Make those giant speakers into storage

Instructables has a wealth of information and step-by-step instructions on how to make just about anything your heart desires (some things silly and some useful). One interesting item I came across is a way to recycle old floor standing speakers into storage units.

If you have a couple of old-school floor standing speakers taking up space in your basement or attic, you may want to consider retrofitting them into media storage cabinets. The easy to follow steps can be found here.

If you don’t have any speakers of your own to use, you can easily pick up some giant speakers at a consignment shop or gargage sale. The end result is rather unique and a fairly cheap alternative to your run-of-the-mill media storage currently available in stores.

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Posted by Matt on Jul 3, 2008 | Comments | Tweet This

17 comments posted

  1. Posted by Ben - 07/03/2008

    I’m against this idea. You may not realize it by looking at them, but chances are those old floor standing speakers are better built and have better sound quality than anything you can buy today without going to a specialty store. If you like the looks of the speakers well enough to move them out of the basement and use them as storage, why don’t you go ahead and use them as speakers? Buy a nice bookshelf to be storage, and enjoy the speakers as they were intended.

  2. Posted by Ben - 07/03/2008

    Sorry for double posting, but I forgot one thing. This would be a perfectly acceptable use of broken speakers, but this being Unclutterer, if they’re broken you really shouldn’t have them anyway. A garage sale would work, I suppose.

    Just please don’t wreck a good pair of speakers.

  3. Posted by Kenna - 07/03/2008

    This is similar to something my husband and I did with an old stereo system. It is one of those bigger-than-a-coffee-table stereo systems with a lift up center where the turn table and cassette player are found. However, Ben will be happy to know that we didn’t destroy the speakers. We actually opened up the back and were able to hook the speakers up as our surround sound back left and back right speakers. We took out the center parts (turn table, etc.) because we don’t use records or cassette tapes and turned that into storage for board games. We have it positioned behind our sofa like a sofa table, get great surround sound from the speakers, and have storage all in one.

  4. Posted by Alex Fayle - 07/03/2008

    Great idea, especially if you want some sort of funky hidden storage option – broken speakers from charity shops/flea markets are super-cheap as well.

  5. Posted by Sara - 07/03/2008

    This seems like a new one for Unclutterer….suggesting people go out and buy bulky speakers that they don’t need.

  6. Posted by Missi - 07/03/2008

    @ Sarah,
    “The end result is rather unique and a fairly cheap alternative to your run-of-the-mill media storage currently available in stores.” I don’t think Unclutterer is suggesting you add more clutter to your home, this is just a creative option if you have media to store and want to do something different.

  7. Posted by infmom - 07/03/2008

    I’m not so sure it’s always true that the old speakers are better than the new ones. My husband dug in his heels for decades, insisting that the speakers he bought in 1965 were better than anything currently on the market. So we had huge speakers taking up a lot of space in small living room after small living room. At least they served the dual function of end tables.

    We went to one of those hotsy-totsy “designer home” showcases a couple years ago (got freebie tickets through his work) and I walked into one room that had those tiny bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer in it and I was sold. Of course, Mr. Audiophile wasn’t about to get rid of the two Goliaths in the living room–and in fact brought home two more from work, about 20 years newer, for surround sound. We had to rearrange the furniture to accommodate them.

    Last Christmas, our daughter’s partner got new bookshelf speakers and kindly gave us her old ones and their subwoofer. And yes indeed, they do sound better.

    Which means we now have four old speakers that we could turn into storage… if we wanted to take up that much space in the living room again. :)

  8. Posted by Deb - 07/03/2008

    I like the cabinetry of the speakers we have. When they crater, I plan to use them as storage in a tonsu stack sort of way. Until then, they are surely too small on top for much good, except to hold the stacks of cd’s that are not refiled in the media shelves.

    I have rescued stereo cabinets for use in my classroom. These are the kind with several shelves inside and a glass door on the front. I used one as a projector cart for my overhead and one as a display cabinet for specimens.

  9. Posted by Erika - 07/05/2008

    Oh I have a pair of these the garage! They work perfectly though. I’ll use them until they finally go to speaker-heaven and then will make this! Fantastic idea!!

  10. Posted by Scott Roewer - 07/05/2008

    Perfect – I love having ideas like this to suggest to my clients. I hate seeing things go to the dump, just because they not longer work for their intended purpose. I saw a lot of artist at this years Artomatic in DC use household items for their artwork. This post reminded me of that event.

  11. Posted by Frugal Dad - 07/06/2008

    I think this is a great idea, and I love the retro look. I had a pair of these old floor speakers stored somewhere around here – I’m off to look for them. By the way, I love your website. I’ve subscribed and look forward to reading future posts.

  12. Posted by Joanne - 07/08/2008

    I have a pair of these also and they way outperform the cube speakers with sub-woofer that are also hooked up to the stereo for surround sound. Until I move somewhere I can’t use them, or they fry, I will be sticking with them as the primary speakers.

    Good idea, though, if they are already broken and you have the space.

  13. Posted by matt - 07/18/2008

    I feel the need to point out most speakers like that are not shielded (the magnetic field spills out into the surrounding area) so it would be a very bad idea to store VHS, cassettes, or any other magnetic storage medium in them. It would most likely erase, or at least extremely distort them. It is also a shame to see good old speakers go to waste, as some of the old ones really do sound better (although there was plenty of old crap as well)

  14. Posted by Sisterfunkhaus - 08/03/2008

    I disagree about large speakers being better than anything on the market. My husband held on to his old speakers using this excuse for years. Then, he got some high end computer speakers so we could listen to music off the computer. Lo and behold, they sounded far better. He ditched those old speakers in a heart beat.

  15. Posted by DS - 08/29/2008

    This is an old thread but Ben, here’s to you and you loyalty to the speaker!!!!
    My father and I found a couple old monsters with blown subs but functional mid’s and tweets.
    I went and bought 2 10″ JBL’s and installed them into the monster box’s and connected them to a Viking 200 watt amplifier from 1978, they were FANTASTIC!
    Point being…NEVER WASTE A DECENT SPEAKER, old does not mean bad (unless damaged).

  16. Posted by Elaine - 07/05/2009

    Sheesh, I need to take Remedial Reading. I thought the subject header said “Turn your old SNEAKERS into storage.” My son is a size 13. That would have been a fine idea…

  17. Posted by glynn - 07/07/2009

    We are using our old college speakers with the tv set. It came back from a “repair” with the attached speakers blown. Those big old speakers are working really well, and also double as end tables, but I’ll be glad when this tv set bites the dust and takes the speakers with it!

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