New Uses For Your Old Clothespins
There are plenty of ways to use old clothespins — I keep a big bag of clothespins in my laundry room, and not just for hanging laundry to dry! They’re inexpensive, can be used all over the house, and are great to have on hand for crafts and DIYs.
One of my favorite things to do with clothespins is use them to display photos, cards, and announcements I receive in the mail. They always come in handy at Christmastime when I want to display photo cards I’ve received from family and friends!
So in honor of my very handy collection of clothespins, today’s post is all about exploring the many ways you can use them around the house. These 13 clothespin uses may just be enticing enough to make you go out and buy a few, if you don’t already have some on hand!
13 Uses For Clothespins That Will Make Your Life Easier
1. Keep Accessories On Hangers
If you find that your ties, scarves, belts, and other accessories tend to slip off the hangers you store them on, a few clothespins can help. Pin each item over the bottom edge of the hanger to keep them in place, and they’ll have a much harder time slipping off in the future.
Related: 10 Surprising Things You Can Do With Spare Hangers
2. Organize Mail & Paperwork
Keep a few clothespins wherever you put your incoming mail, and label them with a few categories of documents and paperwork you commonly need to keep track of (like bills, coupons, homework, tax documents, etc.)
When you bring in new mail, sort it right away into your piles and clip them together with the corresponding clothespin. That way, your mail will be pre-sorted when you’e finally ready to sit down and deal with it.
Related: How To Organize Paperwork: The One Simple System I Live By
3. Hang Rubber Gloves
The best way to store the rubber gloves you use for dishes or cleaning is to hang them with the fingers pointing down, so that if they’re wet, the moisture can drip down instead of getting trapped and causing mildew issues. Create a place to hang your gloves by glueing a clothespin to the inside of a cupboard door.
Related: These Innovative Gloves Are The Best Cleaning Tool I’ve Bought All Year
4. Hold Lit Matches
If you’re using a match to light a candle in a jar, light the match then clip a clothespin to the end of it. The clothespin will help you light the candle without burning your fingertips in the process.
Related: DIY Floral Candle – The Perfect Handmade Gift Idea!
5. Keep Fingers Safe While Hammering
If you’re like me and your hand-eye coordination isn’t exactly your strongest suit, a clothespin can come in handy when you have to put a nail in a wall. Use a clothespin to hold the nail against the wall, which will keep your fingers out of the way and prevent a painful hammering accident!
6. Make An Instant Apron Or Bib
If you’re about to do some messy work in the kitchen and don’t have an apron nearby, use clothespins to clip a kitchen towel to your pants for an instant temporary “apron.” You can also use clothespins to attach a napkin to kids’ shirts when you don’t have a bib handy.
More Ideas You'll Love
Related: How To Make A Cute And Easy Apron Out Of A Dish Towel
7. Secure Wrapped Cords
Keep charging cords and cables tidy by wrapping them up and securing them with a clothespin. You can even write the type of cord on the clothespin so it’ll be easier to identify later.
Related: 7 Easy Ways To Hide Ugly Cords And Cables
8. Wrap Up Thread Or Yarn
If you have some extra thread or yarn you want to keep for another project, wrap it around a clothespin to prevent it from becoming hopelessly tangled by the time you’re ready to use it. This can also help keep wired headphones from tangling up in your bag or desk drawer.
9. Keep Your Cookbook Page Open
Some cookbooks have stubborn pages that like to fall to one side or the other, making it impossible to keep the right page open while you’re cooking. Luckily, I wised up and started using a clothespin to clip the troublesome pages to their neighbors — it’s a quick and easy way to prevent cookbook pages from flipping and flopping around on you!
Related: These Are 7 Of The Best Ways To Organize Your Recipes
10. Clip Chips And Other Snacks
On game days or other snack-y occasions, bags of chips rarely last long at the Nystul house. When I’m sure the remainder of a snack is going to get consumed in the next day or two, I don’t bother with more secure methods of keeping the snacks fresh—I just clip the bag closed with a clothespin.
Related: The Best Way Close Chip Bags Without Clips
11. Prop Up A Pot Lid
If you’re cooking something in a pot with the lid on it but need to give the steam some way to escape, place a clothespin between the lid and the pot. The pin will keep the lid propped open just enough to vent the steam without allowing all the steam to escape.
12. Take A Few On Trips
Bring a couple clothespins along when traveling. They really come in handy for clipping drapes closed when they don’t quite overlap enough to keep your hotel room as dark as you’d like.
More Ideas You'll Love
Related: 9 Brilliant Hotel Hacks That Will Make Your Stay Better
13. Keep Lists Handy
Do your grocery shopping lists tend to get lost in the depths of your bag while you’re at the store? Use a clothespin to clip your shopping list to the inside of your purse so it’s always at your fingertips.
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Do you have any other clothespin ideas you’d add to this list?
Run a short string through the coiled spring in a clothespin and tie the ends together to make a loop. Hang the loop on a cupboard knob or latch over your food prep area and clip the clothespin on the recipe you’re following. It’ll be near eye level and easy to read. Then store the clothespin in the cupboard, ready for the next use.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I must have missed something. Wouldn’t you hang the gloves the other way…..by the fingertips? That way both the outside and the inside drain.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You could hang them either way. Most of the time I use my gloves, the inside doesn’t get wet. If they do, then you can hang them the other way.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I agree. I can dry the outside of the gloves with a towel. The inside often gets wet from condensation or plunging my hand too deep in the water. But I don’t like to hang them from a fingertip as it wears out the area. I put them over a jar if they’re stiff enough. Or dry the outside well and turn them half inside out.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Some of the other tips are clever.
I’m also looking at the pic ideas for my son’s BSA Eagle Court of Honor. Looking at displaying pictures of him throughout his BSA career at each centerpiece (as inexpensive but classy as possible). Any ideas as to use the clothespins as pic holders in a taller centerpiece as I’m not crafty enough to bend wires to stick into something?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.great ideas of which I use most of them. Especially like the foam brush one and clothespins when traveling to close curtains………………Thanks
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I really like your ideals. Many of them I use. The paint brush one was a great one I never thought of. Thanks for sharing.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My husband could never tell the difference between black and blue socks in the drawer, so I took a sharpie and wrote the color on a clothespin and pinned to the appropriate sock when putting them in the drawer. Problem solved!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.How I use them is sort of like your original idea: decorate the clothespins with tape or paint in your Christmas color scheme and then clip onto twine (or something similar) and hang across your mantel. Then clip on Christmas cards as they arrive.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I fold over the top of the cereal inner pack and clip on a clothes pin and the cereal stays fresh
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I use a magnetic clothespin attached to the back of the fridge to dry out plastic bags that I want to recycle.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My clothespins have a metal hook on them and I pin them to my clothes as I take them out of the washer and then the hook slides over the clothesline, very easy. The only problem is I can’t find a place to purchase them!!! My mother used them when I was little and I still have 30 left. Does anyone know what I am talking about or a store to purchase them?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Take a picture of one and upload it to Google images to do a reverse image search. After you drag and drop the picture there’s a box to enter a description of what you’re searching for (this is optional but sometimes helpful). After the initial search comes up, click on the shopping tab and you might be able to find stores that have them. Good luck!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.LIKE THESE?
http://www.amazon.com/Laundry-Clothes-Hanging-Plastic-Portable/dp/B004F3MQIM
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Something like these? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NBRRTZI?psc=1
Please log in or create a free account to comment.any dollar store
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I use the clips off of free junk skirt hangers for many of these ideas. Using clothes pins/pegs is often handier as they are not as large. Using a clip to close a veggie bag in freezer is very handy.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Great ideas. We use clothes pins at our house for keep bags of chips lclosed, and also for skirt hangers – sometimes. We also have a cute set of snowmen magnets my Sister made years ago at craft day. They used a wooden tongue depressor for face portion.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Clever, clever, clever! Thank you!
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