Diabetic test strips canisters-what to do with them

Question

I get about three small canisters (remember film canisters) a week from diabetic test strips and cannot come up with anything to do with them other than save seeds. Please help!

AvonelleRed · Answer

You can use them to hold small amounts of change for toll booths or car wash vacuums or whatever. Store emergency matches in them in your car. Keep hearing aids in one (label to remember what's in there!), put lotions and shampoo and conditioner in them for trips (check to be sure they don't leak before packing!), remove the lid and use them as snowmen's top hats for little craft snowmen, put homemade lip balm in one, store buttons in one, use one as a mini sewing kit with a needle and a small bobbin of thread to keep in your car, store little round batteries in them, store glitter in one, needles in one, straight pins in one, a roll of stamps in one, thumbtacks, etc. The uses are practically endless! We all have lots of tiny things in our homes, and wonder how to keep them organized.

Dale N Scott Copas · Answer

@Kathie maybe little first aid kids, to put in stockings or send to our military. or maybe little diabetic kits, (small pieces of candy, or sugar tabs) for people to keep in cars, purses, wherever. I am making some for my family out of old pill bottles.

Kathie · Answer

We do the change thing especially when camping and using showers and laundromats.  I think they are too small for first aid kits...have done that with prescription pill bottles.  I have sooo many.

Maggie Hugie · Answer

What about turning them into a purse size sewing kit with thread, a couple of needles stuck in a piece of felt, a few buttons. The thread could be just a few yards each of black, white, and a couple of colors wrapped around a piece of cardboard. I don't know the dimensions but you could probably include a tiny thread cutter.

Kathie · Answer

That would work for maybe half a dozen or so...keep the ideas coming.

Paula · Answer

Use mine for keeping sewing needles

Susan · Answer

you could put your plastic grocery bags inside for storing in purse, glove box etc. its a neat way to store them for emergencoes especially if you have banies or small kids.

Elizabeth · Answer

They're great for storing seeds from last year's harvest for next year.

Honour Min · Answer

I use these for traveling/storing stud/post semi precious type earrings. Take along meds for the day. I buy granular form honey and can tote in canisters. Solidified coconut oil/skin cream or homemade lotions. Keep one at the kitchen sink for rings if using rubber glove and harsh chemicals. Touch-up paint. Exotic spices from bulk store

Bonnie · Answer

Kathie, seeds shouldn't be stored in airtight plastic tubes or bags, it kills the viability of the seed. Best storage is in paper, like an envelope. 
I have made flower 'frogs' out of the little cannisters; glue them together at different heights to use as flower arrangements. I also use them for rubberband storage, safety pins, paper clips, etc....anything small that I'd like to corral in my desk drawer.

Zabrina Scare · Answer

They are great for storing rhinestones and or beads, glue one on lid so you know what's inside.

Lucinda Hutcherson · Answer

you can store the used lancets in them as a sharps container

Marjo · Answer

Spices and salt and pepper for camping, if you do that.

DORLIS · Answer

STORE ANYTHING SMALL IN THEM: SEEDS, BEADS, PILLS FOR THE CAR,

Marion Nesbitt · Answer

I use pill bottles for any number of things. Vitamins from large bottles if I go away. Paper clips, pins. Have been renovating an old hourse for years. When I take off hinges, etc., I use them for the dif sizes of brass screws.

Linda · Answer

these are all great ideas

Cathy · Answer

Hi, for me it was my prescription bottles.  I put that Search into Pinterest and came up with some fabulous ideas.  Glue a rock to the top, put your house key in the container and then bury it in the ground.  A mini first aid kit or sewing kit.  Keep quarters for laundry.  I can't remember all of them but some great ideas.

Carol Dombros · Answer

@Kathie I have several pills I take morning AND night - if I have to be away, I have marked AM and PM on the tops since I don't take the same pills each time - a Sharpie works fine to mark the tops.

Carol · Answer

My cousins husband uses them in the garage to store screws, washers and bolts in. They have also repurposed a couple dressers in the garage for storing these and other tools and items like weather stripping.

Kathie · Answer

Thanks everyone ... these ARE great and I am going to use them all. I am also hoping though that some creative type - maybe art teacher - can think of a use for them and I can donate them regularly since I use so many.

Marjo · Answer

An art teacher could probably use them to to put small amounts of paint in to send home with a student or for students class time use since they are leakproof.

Iris Nieves · Answer

I store my quarters for the washer and dryer....also store coins in this container keeps nicely in my purse....easier for the kids to store their money...

Comet · Answer

LOL---yeah we have a bunch of those too---one small use my grand kids came up with is they save all their 'Wheat Pennies' they find in them--just the right size. When they were smaller they were great toys for them with their little animals etc. I covered a few in patterned duct tape (You could use any tape or paper and ModPodge) and they are actually pretty cute. Another use is to hold a few cotton balls when we travel; foam ear plugs; pills and I think I have even seen them used as part of a 'Survival kit' to hold the matches and fire starters etc--see INSTRUCTABLES for these. These COULD hold MORE strips and the mfgr's are being very wasteful with them--I am forever combining several bottles worth into one for my purse etc as I run thru 25 in short order and cannot be bothered to be forever replacing the vials.

More ideas needed for left over or used insulin pump supplies--or those pesky re-called items! And the cute insulin bottles! Now THOSE could be cute but no way that I can see to get the lids off---my grandkids use the outer plastic cap for tiny 'Dog Dishes:' tho----

This is a hugely wasteful disease in so many many ways.

Maggie Hugie · Answer

I bet if you had a bunch of the little canisters (25+) and listed them on something like Craigslist or Freecycle, people would be more than willing to take them off your hands. Maybe ask a Boy Scout / Girl Scout troop if they could use them for a project. Match keepers if the canisters are waterproof?

Michelle · Answer

I make them into sewing kits; needles, wrap some different colors of threads around cardboard to add to it, maybe a needle threader, a few buttons, etc.

Claudia · Answer

I harvest seeds from my garden and store them in those containers. Also, if you want something crafty, you could glue them in a Christmas tree formation and perhaps make an advent calendar out of them.

Cheryl Cannette · Answer

We use them for weed.

Mogie · Answer

Pill or Vitamin case

Button holder

Sewing needle case

Collect soil and insect samples

Portable ashtray (yech)

Paper clip dispenser

Mini-marimbas

Shot glass

Water cup for water color brushes

Diabetic test strips canisters-what to do with them

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Diabetic test strips canisters-what to do with them

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