I just made a discovery and have got to share it. I have been wishing for a gadget to hold my Zip Lock Freezer Bag open while I fill it. I thought about the tin can and went to my recycling bin and pulled out a 28 oz. Hunt's Tomato can.
I cut the bottom out, washed it good and gave it a try. It works great and makes putting stuff in the bag much easier. It fits perfectly down into the quart size bag and can be used on the gallon size bag also. This can will go in my utility drawer now.
By Betty from NC
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One of the ways I recycle is by burying my steel cans in my garden, I leave the bottoms on and I bury them about 12 in. deep open side up. I fill the canned with compost and then plant above it.
I needed small cake pans, but didn't have any, so I grabbed some empty tuna cans. They are just the right size for mini cake pans.
I keep all my food cans for recycling. Some I keep and decorate with paint, stickers, ribbons, and etc. I use them for organizing small items.
I eat a lot of the larger Campbell's chicken noodle soup (in the 25% more cans) and mandarin oranges from The Dollar Tree. While prepping them for recycling today, it hit me. The bigger one could be a lid for the smaller one.
The photo does not do this project justice, but it's an organizer that is very easy to make, uses materials you already have on hand, is very nice to look at, and best of all will help your kids keep their things in order.
I would just like to have you post the following in response to the recipes I have seen here that call for using empty food cans that are on this site:
When using the coffee plastic cans or even the metal ones, I make cookie cottages out of them, and give them as gifts, with home made goodies inside.
Call or go to any tennis club and ask then to save the empty tennis ball containers for you. Wash them out and use for almost anything.
I make a lot of homemade bread so I buy flour in bulk. To make measuring easier I keep a mandarin orange can in my flour container. It measures 2 cups and has grooves inside at the 1/2 and 1 cup level.
While doing any DIY project, organization is key. When you take off the hardware to paint furniture you do not want to lose the hardware.
Take your empty can and rinse it out with soap and water. Let air dry. Find anything you're not using and cover the front. I used juice pouches to match the purse.
Remember making these when we were young? This is a great indoor craft to do when it's too cold or raining outside for the little ones to play.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am going to be using tin cans from veggies and such for some crafts, and I can't seem to get the glue from the wrappers off, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what to use that is very inexpensive to buy?
We use WD40 for this all the time. It works great if you spray it on (outside of course) and let it sit for a short while. Sometimes it may require a second application
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.
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!!!
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,
- Granny P.
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.
- Granny P.
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.
What are some frugal, creative and/or crafty uses for tin cans?
Peel the labels off and smash 'em flat - 8 or so. Using an awl, punch a hole in each one. Take a larger can - coffee can or large vegetable can - fill with ice and freeze. Then in the rim of this can, punch a hole for each smashed can - space your holes equidistant along the rim. Punch another hole in the center of the can bottom. Now spray all the cans with clear rustoleum to keep them from rusting. Thread fishing line through the holes in the large can and tie knots to hold them in place. Thread the other end through the hole in the smashed can - one can per string - and knot. Finally, thread a button onto another length of fishing line and knot. Pass this thread through the hole in the middle of the can bottom, and hang. Un-canny windchimes. My kids did these and painted the large can with geometric designs. Great for mother's/father's day.
You can also cover 6 cans (same size) with wallpaper or contact paper, stack them in a pyramid (3 on bottom, then 2, then 1 on top) and glue them in place - use as a desk organizer. Make one with larger cans for a mail sorter. Can stand on the bottoms, or on the side.
You can also make a carry-along organizer with three equal-size cans (coffee or large veggie work best) and a wooden handle - cans are screwed into handle. Basically, the handle is cut from plywood, and extends deep wnough so the cans can be screwed on, three to a side, with open ends up toward the handle for carrying. Looks sort of like the carriers they have for cleaning supplies. Directions for this are on makestuff.com, or family.com. GReat for gardening stuff.
Make luminaries - an oldie, but a goodie! Fill cans with water and freeze. Use a nail and hammer, or an awl, to make holes in the cans in a pattern that you like - initials, hearts, stars, hex signs, etc. If the ice starts to melt, stop and refreeze. When the design is finished, thaw and empty water. Place a small candle inside. Voila!
Also, make buddy burners and buddy burner ovens for camping - see www.justpeace.org/buddyburner.htm for directions.
You can cover them in either fabric or paper or paint them and use them for pencil, pen holders next to the phone and computer !
You can use them to pot plants in !
You can make them into lanterns. punch holes in a pattern around the sides then put a candle inside make a wire handle and hang outside in the garden or around the patio for a lovely effect. - Sherrie from Western Australia !
Use a really large tin to make a child's drum stretch some strong fabric over the top and glue and tie very tightly ! can either decorate the tin with paint or leave silver ! if you use wet fabric when it dries it will be tighter ! - Sherrie
I had a really nice pencil holder made from a vegetable can. The relative had taken Reader's Digest pages and rolled them diagonally into tubes. They were rolled around a pencil so all the tubes were the same size. When the tubes were rolled, they were taped and cut to the height of the can. Then glued on the can.
She then took some colored laundry cord and cut short pieces, probably about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and used the cord to connect two of the tubes. It gave the pencil holder a fancy look and made the top and bottom stronger. It really was very pretty. Because the pages were rolled diagonally just the colors showed not the actual pictures.
Take the labels off, fill with water and freeze. When frozen punch hole in whatever design desired with an ice pick or tool used for punching holes. When water is emptied, dry can, fill bottom with sand, set a tealight candle into sand. Makes a nice luminary for your porch. If you have a lot of cans, use them to outline the driveway for a party. - Lisa - NPR,FL
Cut an x in the bottom of A #10 can and push the points up.Then place A pipe over the hole.Then fill with sawdust and pack tightly. You can then pull the pipe out,wad some paper up and stick it in the hole.Light it & it will burn hot for A long time. If you put notches ic the top edge you can put a pan on it and cook or fry. I have done this many times.
Making a simple cook stove from an empty food can provides a great way to make pancakes while on a camping trip. The tutorial below describes how to prepare your can, lists the materials needed, and offers a simple pancake recipe.
Give large food cans new life by decorating them and using them for "wrapping" gifts. Their durability is perfect for protecting fragile gifts and they can easily be used for many years.
Recycled cans make good containers for pens and pencils and other office and craft supplies. This is a page about decorated tin cans for office or craft storage.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
I have many cans (formula cans, coffee cans, slim-fast cans). I would love to do something using the cans with my 2 1/2 year old son.
