I’m mainly talking about iPhones in this article, simply because those are the ones I’m passionate about and love with all my heart, but this can just as easily apply to any other brand! So please, even if iPhones aren’t your thing, keep on reading with the phones you actually like in mind.

Also, if photography in general isn’t your thing either, simply scroll to the second half of the article where I discuss other creative ways of using your old phones!

You might have noticed an uptick in “vintage” cams over the past few years – especially those small cameras that record low-quality videos and photos to capture the “retro” look…which, let’s be honest, is mainly the look of older smartphone cameras.

But guess what?

There are actually so many old phones out there on the market. So instead of buying a new electronic device (that might end up getting tossed soon anyway), why not give an old one love?

There’s even a good chance you have some at home, lying in a drawer somewhere. Maybe they just need to be plugged in and turned on. Maybe they need a simple battery change (which tends to be really inexpensive for old phones).

In a lot of cases, there was nothing actually wrong with the phone we had to replace. Either the battery capacity wasn’t good enough to for us to keep using the device as a primary phone. Or there were no more iOS updates available, which means that vital apps (like bank apps) were no longer supported. Sometimes we needed a new device to match up with the better cellular data options that rolled out. Or maybe we needed a bigger screen to do the job…or more storage.

But those devices aren’t faulty. They’re just slightly outdated and not able to keep up with the demands of a primary phone for our daily lives.

I see no reason why we wouldn’t offer them a slightly different job!

In case you don’t have any old phones lying around and you’re interested in that somewhat more old-school ambiance for your photos or videos, you can very easily get used, good, fully-functional iPhones on ebay.

Honestly, my heart always kind of hurts when I see just how many devices are out there.

Devices we all know are just going to end up as waste one day.

So why not give a chance to a second-hand, old iPhone over buying a new gadget?

This is not only great for your wallet, but also for sustainability.

Personally, I adore the iPhone 4s photos. So much, that because my husband’s old device has faulty buttons and is kind of hard to work on, I ordered myself a fully functional one…that also just so happened to be my dream phone back in the day, when it first came out. I wasn’t able to afford it then, but paying €50 for a fully functioning, grade A iPhone 4s is such a steal and more than doable.

You can also get them for much, much cheaper if you’re going for good condition over Grade A! I decided on this one purely because, as I mentioned, the white iPhone 4s was my dream phone once upon a time & I wanted all the functionalities to be top as well since I’ll be using it as my primary shooting phone.

What about if photography isn’t my thing?

Good news is that old iPhones are good for so much more than just snapping photos or recording videos.

I turned mine into more “dedicated” phones, where I have zero distractions on them (because even if I wanted to, they don’t support any of the apps for social media and such), and use them primarily for Calendar & Notes (aside from photography, of course).

For instance, I’ve always wanted a good way to keep track of all my books – especially when I’m updating the backmatter or making any other small changes. But when you have over 50 (or is it over 60 now? More? I don’t even know, I haven’t finished putting together my masterlist of all originals and translations…) titles published on Amazon that often exist in two, if not three formats, that stuff gets out of control real fast. I tried spreadsheets but I hate how they look, I tried having a dedicate place in journals, but it just wasn’t working out…

Now though, I have my Notes app on an older iPhone dedicated purely to all my series and books. It makes it super easy to keep track of everything. And, when the next round of updates I have to make rolls around, I can just remove the check mark next to the titles and start fresh.

Useful, easy, and pretty. All things I value.

So let’s dive into some of the creative ways of using your old iPhones:

• photo/video camera (we already mentioned this, but it needs to be on the list)
• manifestation phone (use it for your vision boards, affirmations, goals…)
• meditation phone (store your favorite meditations or subliminals in Files & also use the timer for your silent meditations)
• projects/biz phone (dedicated projects notes, like I did with my books)
• storage phone (on “newer” iPhone versions that support AirDrop & have some more storage capacity, it’s easy to just drop your photos and videos, using the phone as an external hard drive…or maybe a digital photo album)
• dictation phone (voice memos galore!)
• music phone (transform it into an iPod)

This is definitely not an exhaustive list. With a little playfulness and imagination, you can transform your old iPhone into anything that suits you.

All the ideas I mentioned above work even if, like me, you wiped the phone clean & can’t download any apps from the AppStore because the iOS is too old. If you can have apps though, then there are even more options available for you to play and get creative with!

I also created a new, separate Apple ID for the old phones that I want to sync to a certain extent (and also have iCloud backup available).

All in all, I love using the old devices & I’m inviting you to have some fun with yours too!

Who knows, you just might find a use for them you’ll fall in love with.

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