Making use of an old dryer drum

My clothes dryer recently died which was most upsetting. We had been together for a while and it had got me through many rainy days. Though I was becoming too dependent on it. I was even using it on bright sunny days to dry all the little things that take forever to hang out. After I hung out the towels and bulky items I would throw all the remaining undies and socks in the dryer to save time. I know that sounds very lazy doesn't it. 

After getting a very large power bill it was time to make serious changes to my habits. So when the dryer died I decided not to replace it. So far it has been about 6 weeks and I have survived the extra work.

I was going to take the dryer to the tip but remembered that I had seen a picture of a washing machine drum being recycled into a fire pit or into a pot for plants. I wasn't sure if you could do the same with a dryer drum but I decided to find out. I wasn't sure how hard it would be to pull apart the dryer to get the drum but it worked out to be quite easy. I only needed basic tools and it took about 5 minutes.

My dead dryer

The icky insides of my dryer.

Some burnt fluff.

When I got the drum out I tested it as a fire drum and it worked really well. I raised the base slightly on bricks to allow the air to flow through the air holes at the bottom and this kept the fire burning hot. As it worked well as a fire drum I could have happily kept it for this purpose but I wanted it instead as a big pot for a fruit tree.

I bought a dwarf lemon tree to put in the drum. As the top is narrow I figured that re-potting the plant would be difficult to do in the future so I wanted a plant that wouldn't grow very large. I also thought the drum might get quite hot in summer so I will have to think about placement options.

 

Now to wait for some lemons.

I think this is a great way to recycle. I wish I had kept the drum out of my old washing machine because that would have made a huge big planter. Oh well, I know now for next time.