Using Bread Tabs

My dear frugal husband uses the bread clips as a (free) guitar pick — he says they work better than store-made :)

They are good for scraping off stuck on bits of muck from pans without damaging the finish.

Plastic Bread Tabs are good for hooking a pair of socks together. Just clip over the cuff of the socks & voila!: sock clips! Or hose clips to hang a few drying pairs to a metal coat hanger.  They can be painted or just left as is to make toy ear clips for young girls or for artsy older ones wanting something a little different in ear wear.  They can make book marks especially . if you want to clip a few pages together.

When I was teaching elementary school we used the plastic closers from bread wrappers for "counters" for the first graders for their math class. It worked very well! Kay

I use them to hold rubber bands together, keeps them from scattering out in the drawer. Kristie

We collect these and put them in a small box, and the younger children will sit for hours and sort them by shape or size or color. Cynthia

When I taught preschool I discovered that the plastic tabs work great on bulletin board displays as the center of eyes, especially the big ones off of plastic potato sacks. Use a contrasting color oval or circle (depending on the desired expression) for the "ball", attach the plastic tab as the center, and top it off with big black eyelashes. Real cool for making pretend animals. Debbie

I spray paint them first (to match the color of (for example) my Christmas tree) and then use them to hang my Christmas lights! 

I save & use the small plastic tabs for scraping paint from windows if I happen to go past the tape. I also use them to scrape on surfaces I wouldn’t normally use a razor blade to prevent scratching. They’re readily available & disposable.

This isn’t exactly a new way to use them… but, I do recycle them.  I use them to tie up opened bags of rice, instant mashed potatoes, frozen veggies, etc. I keep a collection in a recycled plastic muffin paper container next to my reused zip locs.  Jennifer

Save the bread tabs to use as bingo chips.  I use them in my classroom and it’s a good example of reduce/reuse as well as a bingo piece that other over-the-shoulder bingo players can’t see through.  Amy

I use one at the end of a roll of tape to fine the end of the tape when I use it the next time. Sue

The best tip I have for these is also for organization. 
  

We buy food in bulk when on sale.  However it can be hard to keep track of what you’ve got and what you don’t. To use the bread tags:

Cut a piece of plywood about two feet square.  Place nails in even rows across & down the board. (On 2 foot board – place up to 24 nails each way). LABEL EACH ROW – BOTH ACROSS & DOWN.  Permanent black felt works best. Across rows for vegetables, one – fruit, one – macaroni, etc.   Going down the fruit row – 1 nail – pears, 1 – peaches, etc.

NOW for the bread tags – I give each color a number value: Blue 1, Green 5, Yellow 10 etc.

If I have 3 tins of beans – there are 3 blue tags on the nail.   have 7 tins of pears – there is one green & 2 blue. 

I also make sure that the 10 values are at the back, the 1 five value next and the one values at the front.

(Makes it easy to check what you have – as well as changing the tags when you take a can) On the bottom nails – the extra tags go – as well as the tags that are removed EACH time a tin is used & added EACH time tins are added.   This does take a little set up.  But once it’s done the upkeep is minimal – and it takes only a few seconds to see if you should be taking advantage of the sale on peas, or whether you’re up to a seven year supply already.

This system can also be used for bathroom supplies, school supplies, etc. etc.