How to reuse toilet paper tubes – handy reuse tips for kids, criminals, and more

Remember my green New Year’s goals? One of them was to actually recycle those pesky toilet paper tubes. Well, I had a thought. Maybe I could track down some ways to actually put them to good use. And just maybe, these tips will help you too. I know we have a few other tube slackers here.

First I came up with some of my own ideas (using that old cerebral cortex)…

Baby safety: You probably know this one, but if it fits in a tube, it’s too small for a baby. This has got to be the cheapest child safety tool ever.

Cat safety: Um, Peggy and I chat often, and sometimes, sadly, compare cats to babies. She’s into cats. I’m into tots. In any case, I was thinking, if cats are so much like babies, and something fits in a tube, maybe your cat shouldn’t have it either. Other cat use – rolling toy!

Cord keeper: Roll your electrical cords up, pop them into a tube, and you’ve got a cheap and easy cord keeper.

Make kid gear: Need pretend binoculars, a telescope, a big ol’ marble run? You can make all these and scads more with toilet paper tubes. All you need is a little imagination.

Casual napkin rings: I’m not a napkin ring user. Frankly, I think they’re overkill, but you could make some.

Get published: Not typical, but since we’re talking tubes, I figured I’d mention that I wrote an entire post about toilet paper tubes here, and guess what? Someone put it in their book. Yup, it’s true. Write about tubes and maybe get in a book. It could happen. At any rate, if you like me, it gives you a reason to pick up the book now.

Then – I ran out of ideas, so I looked to the web (more brains, more ideas):

For anyone:

• Wrap small gifts
• Gerbil toy
• Make a kazoo
• Make an awesome modern fruit bowl
• Germinate seeds – I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.

For kids…

• Puppets
• Rain Sticks
• Party Poppers
• Dinosaur bone (actually it says you need a paper towel tube, but since we frown on paper towels around here, I’m gonna say, tape two tubes together.)
• Totem Pole

For criminals:

Break into locked laptops

For people with WAY too much time on their hands:

I found this totally bizarre idea at the Mothering forums. Someone said, “Tape a bunch together so that the outcome is about the size of your t.v. screen. Attach this to the screen, turn on the t.v. (sound off). It creates a neat kaleidoscope effect.”

Wow. Really this sounds like something a bunch of twenty something guys might do after a night of too much bad keg beer and Pink Floyd. I’m not judging, I’m just saying. If you’re really so inclined, I bet kids would find this experiment very interesting.

What will you be doing with your tubes this week? Note that after I spent all this time on these tips, if you say “recycling” I’ll just die.

OR post your own toilet paper tube reuse tip in the comments.

[image via stock.xchng - altered by miss Jennifer]