When discarding a wooden desk or dresser with a handsome set of drawers, it often seems a pity to waste their nice wood and sturdy construction by tossing them into a landfill. Given their inherently useful shape, repurposing old drawers is as easy as finding a place where a rectangular container will be useful. Transform old drawers into materials for new household projects and fixtures, and do something nice for both yourself and the environment.
If all else fails, disassemble that drawer and use its component parts for scrap. If the wood pieces look nice, you can make them into part of a small woodworking product or to practice woodworking shapes. With more damaged or unattractive components, transform into firewood for an indoor fireplace or outdoor fire pit. Even chipboard or composite wood products will burn well and light fairly easily, since they'll already have spent years drying.
Fill old shelves with potting soil and transform them into outdoor planters to place in your garden area, or on a porch or patio. These planter boxes are just the right shape for starting seeds or planting small, new seedlings from the greenhouse. Compared to many flimsy plastic planters, they're sturdier, yet still easy to move from place to place. The construction of most drawer shelves also ensure that while they're strong enough to hold the soil and plants, they're not watertight, making the drainage of excess water a problem you won't have to worry about.
Collect old drawers of different shapes, sizes and colors, and use them to create a single drawer unit with an asymmetric look and many drawers. To make this piece, start with any set of plans for a standard wooden dresser, but build only the frame and modify the shape to fit the shelves you have. Also, modify the depth of the dresser to fit the largest shelf in your collection.
Transform large, shallow drawers into shadow boxes to display keepsakes. Give the drawer a coat of shiny black paint, inside and out, before you hang it. Mount the drawer in a room using L-bracket hardware on the bottom (what used to be the front) and screws with washers to mount the back (formerly bottom) to the wall.
If you're looking to repurpose deeper, more square-shaped drawers, mount them to a wall to transform them into wall shelving units. These work best to hold lightweight items like clothing or bathroom towels, though you can create shelving for heavier items if the wood is robust and you reinforce the construction of the drawer with a few extra screws.