Slamming Suggestions for the Humble Rubber Band
Bookmarks. While I still lovingly use all the way cool bookmarks given to me over the years for my coffee table books and ones that I read while at home, this idea has saved me massive aggravation for tomes I’m reading while on the road. Open the book you are reading to the page you are on. Stretch a rubber band around the entire book so that it runs down the center where the pages meet and up the outside of the binding. College students and other readers / reviewers on the go can easily put this one to use.
Keep an almost cored and sliced apple from browning. A friend forwarded this tip to me a few weeks ago (which is what got me thinking about cool uses for the rubber band). Push the corer / slicer apparatus down through the apple until it is almost through, but all pieces are basically still together. Then put the whole apple back together again and stick a rubber band around it. This holds it together in your lunch pack and helps prevent browning. Since I work at home, I haven’t had a chance to try this one out yet. Keep me posted, Wise Bread readers!
Receipt holder. Put one or two around your car’s visor on the driver’s side, one at each end, for example. You can literally “get a grip” on toll receipts, ATM slips, receipts from swiping at the gas pump on the highway, etc.
Safety feature when transporting files. This is a huge sanity saver. Although I highly recommend the larger size marketed as file bands. You can use regular bands, but you’ll get snapped and pinged way more than is necessary. This has really kept me together (and saved my butt) when moving, heading with files to a client interview, doing business on the road, etc.
DIY tie-dye projects. Making curtains out of old sheets or just jazzing up a set of bed linens for a funky bedroom, doing T-shirt projects with young ones, medical scrubs . . . whatever you want to tie-dye, rubber bands are a huge essential.
The picture below is of a tie-die lab coat. I would think doing these coats and scrubs would be a huge money saver for med students, as it’s a cheap way to jazz up second hand uniforms. If you can only find them in colors, try doing sort of a reverse die and dipping the scrubs in bleach solution. You’re sure to do your residency in style that way.
Out of the ordinary Easter eggs. About all I have the creativity for here is to create lined patterns or simple plaids. I’ve read of more elaborate egg ideas, but for the life of me, I can’t picture them. If you have links or pics of some you’ve tried, feel free to post.
Use different sizes and widths of rubber bands to help family members with poor vision to easily identify different items. You can also put different numbers of bands on certain things to get the same thing accomplished. For example, salt and pepper shakers, canned soup versus canned fruit, shampoo versus conditioner, and help in identifying certain medications are all excellent ways to use this technique, particularly if the vision issue is a new one. This will help people maintain their independence as much as possible.
Toddler toilet paper lock. OK, this isn’t necessarily foolproof, but I’ve heard of it working from parents who would definitely know. Put a band over the roll in between uses during that stage where young ones are oh so fascinated with unrolling and flushing. I’ll definitely be filing this idea for when it’s my turn. I’m sure my checkbook will thank me for the lower plumbing bills . . .
That’s all I have for now. If you know of more, then by all means keep the discussion going by posting your ideas.
Instead of having one of those stupid rubberized disks around I put elastic bands (especially the thick ones that come with produce) around the sides of the jar lid to help me get them open.
The thick ones .. . thanks for posting that. I ran across that idea previously, but it didn't mention the thickness part, so I couldn't quite picture it. Thanks for contributing!
I recently used a rubber band to put a housefly out of the misery of my co-workers and myself. It took two tries to nail the little winged pest; but I nailed him (or her). :)
. . . were you in one of my classes during my teaching years? Just kidding. I recognized the strategy from years gone by of teaching younger grades. Brought back a chuckle . . .
Thanks for posting.
I've found these to be a perfect wallet alternative:
http://www.money-band.com
Neat!
I hadn't seen those before. I've heard of using a binder clip, but that wouldn't include your card like these seem too. Interesting . . .
we use these (rubber bands) to close food packages, along with large paper clips, any other uses for the paper clips? other than holding paper of course.
I use wooden clothes pins, the kind that have the little spring. They come in handy fro multiple purposes. I lost the belt to my robe, so I use a clothes pin to keep the front closed.
You know, I was thinking about doing a paper clip piece, but I thought after the last two office supply posts it might be overkill. If you really want the info, I'll consider doing a piece on the oh so humble paper clip.
Thanks for posting.
Oh, I know one thing we used them for in the classroom was to hang at the end of strings attached to the suspended ceiling grid and clip student art to them for extra display space . . . might be useful in a kids' room . . .
Talk about ingenuity! Good for you.
I just saw the apple suggestion on Lifehacker - that's a great idea (not that I have an apple slicing gadget yet, though I think I have just found my excuse to buy one)
I thought the apple thing was cool, too. For the life of her, my friend couldn't remember where she'd heard of it. And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why such a fabulous idea wasn't all over the internet.
The push down slicer / corer tools are really fun if you are doing caramel apples, or want to do an easy-to-eat candy apple with a choose your own topping bar. You can put them in a bowl and pour the stuff over the top. Then just break off a piece and enjoy. Or, you can push all the way through and have the pieces to dunk in hot caramel dip you can make in a crock pot.
Thanks for taking the time to post.
I always keep a few rubber bands in my purse for "just in case". I use them when I have to go to the doctor. My anxiety makes me just about cry when I have to go, so I play with my rubber band on my wrist (popping it, turning it around, etc...) and it kind of calms me down. Just a thought.
Interesting . . . kind of like prayer beads in the Middle East, or those worry stones I see every once in a while at gift shops. I think many of us who don't necessarily suffer from anxiety still have our fair share of nervous energy to work off from time to time. Good idea. Thanks for posting.