Cool Uses for Clothespins

I prefer wooden clothespins. They are cheap and last a long time. If you try some of these ideas, you'll see that it is much more frugal to use them instead of buying the normal gadgets and gizmos you might otherwise use.

We can start with the obvious. Clothespins were made for hanging, so why not take advantage of that and use them to hang skirts and pants, in your closet, on cheap (or free) wire hangers? They allow you to stay away from those expensive and hard-to-use special skirt hangers.

Need a chip clip? Clothespins work just as well as those ugly plastic clips, and they take up less space, too. You can actually write on them, if you wanted to indicate the date that the chips were opened. Of course, in my house, they never last long enough to warrant writing down a date.

While we're in the kitchen, how about making your own custom notepad or grocery list holder? Just glue a small magnet to one side of a clothespin. (I usually cut up one of those free rectangular magnets that you get from pizza places, dentist offices and other places that use them to advertise their business.) Then just clip your notepad or list on the clip and stick it on the refrigerator.

Is your hall closet a mess like mine? In the cold months, gloves and mittens scatter the shelves and floor, and inevitably lose their mates. Clothespins to the rescue! Just keep a couple of clothespins pinned in your closet. Then as soon as everyone comes in from the cold, pin the mittens and gloves together in pairs. No more lost pieces or overbuying! This works great on shoes, sneakers and boots, too. Of course, it doesn't solve the need for organizing, but at least you know that you'll be able to dress up and get out the door.

Filling leaf bags can be hard work because they keep wanting to flop over. I use a couple of clothespins to clip one side to a convenient tree branch (you could use a fence or other spot) to hold the bag open.

Because I'm not known as Mr. Fix it, I use a clothespin to prevent my fingers from getting hammered. It is much more productive to hammer the nail and not hammer my thumb, so I clip on a clothespin to hold the nail as I hammer.