6 Uses For Old Mobile Phones

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New phone > Current phone > Old phone.

How often do you change your mobile phone? Are you:
A. A tech enthusiast who changes their phone every 3 months.
B. An Apple fan who buys every version of the iphone.
C. A stubborn person who is attached to their phone until it is close to death.

Whatever your answer you still end up with an old phone. It sits in your house gathering dust and it takes up precious space. Here are 6 ways to stop your old mobiles from becoming part of the clutter.



1. Recycle it

If your old phone is completely unsalvagable and you can't even open it anymore then recycle! Phones are made up of many scarce minerals, such as gold and coltan, that have to be mined and play a part in pollution. Just coltan mining alone is responsible for gorilla's losing their habitat and is embedded in 'conflict mining'.One way to reduce these negative effects is to recycle them for their mineral content.

There are some free phone recycling programs. Melbourne Zoo run the 'They're Calling On You' campaign that collects old phones for recycling. Their website lets you print a prepaid address label for you to post it (within Australia) or you can drop the phones off at Healesville sanctuary, Werribee zoo or Melbourne zoo. In Europe, Fairphone run a similar program where people in the listed European countries can mail phones for recycling for free.



2. Music Player

So you've downloaded all your music files into your hone. Do you want to go through that hassling process of transferring them all to your new phone? It should take 10 minutes, but it always ends up taking a few hours. Save your time by just keeping your old phone as your walkman/ipod.

3. Photo Album/Digital Camera

Hands up if you take photos or use messaging apps? Chances are you've got so many photos on your phone that you could fill a few photo albums. The number of photos is also constantly growing. All these photos are eating up space and slowing down your phone. Its just hard to not take a photo.

Therefore in the best interests of your current phone, delegate photos to your old one. Provided your old phone has a decent camera, it works well as a digital camera. By snapping away with your old phone, your current one doesn't get clogged up when you visit your friend with the adorable kitten.

4. Alarm clock

Use your old phone as your alarm clock. How many times have you knocked your phone to the floor when you tried to turn the alarm off? Minimise the danger of dropping your new phone and scratching it/breaking the screen. You can also avoid leaving it at home. By using the old phone as the alarm clock, your new/current one can be safely packed into your bag.

5. Game Console

Everyone likes playing games on their smart phone. Whether its connect 3 games or games that require daily log ins to solve crimes or build island resorts, phones have made gaming accessible to everyone. Everyone is a gamer, even those who have never heard of Nintendo, Capcom or Play Station. The thing with games is they eat u space faster than photos or music files. Relocate your games to your old phone to save space. You can even choose to leave your old phone at home if you need a break from gaming.

6. App Tester

Who likes free apps? There's so many on the App Store/Google Play that you can download, try and delete (DTD) without a second thought. However these leave an unseen mark in your phone. They leave empty folders on your phone. So while you DTD away, your phone is amassing empty files that are taking up space. DTD on your old phone to check which apps you actually and then install them onto your new phone.



Uses 2-6 are all about saving space on your new phone, which basically keeps your hone fast. More space = faster phone. Continuing to use your old phone actually helps you to extend the life of your new phone.

If you have another use for an old phone please share below!

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