I Saved it, Now What Do I Do With It?

Could you pour soaps into them, for mini soaps......travel size, or whatever? When the soap sets up, you can just cut a little of the tube, and unwrap the soap and cut it. *Shrugs* Just a thought.

Well I do use them but not for a craft. I stuff them full of old newspapers to make fireplace logs! LOL Not creative but cheap firewood! LOL

Maybe we are related..lol I am so bad about saving things I don't need. After a number of months or years I finally throw things away. I know many many years ago we use to save empty toilet paper rolls and use as curlers. Ok now you can imagine how that smells when using on wet hair and how saturated they get. We had no money to buy curlers. I've seen little rocking chairs made with clothes pins. You might be able to cut the cardboard in smaller pieces, put together a mini rocking chair and paint it by hand or spray paint it. Add a few beads and you have something original.

This is a challenging one. I typically recycle mine, but I did see a show where Martha Stewart used her old wrapping paper rolls to store table cloths (so they wouldn't get wrinkled after ironing), and I suppose you could use the smaller aluminum paper roll to store the napkins. Of course most people aren't as fussy as Martha. Then there's the craft world. You could use it to store something like yarn or scraps of leftover ribbon if you roll it around the outside, or store something like paint brushes if you cover both ends. My final idea is to make one of those kaleidescopes (homemade) by using tissue paper on one end to create the pattern. Not as good as you get in the store, but it might make a fun rainy day project for a young child. Or you could combine it with shoe boxes to make a castle (the round roll as the tower). Kids could probably think of dozens of ideas. Good luck and let us know what you do with it!

I've saved paper towel rolls b/c I store my finished needlework in it until I get it framed. It's also great for storing childrens art work in...simply roll the item into a cylinder and slide it in...for long term storage put a piece of fabric or paper over the ends and a rubberband around it. [b]~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG AND TRUST IN GOD**[/b]

I cant really give you an idea of what to do with them, but I am saving all my tp rolls and paper towel rolls to give to my sons class for crafts... I need to make sure I have enough of each size for the whole class so I have a bag going, if you are able to save up enough you can always donate them to day cares or schools for craft ideas for them... just a suggestion!!! have a great day!!

As a crafter I save everything too. But I do use this for my 3 year old son. I use a reward system with him so I stuff them with candy,small toys,etc and wrap it with leftover comics or tissue paper. You can use the same idea for any holiday! Hope this helps!

I am a crafter and admitted packrat too. My husband used to throw things away and then laugh at me or complain that I salvaged a lot of what he saw as trash. Now, (bless his heart), because he has seen that I actually do use much of what I scrounge at some point, he actually says- "can you use this for anything?" before he tosses it! As for your rolls, if they are the sturdy ones, you can cut a slit down the entire length of the roll. On the opposite side, cut slits to about one half to one inch in from each end. Cover or decorate as you like, then run a piece of cording, yarn, ribbon, (you get the idea), through the center of the roll, pulling it up and through the small slits at each end. Allow enough slack for a bow or loop for hanging. Once hung, you can slide lengths of hair ribbons into the long slit, (my girls both had long hair, and that's what I originally made mine for). Now that my girls are grown and gone, I have made several more of these and at various times have used them to: Sort and hold my floss or other fibers and fabric swatches for needlework and craft projects. For candle makers, they work great for hanging lenths candle wick to dry after you wax them. I have even slipped a pattern, recipe or instruction sheet I was following into the slit so that I just had to glance up at it as needed. I'm sure there are lots of uses I haven't mentioned that will come to you, (we crafters are an inventive bunch), but this is a start. Here's one more idea: I'm going to try this next. Again, using the heavy gauge rolls, why not cut slits CROSSWISE, accross the tube at an angle, and about two thirds to three quaters of the way through. I venture that one could then anchor the tube with hot glue, to a piece of scrap wood either in an upright position or lying down and used to sort mail, bills, cards, etc.----just a thought---- I think I will make twelve cuts in mine, (one for each month), and use it for the special occasion cards that I tend to buy and then missplace or forget to mail out. smiles, ink

I have the same problem with a lot of things. I must have two hundred Altoids mints tins stored. I'll figure out something for them, and am using some of them for small parts in my crafts business. The roll from aluminum foil would be great for storing your Christmas tree lights (the mini ones), tinsel, garland, long crystal ornaments etc. They also would be great for the small pieces of gift wrap that is the right size for smaller packages but you don't want to try to store it on the roll with the bigger wrap. It would also be great for holding your sewing laces, you can fold it up and slide it through the tube. Also if you knit or crochet you could use it to separate colors of yarn and threads. It would also be great for storing spools of thread, zippers, string (for making the ties around the base of jackets etc). If I sat for a few more minutes I could come up with more. Come to think of it, they also would be great for keeping strings of beads sorted and stored so that they wouldn't tangle before you have a chance to use them. I keep thinking and keep coming up with stuff...like for keeping socks paired, nylons paired and pantie hose stored so that it doesn't get tangled or damaged. You also can use them to keep decorative paint brushes together and clean and undamaged. Humm, I'll probably dream about aluminum foil rolls tonight!!!

Howdy from a fellow packratter...lol. The aluminum foil tubes make excellent holders for storing plastic shopping bags. Just keep stuffing bags in the top and they're easy to pull out from the bottom. I hang mine on the inside of the lower cabinet doors so that they don't take up a lot of room. As far as the toilet paper tubes go, if you keep nesting one into the other (until you can't fit anymore in), they make excellect fire starters. They work great in fireplaces, woodstoves and grills if you use charcoal. Those foam egg cartons, if you poke holes in each cup, make great seed starting trays. I cut the lid off to use as a tray underneath to contain any water that runs through. Best of all, when the seedlings are ready to be transplanted, they come out easily. What else do you save and have you come up with uses for them? Let us know what they are, ok?

Hello my friend thebeaddoodler Ji, I do agree taht saving is a good habit, but I do not encourage in a way that, I fall under misor category. Let's spend as well. Cycle must go on. If one keeps saving only, then one day one may require more money to spend on their maintenence. May god bless you and have great time.

Please keep look them carefully if they are still in good condition you acn use them bulk in a fuction that you can share them with your friends and family to evauate them out. If they are not in a condition to use for a purpose of safe serving please do not use them simply you can discard them or give it to somebody for some other purposes apart from food services.

You can use the rolls to tp someones house or something to that similar stature. I will tell you one thing you have to stop being a rat pack man. Save things that are truly going to be useful in the future. The reason to save the rolls makes it sensible is when you have a project to do or as I mentioned above do something to someone's house. But seeing that you want to do something with them since you have them saved I would suggest to again tp a friends house or make a cardboard castle. Both of them do sound a little immature.

Hi, I use them to store rolled photos in, cheaper than buying storage for photos. Also you can cut it smaller and using newspaper in the base of each piece you can fill them with soil and grow seeds in a pot that you can then rot in the ground when the seed is big enough to plant out simply pierce lots of holes in the tube and plant away. I save everything that I don't put out to recycle but sometimes it does get out of hand and I have to really think "Do I really need this?" Normaly I cave in and it is a yes, well you never know do you......? lol

I don't think that I have any suggestions for you, unless I come up with one while typing. I read all the responses, and I have to say my head is spinning with all the different (and good) ideas people have come up with to use the tin foil rolls, paper towels and toilet rolls.... You could punch a hole in one of the sides at the top, tie a piece of yarn to it, and use it as a cat toy!