The second back-saver cart, made from two tricycle wheels (top), carries a sturdy plastic tub bolted to its undercarriage. They use this cart to easily move any small load — from flats of seedlings and bags of fertilizer to heavy pots of flowers and an assortment of trowels and clippers.
Claudette Sandecki
Terrace, British Columbia
