Here Are 20 Rubber Band Hacks To Use Around The House
They can even help you open hard-to-twist jars!
Ryan Aliapoulios
07.12.18

Every kitchen probably has a junk drawer filled with stuff that we think we’ll need but don’t end up using. Still, it’s probably sitting there full of take-out menus, extra batteries, sewing needles and who knows what else. If you’re lucky, there may also be a handful of rubber bands in there. Although some of the stuff may actually be junk, rubber bands have tons of helpful uses around the kitchen that can make your life just a little bit easier.

With that in mind, here are 20 of the best rubber band household hacks.

1. Use one with a rolled paper towel as a chopstick trainer.

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If you’re not very good at using chopsticks, no problem! Simply roll up some paper towel into a little rectangle and put them at the end of your chopsticks. Wrap a rubber band around each side of the chopsticks and around the paper towel to hold it in place. At the end, using them should be much easier!

2. Convert a roll of toilet paper into a box of tissues.

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Similarly, you can reload your tissues with a simple roll of toilet paper. Put a rubber band around the outside of the roll and then carefully cut out the middle cardboard tube, pulling the tail end of the paper with it. Mount the whole thing in a box and pull the end through the opening.

3. Try it for extra grip on jar lids.

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diyhomelife.com

If you have a particularly tough jar to open, try wrapping a rubber band tightly around it for a little bit more traction. If it’s really hard to open, put one around the body of the jar as well and grab it with both hands, twisting in opposite directions.

4. Keep your opened packages fresh.

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Don’t have any chip clips handy? That’s ok—a rubber band can also work wonders for keeping your containers closed and your food fresh.

5. Fasten your straws in place.

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Ever try to drink from your straw only to have it scoot away from your mouth? Use a rubber band next time to keep it right where you want it.

6. Use one to mark your party cup.

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If you’re at a big party, it can be hard to keep track of which identical red party cup is actually yours. If you have a simple rubber band handy, that process can be just a little bit easier—just loop it around your cup and you’ll know on sight.

7. Try one out as a bookmark.

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Ideally, we would never dog-ear our pages to keep track of where we are in books we’re reading. If you don’t have anything else handy, using a big rubber band can be a good solution as well.

8. Wrap one around your finger as a page turner.

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This one’s a little bit more fun. If you’re reading a book and your fingers are especially dry, sometimes the pages just don’t want to flip very easily. Wrapping a rubber band around your pointer finger makes this process much easier.

9. Add a grip-edge to your stirring utensils.

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When cooking, we often need to keep reusing a spoon or other stirring utensil throughout the process—and we don’t want to set it down dirty on the counter. Still, leaving in the bowl means it falls in usually. To fix this, try wrapping a rubber band around the end to create a little ledge for it to lean on.

10. No eraser? Wrap one around the end of your pencil (or finger).

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cleverly.me

For whatever reason, we often find ourselves with a pencil and no eraser to go with it. In these cases, wrapping a rubber band around your finger or the end of your pencil can easily do the same job.

11. Keep party streamers and decorations organized.

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It’s a good habit to keep leftover party decorations in a closet or a drawer if you’re not using them… but they can get unorganized pretty quickly. To combat that, use a rubber band around each one to keep everything in place.

12. Keep your cooking lids fastened.

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awesomeinventions.com

If you’ve had a slow cooker for a long time, sometimes the seal around the lid loosens somewhat and lets the steam escape. To make sure your lids stay tight, try using rubber bands to secure everything in place.

13. Add some grip to your glasses.

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awesomeinventions.com

If your glasses are loose or it’s particularly hot outside, you may notice them beginning to slip down the front of your face. To fix this, wrap some rubber bands around the back end of the glasses to keep them snug against your head.

14. Keep your teabags from falling into the cup.

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Although it’s not the end of the world, having your tea bags fall into your teacup is still pretty annoying. Fortunately, a rubber band can easily fix this problem.

15. Use them to keep cutting boards in place.

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Having a cutting board sliding around all over the place while you’re working can be annoying and dangerous. To keep it in place, put rubber bands around either end of it to give it more grip on the surface of the counter.

16. Try them on a rolling pin to control dough thickness.

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Rolling out dough can be a painstaking process—you have to constantly monitor the temperature, amount of flour and how thick the dough is. To make this a little easier, put some thicker bands around the ends of the rolling pin to keep everything to an even height.

17. Ease the flow on any squirt bottles you have.

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homeandgardeningideas.com

If you have a squirt bottle that always shoots liquid out too quickly, you can fix that without much effort. To do so, wrap a rubber band just under the pushdown part to slow the mechanism down.

18. Keep your clothes in place on the hanger.

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thepennyhoarder.com

If you have any tank tops or dresses that hang down from a hanger, you’ve likely noticed that they can easily fall off the hangers in the closet. To help keep them in place, wrap rubber bands around the ends of your hangers to create a barrier.

19. Make your own empty tissue container.

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Ok, so this one is more of a tissue box hack than a rubber band hack. Still, why not use a rubber band to keep two boxes of tissues together, one full and one empty? If you do this, the empty one can serve as an immediate dirty tissue container!

20. Keep your sliced apples fresh by putting them back together.

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pgeveryday.com

Although sliced apples can be a delicious snack, sometimes we cut more of them than we can actually eat in one setting. To keep them from oxidizing and turning brown, use a rubber band to bind the whole apple together and enjoy it later on.

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