Saturday, September 14, 2013

Uses for an ice cube tray

     I like to look at the things I have in the house that will become totally useless without power.  Sometimes I find I have acquired a lot of small things that are just piling up and not making themselves useful.  Take ice cube trays.  How many does a person need?  I need or use two.  I have about six. And, that  doesn't count the specialty trays in shapes and the kind that makes cube tubes to fit inside water bottles. 

Uses for ice cube trays besides making ice:




Drill a hole in the bottom of each compartment of the tray and use it for starting seeds.




Put double sided sticky tape on the bottom of a tray and stick it inside a drawer so it doesn't slide every time you open the drawer and use the tray to organize:

                                    jewelry
                                    office supplies
                                    toys like those doll shoes                                     and accessories
                                    buttons 
                                    sewing notions




Molds:
soap molds, candle molds,sugar molds.  USing the squarest cube tray to make your items stackable and easy to portion out as needed.

Melt down crayons as you would melt candle wax, in the double boiler method and pour or spoon into ice trays to make rainbow crayons out of broken leftovers.


      Candles can be molded in trays that have been used for crayon molds.  Use tea light wicks.  Gently pour wax into the cube sections and set to cool.  When stacking candles for disaster storage, place a piece of parchment paper between the layers.  Mark the box and store in a cool dark place to last nearly forever!  





Use specialty molds for special occasions.  For example:  Santa soaps from santa ice cube trays, or melted sugar into silicone ice trays for fun times to come.  




This is a sample of sugar molded for fun.





Use an ice tray as a paint palette.

I am going to use the things I have that are extra or they are gone!  I am not afraid of putting some nuts and bolts in a tray and putting it in the toolbox to keep them straight and ready to use.  I am afraid if we don't use the things we have for other purposes, we will just find ourselves drowning in stuff covered in dust and I am just not going to have it!  Part of the prepper's lifestyle change is to stop buying and start using, to use what we have and learn to do without the clutter.   Ready, set, go!

No comments: