Do you remember getting your first driver’s license?
This is a big deal in the life of almost any young person.
If you have gotten older, you know that, annoyingly, your license needs to be replaced every few years.
The process in some states is easier than others, but you will be left with an old license regardless of where you live.
Most of the time, the license will have a corner cut from it, but your picture will usually still be in place.
This leaves many people wondering what they are supposed to do with their old licenses.
What to Do with Old Driver’s License
1. Keep It
Some people have found that holding onto their old driver’s license has saved them quite a bit of trouble.
If you lose your current license, it can sometimes be challenging to get a replacement when you don’t have a way to prove you are a resident and where you live.
Sometimes having this proof that you were a resident is going to pay off.
You should do this especially if you are moving from one state to another.
Sometimes the only way to prove your previous residency is by having a copy of your license from a previous state.
With all things being electronic and the systems that have been created, this is not something that comes up all that often, but it does happen.
If you will keep your license, make sure you store it in a secure place.
Your license has quite a bit of information about you, and in the hands of the wrong person, this could turn into a problem.
Keep your old license at home, and don’t keep it in your vehicle.
Some people like to keep their license as a memory as well.
You can see how you have changed through the years and where your life has taken you.
It can be amusing and interesting to keep the very first license that you got as well.
It’s a fun thing to look back and see how far you have come and to remember your excitement on that day when you were issued the license.
Getting a driver’s license is such a big step when it comes to independence, it is one of the most life changing days of your life.
Most of the time, when you keep a license, you will probably never need it.
It is not useful to use as a form of identification because it is expired, and it is probably marked as well.
However, in that rare instance when something comes up where the license could be useful, it may make sense to keep it.
2. Give It to Your Kid
Some people will save their old driver’s license to give to their child.
There is an age when you should give your kid your old license and an age when you should not.
For young kids who are into pretend play, the license is a great way to encourage their imagination.
You can get an old wallet and put an expired credit card and a license inside for the kid.
When they want to play, they can pretend they have an identification to show in a store or when they get pulled over by an officer.
Kids think this is a very fun way to play, and they also enjoy the fact that it is their parent on the license itself.
If the address on the license is the same as the one you currently live in, you can use it to help your child learn their address.
It’s amazing what such a simple little thing as an old license can inspire when it comes to play for children.
Of course, as your child gets into those teen years, you won’t want them to have your old license in case they try and use it as a fake ID.
The way expired licenses are now, they will have no chance of using it, but you still don’t want your child to make this mistake.
Once the kids get past the pretend play stage, take the license, and put it in storage in case you need it at a later date, as we mentioned in option one.
3. Make a Guitar Pick Out of It
We have a perfect solution for your driver’s license for those of you who like to recycle and reuse.
It turns out that the material and thickness of a driver’s license can make for a really excellent guitar pick.
Of course, you will have to be a guitar player to benefit from this option, or you could use it as a really cool gift for a musician you know.
In order to make a guitar pick out of an old license, you will have to use a guitar pick punch.
A guitar pick punch will look almost like a small stapler or a hole punch.
When you put the driver’s license into the punch, you simply press down and get a perfect sized guitar pick.
The pick punches are usually made with a stainless-steel blade, and they allow for a very smooth cut.
Making a guitar pick with a pick punch is easy and takes only a matter of seconds.
Once you purchase the punch, you can use it to make several out of your old license, or you can use credit cards, gift cards, hotel key cards, and more.
Guitar players like to have certain things about their music gear to be custom and unique to them.
There is nothing more custom than your own driver’s license turned into a guitar pick.
Guitar pick punches are not expensive considering the number of picks you can make from the purchase of one punch.
What Should You Do if You Want to Get Rid of Your Old License?
If you don’t like any of our ideas for keeping your old license and you want to discard it, there are right and wrong ways to do so.
If your old license ends up in the wrong hands, there could be people who try and take information off of it or even use pieces of it to create a fake license.
You don’t want this to come back to you and harm you in any way.
Make sure that, when you discard your old license, you do so by making it completely unrecognizable.
Some people do this by burning it while others will cut the license into many pieces.
Sometimes when cutting it into many pieces, you will want to distribute it among various garbage cans.
This will help to ensure that it can’t be put back together to get information.
Conclusion
Although there is not a ton you can do with an old driver’s license, hopefully, our ideas have helped to inspire you a little bit.
Anytime you can reuse something like this, you will help to eliminate waste.
Our favorite idea is the guitar pick punch, but if you don’t play guitar, find somebody who does and see if they may want your old license.
With the texture and strength of the license, chances are your guitar playing friend will jump at the chance.
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