At some point in your life, when you’re starting to reach adulthood, those old trophies you earned in grade school seem to get stuffed into drawers or hidden away in basements. Awards are special and full of memories, but if they are done serving their purpose in your life, it’s time to give them a new life or owner. There might be some trophies worth holding onto, like the ones you can’t seem to part with, but reuse or recycle the others.

First, you need to collect all of your trophies, and this could take awhile if you can’t remember where some of them are. However, once you have all of them in front of you, rate each one and put them in one of two piles (ones that stay and ones that go). Remember, if you are attached to certain trophies, keep them because you may find constructive ways to reuse them in your life.

Some common ways of reusing a trophy in your home or office is to transform it into a table lamp. If you have electrical skills, this will be an easy task to accomplish, but if you don’t there are other options. For instance, you can use taller ones as planters outside and use smaller ones to decorate your garden. Once you add colorful flowers and maybe even some ivy or other hanging plant, the trophy will look less like itself. Also, store smaller awards in your kitchen, because you can use them to decorate a cake or other baked goods.

If you’re ready to give up your plaques free and clear, donate them to a trophy shop so they can be reused. Organizations such as schools, Special Olympics, libraries, YMCAs and parks can put them to good use. These places can reuse them as awards or keep them on hand for kid’s craft projects.

There are so many ways to reuse or recycle your trophies, so before tossing them into the trash, think about how that trophy can create a memorable moment for someone else or an animal such as a pet rat.