I used to blithely toss all my plastic bread closures into the recycling bin until I saw a friend using them to tag the tangle of cords under her desk. That got me thinking. What other ways could I use these little plastic tags? Once I started experimenting with them I was amazed at how helpful they could be around the house. If you have other ways to use them that I haven’t listed, please feel free to share in the Comments section.
Christmas Tree Helper
Lay out a bunch of plastic bread closures on a protected surface. Spray paint them green, using several coats and allowing them to dry in between coats. When dry, turn over and repeat. Now you can use them to secure Christmas tree lights to your tree.
Cord & Cable Organizer
This might be the most perfect use for bread bag closures ever! Write the name of each cord with a Sharpie pen on the plastic closure then slip the closure around the cord so that next time your Internet provider tells you to crawl under your desk and unplug the router you’ll know which plug to pull. I like to use these to label all the cables and cords in my entertainment center so that when/if I ever have to move them or hook up another item to that tangled mess that I really don’t even understand I’ll know which end of each cable and cord goes where. For this I put a tag at one end that tells me what that cable or cord connects to and put a tag at the other end with the same designation. For instance, on the cable that connects the television to the Tivo unit I have a marker on the end that connects to the Tivo that says “TV to purple” which tells me that that cable plugs into the television on one end and into the purple do-hickey on the back of the Tivo on the other end. Make sense?
Guitar Pick
They’re stronger than those you purchase from the guitar store and surprisingly easier to hold.
Kitchen Helper
While you can certainly use a large plastic scraper they often don’t make full contact with a surface that has a curve. A bread closure works great to scrape burned or dried on gunk from pots and pans and it won’t damage non-stick surfaces.
Knitting Helper
Use bread-wrapper plastic closures as stitch markers for knitting and crochet projects.
Office Helper
Slip rubber bands through the slit on a closure and the rubber bands won’t be in a mess all over your drawer.
Painting Helper
Use a plastic closure to scrape paint off windows, appliances, light switches, switch plates … and you won’t damage these surfaces in the process of cleaning them up.
Party Helper
Those little plastic bread closures work great as wine glass “charms”. Okay, so there’s nothing charming about a plastic bread tag around your wine glass, but they do work to help keep your guests from picking up each others drinks.
You can also use the Christmas Tree Helper tip above, painting the tags to blend in and use them to clip party light strings to plants, trees, trellises, nails, hooks, whatever …
A word of caution: I’ve seen tips that tell you to use bread closures to keep socks together or to hang hosery to dry but I’ve found that the closures tend to snag socks and hosery.