What to Do with Leftover Paint?

MY solution to "how to dispose of unused paint" is to mix it all together and sell it to 3rd world countries for their use. of the color schemes I've seen in photos, color coordination is not one of their priorities.

Run the numbers before you start the painting project... It's not that hard to calculate how much paint you will need based on the Sq footage to be painted... it's written right on the can how much it will cover...

Only buy what you need.

I placed a 4' square 2" x 4" frame on the floor and covered the area with landscaping plastic.

Pour out unused paint 1/2 gallon at a time over the plastic, spread and allow to dry.

Dried paint can be placed in the landfill with out concern of seepage into the water table.

Norm

Use leftover paint to coat the corrugated cardboard storage boxes in your garage and closets. It'll cover up the ugly advertizing graphics on their outsides and also give them more durability and resistance to moisture in humid climates. Cardboard boxes that consumer products are shipped in have a way have a way of outliving the products themselves if their size and shape is useful for storage. A paint coating extends this life.

Small amounts of leftover paint can be saved in small wide mouth food jars. The smaller container will slow drying of the paint and make it handy for touch ups especially if it is a wide mouthed jar that will allow entry of a paintbrush. Make sure to obscure or remove the original label and mark the description of the new contents.

Ed Weldon

What about donating the left-overs to some community-based project (in the UK read "Registerd Charity") and benefit from any tax relief available?

Create nice artwork, emulsion paint is pretty much the same as artists acrylic and about a hundreth of the price, great for priming canvas or doing the background coulours, you can afford to play about mixing reasonable volumes without breaking the bank.
Or use it to seal the ends of logs which you are seasoning to make bows to stop cracking.
Del

Back 10 years ago here in NY, I was told by the local enviro-police to pour a liberal amount of cat litter into the paint cans containing the leftovers and mix well. Leave the cans open and in a few days the sludge would dry up rock-hard. Then ok to landfill. It worked fine, made ugly harmless plastic gook. Del, you must have plenty of litter around for when you're not in an artistic mood.

jhammond

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First off, anymore, about 99.9% of everything I use is water based.

I take the leftovers, thin them out a little, and pour them onto my gravel driveway, followed by a light misting to rinse the color from the top surface of the gravel. It dries and bonds the gravel together under the surface, and I don't do it when rain is imminent.

I figure by the time I retire, I'll have a real nice solid driveway.

I mix all my left-over latex paints together in one of those 5-gallon paint pails and mix it in all together into an off-whitish Franken-Paint. Then I use it to paint the cinder-block walls of my basement. Amazing how much paint cinder-blocks will absorb. Plus the color is always lighter than the battleship gray cinder-blocks so it brightens up the joint.

Paint the cat.

Whaaaaa?! Ftttzzzzz hisssss
Trying to get our new cat to use the cat flap, which is more like a cat tunnel as it goes through a cavity wall.
Much hilarity ensues, having got mog into the tunnel in the manner of stuffing a round up the breech, as I try to ram one end home I see the other end coming back towards me, I didn't think there was sufficient room to turn....
In the end Mrs Cat has to lure her through with a kitty treat.
Del

Well, ever since the lead was removed, dried paint doesn't taste very good so eating it is no longer my preferred method of disposal.

I have taken the last half-pint or so in a can no longer needed, added a few handfuls of sawdust, and let dry.

Hmmmmm ......... cheap casting compound. Likely needs a good mold release. ....EW

Yep. Maybe you've just discovered a new art form.

I think that would give my driveway a lumpy, unappealing look.

Mix it with Keene's cement, or whiting, or similar dry plaster to make "Swedish Putty".

Mix cat litter into it an let dry. Then out with the trash.