Save film canisters and use them to store small amounts of leftover paint for touch-ups. Label each one and store in a handy place. Instead of a label, you can also just paint a part of the film canister lid with the paint for quick reference.
By Monica from Cortez, CO
This page contains the following solutions.
Use empty film canisters to store beads, jewelry findings, etc.. You can glue one of the content items on the lid of canister. Works great.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Ideas for reusing film canisters.
When painting a room, fill a film canister with paint. You can use it for touch ups later and when buying more paint it's handy to take to the store for color matching.
By Cheryl from Missouri
You can put together a small emergency sewing kit in a film canister. Take a few different colors of thread and wind them around a small piece of cardboard that is short enough to fit inside the canister.
Add a needle and a few safety pins, and you are all set. If you want to have scissors, too, you can find one of those small pocket knives with the scissors, or even just the knife blade if you are careful.
Bring the canister with you when you are shopping to be sure the knife fits. These are great little gifts for people going on a trip, or headed off to college. You can also decorate the canisters with paint pens to personalize them.
I think I may have read about this tip here on the site, so I can't take credit for it. Take a pink foam roll from a hair roller and put it in the film canister, pour a bit of nail polish remover in, and presto: a mini nail polish remover system. You just stick your finger in the little hole in the center of the pink foam and wiggle it around.
By Lee-Ann
I use film canisters to hold embroidery floss for my cross stitch and embroidery projects. Keeps floss clean, and tangle free. I seperate the floss strands and also keep my needles and in the can.
By Gena Rae
I use film canisters to fill with my flower seeds when I want to share them with friends.
By Joesgirl
Turn one cannister into a stamp roll dispenser. Take the cap off, cut a thin slot out from the top of the open cannister towards the middle, thread your stamp roll inside to dispense and put the cap back on. The thing sits upside down on the cap.
I save all of my empty 35 mm film containers, and use them to save my seeds I pick from flowers in fall. I put a slip of paper in with the seeds and the date I picked them . They store nicely is a tupperware box.
By Rosa
I use this to put in my son's backpack with his lunch money for each day. The coins fit in perfectly and I don't have to worry about my son losing his change in his backpack or on the way to school.
I use film cannisters to store my dangling earrings. I don't use the lids--I just set the cannisters in a box on a shelf so I can see down into all of them. I put two or three similar pairs together in each cannister.
Also, a friend uses them to store spices on camping trips. (Mmm, noodles and cheese with tuna is so much better with basil in it!) Of course you need to wash out the containers quite thoroughly before storing food in them.
You could also use them to store ear plugs in the car for loud movies or shows.
And you can fill them from large discount containers of pills you take frequently so you can have a small container for your purse, brief case, or glove compartment.
By Debbie
Great for holding quarters for the laundromat...also for diet/fat free dressing for eating out at restaurants, or for low fat creamer instead of using the high fat creamer at a restaurant. I'm diabetic and also use the test strip containers to hold daily pills when on vacation.
You can use them to make a toothbrush holder. Just cut a hole in the lid, take off the lid and put in the toothbrush and then slide the lid back on.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
If you're still using an ordinary 35 mm point-and-shoot camera, hold onto the film canisters after you drop off a roll. They make excellent containers for beads and other small items.
