Do you have left over coffee cans lying about, and you don’t know what to do with them? You know those pretty, shiny coffee cans you hate to throw away in the trash or even crush for the recycle bin? Coffee cans are generally clean even after using the last teaspoon full of coffee. You can use them everywhere in your house, even spruce them up and make them more attractive and place them in several areas of your house. Frugal living sometimes means transforming items to improve the quality of another, so I always try and reuse items if possible even coffee cans.
Coffee Can Cubbies
You can designate coffee clean coffee cans to be storage spaces for office or utility items like sorting bills, mail and even catalogs. All you have to do is line up a row of cans on their sides along a two tiered shelf, and then cut Velcro strips as long as the length of the can but a little shorter. Then you apply the Velcro to the can and the backing you apply to the shelf. And then you place the can so the Velcro tabs meet, now write on a piece of tape or garage sale sticker the designated label such as bills for one, and fast food menus for another and adhere to the shelf edge.
Why not assign one coffee can for each person of the family on another shelf? So that way if someone receives a piece of mail, all you have to do is insert into their little mail cubby. These little cubbies are right inline with a frugal living lifestyle since they cost very little to make.
Delightful Silverware Holders
On those nights were informal dinners are a must, I like to set a clean, shiny coffee can in the middle of the dinner table. And then I line the can with a decorative cloth napkin or even a clean kitchen towel and then place assorted silverware inside, a couple knives, forks and spoons. That way each person can pick which utensil they want to keeps you from having to rewash already clean silverware. I like to set the coffee can next to a stack of plates and then place a napkin holder near by. Then all I have to do is place dinner on the table and everyone can take what they need for an enjoyable, easy going dinnertime.
Candle Tins
You could make smaller coffee cans into cute little candle lanterns. All you have to do is take off the label and take a nail and poke holes in a creative design pattern. Be careful of the sharp tabs inside the can after you punch the holes in, try and bend down any sharp tabs that could be sticking out inside the can with a paint scraper. And now just place a nice candle inside and watch all that glowing light making designs shadows on a wall.