Bricks are sturdy and they can withstand extreme changes in hot and cold temperatures. Bricks come in different colors, textures and sizes. On some of the older bricks, you can find bricks that have the name of the company who manufactured them and the date.

My dad used to tear down houses and old buildings, and he salvaged almost everything. One of the things he salvaged was a lot of bricks which we used to make pathways in the yard. Before he passed away, he stared to place bricks around an old storage house that we have. By placing a moisture barrier, and then a layer of bricks around the outside of the house, we would have a brick house.

If you are going to reuse your bricks in a wall then you can remove the old mortar from the old bricks with a chisel and hammer. Position the chisel at a slight angle at the place where the mortar meets the brick. Hit the handle of the chisel with your hammer and the mortar should come off. You don't need to remove the old mortar if you don't want to. The old mortar adds to the character of the bricks and you don't risk breaking any of your bricks by removing it.

A Door or Book Stop

Place the brick by your gardening shed door to use as a doorstop. If you have wood floors, glue some fabric onto the bottom of your brick to keep it from scratching the wood.

Use bricks to keep your gardening books from falling off bookshelves. Stand one brick upright or lay three bricks lengthwise, on top of each other, to hold up a shelf or to keep the books from falling.

Bricks can also be used as a decorative planter. Simply fill the holes of the bricks with potting soil and then plant a cactus or any other plant in the holes. Annual flowers also work well for bricks with larger holes. Perennial plants would freeze unless you cover the entire brick with straw.

Place a brick under each leg of a bed to raise it off the floor. Some beds just aren't high enough from the floor so you can put boxes or things under them. If you have wood floors, you may want to glue some fabric on the bottom of your bricks to protect your floors.

Garden Perimeter

Place the bricks around the outside of your garden. Measure the outside perimeter of your garden to make sure you have enough bricks to go around. Dig into the ground a fourth-inch to a half inch deep. Make the width the same as your bricks, because this helps to keep the bricks from shifting. Place the bricks end to end into the channel that you just dug out.

Pathway or Walkway

Lay the bricks out for a path, a walkway or to make a patio floor. Measure the length and width you need for your path to make sure you have enough bricks. Dig into the ground to remove a fourth-inch to a half-inch of soil. If you are making a big patio area, you may want to add a layer of sand at the bottom before you install the bricks onto the ground. Lay the bricks close together and then place a bucketful or more of sand over the top of the bricks. Brush the sand to fill in the crevices between each of the bricks. When I did mine in the back yard, I didn't add any sand to the bottom or top. It really depends on how much work you want to do and how much space you leave between the bricks. With this project, you can use whole bricks or pieces of brick to form the path or walkway.

If you have a lot of bricks, you can use them to make a retaining wall or to help cover up part of your wall on a house. For this, you will need to remove all the old mortar and then mix new mortar to hold the bricks firmly in place.