The Danish butter cookie thread and the comments about other uses for the tin got me thinking: what other products have packaging that is useful for other things after the product has been used up?
I remember from back when I smoked that an Altoids can perfectly fit 20 king-size cigarettes (a full pack).
Eons ago, my dad gave me a little round tin of hard candies. Turns out it’s a perfect container for straight pins. I don’t sew as much as I used to, but I still have that little tin of pins.
I miss 35 mm film canisters. They were a lightweight waterproof container perfect for matches, bandages, ear plugs, random screws in the garage, etc.
Back in the day, I’d guess a cigar box was the classic example after a cookie tin. As a kid, I stored my Matchbox cars in one of those big Christmas popcorn tins.
If you need another reason to buy gelato, the Talenti brand comes in a small plastic container with a screw-on lid that is a great size for leftovers. And if you give away your leftovers to the kids or something, you get to replace the containers by buying more gelato! Win-win.
My contact lenses come in a little pasteboard box that is the perfect size for Q-tips. I always take them when I travel.
There’s a brand of desserts in the U.K. called Gu Puds that come in glass containers. They’re great little ramikins for sauces or dips, or as bowls for nuts, etc if you are doing up a nibbles platter.
Yeah, sure, ear plugs and screws. A lot of people don’t know this, but you can put your weed in there.
Crown Royal Whiskey comes in a cloth bag with draw strings at the top, which is excellent for holding Scrabble tiles. Much easier to throw the tiles in the bag than to turn all of them over.
This reminded me - a few years back, my niece gave me a box of candy at Christmas and it came in a box similar to a cigar box, including the attached lid. It’s the perfect size for crochet hooks and assorted small items I need when I knit and crochet.
Kitty litter is sometimes sold in a perfectly good bucket.
There’s one kind of glass Nutella jar (the wide-topped 200g one) that makes an excellent tumbler.
Cigar boxes and oil cansmake great guitars. You can even get the latter in electric versions…although the Bohemian ones aren’t the real thing, the Township ones are.
Not to mention the secondary use of kitty litter itself. Oil spills on the driveway? Deep frying mess in the driveway? (i.e. deep frying turkeys around Thanksgiving). Just toss some kitty litter on it and grind it in.
Growing up, my mother would buy the lesser brand of jelly because it came in jars that could be used as glasses. Also we had a bunch of little ‘wine’ glasses from the pimento cheese spread.
A classic example would be the old tin Band-Aid containers.
Also, those plastic containers some lunch meats come in. They are the same thing as the Glad/Ziplock storage containers. It even says they are reusable on them.
I save these to use as containers for my own homemade gelato. I did find out you can’t put them in the dishwasher, though.
There is a brand of yogurt named ‘Oui’. It comes in the cutest little jar. Just made for votive candles. I love glass jars of all kinds. Olive jars, jelly glasses.
I have many shoe boxes and cigar boxes full of art supplies. Pringle cans make great brush holders.
I have a dozen or so Bayer aspirin tins. Tiny square tins with a hinged lid. I put needles and pins in them.
Mr.Wrekker bought some screws, they came in a plastic hinged box I appropriated it.
Baby food jars. You can figure out the usefulness of those, right?
Thomy mustard comes in a jar that doubles as a drinking glass.
I bought some (excellent) dip that comes in terracotta pots http://staging.eatloveshare.com.au/range/heritage/
Marine aquarium salt also comes in a bucket.
If you know someone with diabetes, get them to save their empty test strip containers. A little smaller but almost the same size and more waterproof.