12 Neat Things You Can Do With Old Business Cards

Is it time to update your business cards? Maybe you’ve been promoted to a new position, your contact information has changed, you’ve updated your company’s logo and branding, or you’ve even left your job for a new company. Whatever the occasion, whenever you update your business cards, you’re probably going to be left with a bunch of old cards that you don’t need.

So, what do you do with all of those old business cards? You don’t want to just throw them away. That’s wasteful! There has to be something better you can do with those outdated cards, right? There is! Check out these 12 awesome things you can do with old print business cards.
 

• Make a collage out of them—You probably have a ton of old business cards that you need to do something with. Why not turn all of those cards into one big piece of art? You could make your company’s logo out of a bunch of business cards for an interesting art piece!

• Use them as bookmarks—Like to read? Don’t bend up the pages in your book. Mark your place with your old business cards. They make perfect bookmarks!

• Paint over them and make new cards—Just because your old cards have incorrect information on them doesn’t mean that you need to throw them out. The actual cards are still useful. Paint over them and print your new information on the cards. This lets you reuse the card, and it gives your card a fresh, interesting look.

• Make a box to hold your new business cards—How are you going to hold all of your new business cards? Why not build a box out of your old business cards? Talk about being resourceful!

• Use them as table place cards for special events—Have a special event coming up with lots of guests attending? You’ll need place cards that tell your guests where they’ll be sitting. Your old business cards could do the trick. You can conceal the old information in any number of ways, like painting over it, and add the names of your guests for the perfect name cards.

• Turn them into labels—Use the blank backsides of your business cards as labels in your filing cabinet, on cans, in your library, and anywhere else you need labels. This is as simple as it gets, but it works.

• Make a headphone holder—Don’t you hate how your headphones get all tangled up? It’s annoying, and it damages your earbuds. With this simple tutorial, you can easily turn old business cards into headphone holders. It’s creative, fun and very useful!

• Make a deck of playing cards—Like to play card games? Make your own custom card deck out of your old business cards. You can paint, color, or even put construction paper over the business card and design new playing cards.

• Cut out guitar picks—If your business cards were printed on high-quality card stock, they could be thick enough to use as guitar picks. This article offers a good step-by-step walk through on cutting out your own guitar picks.

• Save them for a scrapbook—It’s fun to look back on the various stages of your life. That’s why saving some of your old business cards for scrapbooking is a good idea. It marks a special time in your life and the life of your business.

• Update the info and drop them in fishbowls for drawings—Restaurants all over the place have fishbowls (or other containers) placed on the counter where you can drop in your business card for a contest. If your card gets drawn, you could win a free meal or even something more (like free meals for an entire year or something cool like a new tech gadget). Just update the info on your old business cards with a pen or marker, and use these cards for fish bowl drawings.

• Recycle them—Don’t feel like being crafty and making something out of your old business cards? That’s OK. You still don’t have to throw them away. Instead, recycle your business cards so that the materials get reused. Business cards can be put in the recycle bin with other paper materials, like newspapers and magazines.

Of course, the possibilities are endless when it comes to making use of your old business cards. 

Then again, this puts you to the question --- do we still need name cards anymore if all it does is end up in the dumpster?

It's time you look for an alternative to business cards that actually works: building your NAP online by sending a press release.

Learn more about how press releases can help you build your online presence. And for some great press release examples on various occasions, check out this post on our blog.