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7 Creative Ways to Reuse Formula Cans

By Holly Campbell

Having a baby on infant formula milk often leads to a number of empty formula cans or tins piling up in the home. If your usual practice is to toss them away, please don’t. These creative ideas will make you want to recycle and reuse unwanted or old formula cans into really useful and pretty things.

You’ll be amazed at the things you can do with them; nothing too complicated or time-consuming. These simple ideas are not strictly for formula tin cans as some of them are really great for reusing coffee cans as well.

Reuse Formula Cans (Tins) Ideas

1. Gift Boxes

These metal cans have very strong lids, which make them great for recycling as gift containers for any occasion.

Decorate the outside of the can with a theme that matches the occasion. For example, if you want to reuse formula cans as gift containers for Halloween, you can paint the outside orange and finish with decorative little goblins or ghosts stickers.

2. Store Kids Art Supplies

Peel off the outer label on the can, and decorate with cute stickers. Better yet, get the kids to draw or paint them. They are great for organizing and storing children art supplies such as crayons, colored markers or paintbrushes. Make sure to cover the sharp edges.

3. Storage Containers

Re-purpose them to store small children toys such as building blocks, marbles, or toy cars. You can also reuse formula cans to keep your scrapbooking or craft items in place. They make great storage containers for buttons, ribbons, safety pins, beads or other small items you have laying around.

Print out pictures of these items from the internet, and then use them to decorate. It’s an easy way to decorate and label what is inside of the can.

4. Piggy Banks

Turn an empty baby formula can into a cute piggy bank for kids or even for yourself! Paste pictures of your kids onto the outside, and then use a box cutter to create a rectangular shape size cutout in the lid.

5. Kids Can Shoes

Make formula cans into fun can shoes for the children. Poke a hole completely through the can, then tie a very sturdy string through and around the it.

Or, give your toddler this improvised toy drum set – an empty formula can and a wooden spoon.

6. Store Makeup and Bathroom Supplies

Remove label and paint the formula tin can with your favorite colors. Alternatively, wrap its exterior with beautiful gift wrapper, or even wall paper, if you are not artistically talented.

7. Collect Unwanted Oil or Store Dry Foods

You can reuse empty formula can for collecting unwanted oils from fry baskets. Pour leftover oil into the can, and then freeze it to avoid spill or smells. Toss when the can is full.

For a more Eco-friendly approach, place a sheet of wax paper in the empty can before you pour in the oil. Simply pull and throw out the frozen stuff, and you can reuse the formula can again.

Another nifty idea to repurpose infant formula tins is to use them as storage containers to keep crackers, dried beans, pasta, rice, and other dry goods. Peel off the outer label, and then label them with the new contents.

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