How do you use tin cans other than recycling them. Ideas can include craft ideas or anything else you can think of. Please specify type or size of can.
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I wash them out thoroughly so as not to attract unwanted critters, and then store a few for when I need to discard cooking oil from pan frying or deep frying. I pour the cooled oil into a can, then I stuff a couple napkins into it, close the lid (which I usually keep attached to the can), and place it in my trash. I've found this to be the best way to discard oil in the least messy way. Other than that, I recycle them. Thanks for a great newsletter!!!
- A. P.
Here's a few ideas for re-using coffee cans, large or small sizes.
An empty coffee can makes a great container for collecting kitchen sink-side compost. When it's full, take it out to the compost bin, and dump it. Then rinse it in the dishwater and keep using it.
At work we have 2 large empty coffee cans by the coffee machine to save the used grounds. A few gardeners take the used grounds home for their plants.
Empty coffee cans are great organizers for the workbench area to hold nails, screws, and small items.
A large empty coffee can is good for holding clothespins. Thread a wire hanger through two drilled holes in the can and hang the can from the clothesline while you are hanging clothes.
Coffee cans make great planters for outdoors or indoors. Just drill drainage holes in the bottom. Paint or decorate the cans. Wire a few together -- in groups of 3 would be nice -- for a larger planter.
Use wire to hang the planters over a railing or a fence. Attach heavy cord to make hanging planters.
Laid on their sides and glued, wired, or duct-taped together in a stacked pyramid, coffee cans make a cute shelving/storage system for a desk or workbench top. Paint and decorate the cans as well.
Decorated coffee cans work well for storing dry bulk ingredients in the pantry, such as rice, oats, and beans.
Keep your garden seeds stored -- nice and dry -- in an empty coffee can.
Stack and duct-tape 2 large cans on top of each other. Make two of these and lay a board on top for an instant shelf. Paint everything to match.
You can bake bread in the oven using coffee cans as the bread pans.
I have even read that footstools can be made from coffee cans joined together and then covered with fiberfill and cloth.
Only your imagination can limit you from finding MANY more uses for coffee cans.
Ness, co-list mom of Waste Nothing discussion group
Sometimes we buy spaghetti sauce that comes in tall cans. I usually cut out the other end on them and put them around tall plants like amaryllis. I use regular sized cans around shorter plants like overgrown pansies bought at end of season sales.
Now I have a question. Does anybody have any ideas how to use those silver cardboard peanut cans? We like peanuts but cutting those things up to recycle the parts separately is a pain.
- Linne Dodds
You can make a Can FootStool. You will need 7 large juice cans, 2 yards of material and quilt batting. Full directions can be found at the link below.
- Peggy Hoehne
Contributing Editor - Household Tips
www.suite101.com/
Dear Linne,
I find those peanut cans the perfect size to wrap individual pieces of homemade fudge or peanut brittle in and give as a gift. I just cover the outside of the can with contact paper or attractive gift wrap. It makes a pound of fudge go a long way and also keeps it fresh. Good Luck,
Dear Kimberly,
You grease and flour any can and use your own or any cake mix recipe or any quick bread recipe such as banana bread or nut bread. The trick is to fill the can only two thirds full. You can tell when it is done by testing with a toothpick. When it comes out clean, the loaf is ready. Allow to cool in the can for 10 minutes. No more, no less and turn out onto a rack. Almost every coffee can loaf looks festive for any occasion with a bit of frosting. You can use store bought, but allow to "dry" or harden before placing in saran wrap or foil. You can speed this process by placing in the refrigerator for half an hour or so. Hope this helps.
Cover them with contact paper, place a label on them and store all kinds of things in them. My mother and I use them [as well as the larger snack cans] to store hard candies, M&M's and other goodies. It beats having all those bags lying around, and the cans don't tear and spill their contents all over the floor. Keeps the stuff fresher too.
- KayD
Use those cardboard and metal peanut cans with snap on plastic lids to store home made cookies in the freezer. It will keep them fresh and unbroken. Also use them at Christmas time to give gifts of cookies and candies. Just cover them with Christmas Wrap and glue or tape a bunch of curlie ribbon to the lid...no need to even wrap them. Pringles Cans are also good for this. Last Christmas, I used the small Pringles cans and put a few pieces of home made fudge and a few home made cookies in them and gave them as gifts to the lady who delivers my paper...the postman....the postal clerks who help me get my eBay packages off on time, and any other acquaintances that I like to remember, but not with an expensive gift. After all, this is *Thrifty Fun" :)
- Harlean
My father was a do-it-yourselfer, and had all sorts of nuts, bolts, screws, nails and the like. In his work shop area he had a wooden table with shelves, on which he stored boxes filled with the cans storing all these various items according to type and size.
- KayD
I use the small tuna cans in my nursing home crafts class by filling with styrofoam and have residents make flower arrangements. You can add different theme decorations too!
I have also used the Campbell's soup cans for flower vases and filled with silk flowers and add a "computer generated message" and a bow and donate them to the nursing home.
These are small, require no water, and easy to find space in the patients cramped rooms.
Syd Barr
I cut the bottom out of the cans and wrap yarn around and use to hold cards.
We use old cans to make pencil holders for my children's teachers. Just glue some old crayons on the outside for decoration. The teachers go nuts over this gift.
When I plant my veggie garden, I use coffee cans (both ends removed) around tender plants like tomatoes, peppers, etc. to protect them from cold nights. When plants get larger it keeps the water at the roots of the plants.
- Nancy
I have used the tuna cans (discard the sharp-edged lid and make a plastic circle from another plastic lid of some type for the beginning of a new lid) to make a hinge-lid container for trinkets. I was trying out new crochet stitches and chose the popcorn stitch to make the lid (rather the effect of milk glass) by punching holes around the edge of the plastic and just going in rounds until it was domed with a bit of stuffing to keep it in form and finished off with a little knob (the last popcorn stitch). The bottom was just started with a circle of crochet that grew to the size of my can, then decreased to make it snug on the sides, finishing off a little tighter at the rim and attaching the lid. The bottom was simple single crochet. Judy, Missouri
I bought some unique Christmas ornaments a few years back that were made out of the 6oz. tuna cans. Someone had spray painted them a shiny (1) red & (1) green. They'd taken a white powder laundry soap, dampened it enough to make a paste they put this in the tuna can (while standing on it's side), made it look like a snow drift. When it dried, it hardened. They then hot glued tiny snowmen and miniature wrapped gifts in 1 of them. The other one has a miniature Christmas tree complete with tiny weiny ornaments & the miniature wrapped gifts underneath. Both tuna cans have a small strip of red ribbon hot glued to the top for hanging. These are the cutest little ornaments I have purchased. Anyone who is crafty, these should be a breeze. The lady said she didn't hardly have any amount of money in the preparation of these.
Hi, I sell at local bazaars every year. And this year I decided to try something different for selling my fudges.
I bought Christmas tins at the dollar store and put 1 pound of fudge in each tin, wrapped it in plastic wrap and sold it for $5.00 a pound. Sold like hot cakes. I sold about 45 of them at 3 bazaars. They loved that it was in a decorative tin can, saved from having to figure out what to put the fudges in for gift giving. Now what I'd like to find out is: can I bake breads in the same tins? If anyone has ever done this can you please let me know...Thanks
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