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Start Seeds
Plastic cups can help you start this summer’s vegetable or flower garden indoors. Fill each cup about half way with potting soil, water well, and plant your seeds. Once seedlings appear, begin “hardening off” the plants by moving the cups outside to the patio or deck for a period of time every day. Gradually increase the amount of time they spend outdoors. When the plants are ready to stay outside overnight, invert a small clear plastic cup over the seedlings to turn each cup into a mini greenhouse.
Store Hardware
Nails, screws, nuts, and bolts seem to multiply in the home workshop. Keep all those tiny pieces and parts in order by storing them in plastic cups! Label the top outside rim of each cup with a permanent marker, and stack all the cups together to maximize storage space.
Corral Clutter
Instead of shelling out big bucks on desktop organizers, keep your work space neat and tidy with plastic cups. Designate one tall cup for storing stray pens, pencils, and markers. Use another for random odds and ends like letter openers, hobby knives, and scissors. You can use shorter plastic cups to hold your smallest office accessories, such as paper clips, rubber bands, binder clips, safety pins, and thumbtacks. You’ll never have to search through your drawers for that yellow highlighter again!
Related: 15 Easy Designs for a DIY Desk
Separate Breakables
Next holiday season, store fragile decorations and ornaments in plastic cups. Gently place each trinket in its own cup, and then pack the cups into a box; the cups will keep the items separated so they don’t bump together and break. For added protection, wrap extra-special ornaments in tissue paper or bubble wrap before placing them inside the plastic cups. You can use the same technique to pack fragile items for shipment.
Hold Paint
Don’t bother using a full-size painting tray for small touch-up jobs around the house. Instead, pour a little paint into a plastic cup. When finished, simply toss the cup in the trash for an easy cleanup.
Manage Ice Cream Melt
Everyone loves a good ice pop, but on a hot summer day, this sugary delight can turn into a sticky mess. To manage the melt, use a short plastic cup as a “drip tray” for your ice cream. Poke a hole or slit in the bottom of the cup, and push the ice pop stick through the hole. The melting treat will collect in the cup, preventing stray drips from spilling onto your clothing.
Prevent Squished Cupcakes
Whether you’re headed to a bake sale or birthday party, cupcakes can be difficult to transport. Prevent squished desserts by using plastic cups to create individual cupcake holders. This trick will ensure that your delightful desserts will be as pretty as a picture—and decidedly tastier—when you reach your destination.
Amplify Your Smartphone
If you’re ever in need of loud music but find yourself without a speaker, you can use a plastic cup to amplify the sound from your smartphone. Read one tutorial—which involves a plastic cup, a razor blade, and bobby pins—on the MacGyverisms website.
Shield from Sparklers
“Safety first” should be the mantra for any Independence Day barbecue, but staying safe doesn’t mean you have to forgo a little glittery gratification. To keep hands safe from burns or injury while using sparklers, convert plastic cups into DIY sparkler shields. Push the sparkler through the bottom of a cup so that the wire “handle” sits inside the cup and the flammable portion sticks outside. Then, put your hand into the cup, grab the wire end of the sparkler, light it, and wave to your heart’s content!
Recycle Crayons
Did you know that you can take all those little crayon stubs that collect in the bottom of the box and transform them into new coloring sticks? Gather up all of the stubs of one particular color, carefully melt them on the stove, and then pour the wax into a plastic cup. Once the wax has cooled, cut your new crayons into chunky pie-shaped wedges, and keep on coloring.
Hang Some Festive Lights
instructables.com user davidandora
Crafty DIYers can use plastic cups to create homemade party lights. First, grab a string of lights and as many plastic cups as there are bulbs in the string. Drill a hole into the bottom of each cup. Then, one by one, push the base of each bulb into the hole, with the bulb sitting inside the cup and the base sticking out. Screw each bulb back into the string of lights; the screwed-in bulbs will hold the cups in place. Hang the lights for a fun, festive vibe.