Unique Ways to Use Common Household Items

We tend to use everyday household items according to how they’re advertised. Take buttons, for example. They stop shirts and pants from falling off our bodies, right? But they are also useful for keeping post earrings organized. Just slide a post earring through a buttonhole and attach it to the button with its post. No more lost earrings!There are tons of nifty uses for household items you probably never thought of but wish you had.

Never eat stale snacks again with scissors

Potato chips aren’t supposed to taste like dry oatmeal. They’re supposed to be super crunchy and flavorful to satisfy that craving when it hits. At least, that’s what we expect when we open the cupboard and grab a chip bag.Nothing is more dispiriting than finding a chip bag open and eating chips that stale and lifeless. When a chip bag clip is nowhere to be found, make one by cutting off the clips of a plastic trouser hanger. Heavy-duty scissors or electric scissors will work well to give you an instant chip bag clip.

An eyeglass case can lengthen the life of earbuds

We abuse our earbuds relentlessly. Throwing them into backpacks, tossing them on tables loaded with other junk, or leaving them on the floor of our cars. Stop the abuse of earbuds by using that eyeglass case you threw in a kitchen drawer after getting new eyeglasses. Hard-cover eyeglass cases keep earbuds safe, tangle-free, and easy to find when we want to be alone with our favorite tunes.

Use coffee filters to serve popcorn

It’s movie night, and there’s plenty of popcorn ready to be poured into big bowls. There’s only one problem — there’s not enough bowls to go around. Now what?Ditch the bowls and use coffee filters to hold the popcorn. This way, everybody gets their own bowl. Best of all, no dishes need to be washed in the morning. Just throw the filters away when the movie’s over.

Save the paint tray with plastic bags

Painting several rooms with different colored paint does not mean you have to purchase a paint pan for each paint color. With paint pans running $10 or more, who can afford that? Just cover the paint pan with a 13-gallon plastic garbage bag, pour paint into the pan, finish your painting project, and remove the garbage bag. That paint pan is clean and ready for the next painting job.

Use old socks for a relaxing bath!

Slipping into a warm bubble bath after a long, hard day is something we all look forward to and enjoy. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just lay back and let our headrest on a soft, comfortable pillow instead of the hard edge of the tub?Make an instant bath pillow using a one gallon or two-gallon freezer bag by stuffing the bag with old socks, old pillow stuffing, or other similar material. It’s waterproof, adjustable, and beats the heck out of cold ceramic.

Try CDs for candlelight without messy, melting wax

Taper candles provide the kind of intimate, cozy illumination to up the romance factor during candlelight dinners. When more than one candle is needed, and only one candle holder can be found, dig out some old CDs nobody has listened to since 1999, slide a CD down to the middle of the taper candle, and fashion a makeshift holder using clay or Play-doh.

Dust bunnies beware rubber bands

Handheld whisk brooms are handy to sweep up dry spills in the kitchen but what about those times we spy piles of dust or mounds of spider webs in cracks and crevices we can’t reach with a tiny whisk broom? No problem if your junk is full of rubber bands. Reshape a standard size broom using rubber bands to pull together broom bristles. Then stick a clump of bristles into the crevice to clear away debris.

Stop sleeping toddlers from rude awakenings with pool noodles

How many parents have heard the familiar sound of a child falling out of bed, followed by loud crying that wakes up the entire household? For little kids who tend to fidget and roll around more than usual while they sleep, pool noodles can help keep them in their beds and off the floor. Place a full-size pool noodle underneath a fitted sheet on both sides of the bed, tuck the sheet in securely, and parents have an instant, floor-proof bed for their child.

Straws make hulling strawberries so much easier

Removing the green leaves and center of fresh strawberries is called hulling strawberries. Manually hulling strawberries usually involves pulling on the leaves and hoping the white center comes out cleanly. But, of course, that hardly ever happens.To quickly and easily have hulled strawberries, insert a straw into the top of the strawberry and push it quickly through the strawberry. Out comes the leaves and center, leaving a nice, hulled strawberry to eat or use in recipes.

Sewing a button without thread? Use floss

Getting dressed for a wedding, funeral, or other important event and suddenly watching a button pop off, fall to the ground, and roll away will inevitably causes panic. Frantically searching in the junk drawer and finding thread throws anybody into full panic mode.Go for the dental floss. Coated dental floss threads easily through most sewing needles and holds up well for a temporary fix.