Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Do you have a junk drawer? Most of us have a place in our kitchen where we store the small odds and ends of life.
A typical junk drawer—or utility drawer, if you prefer—includes twist ties, thumbtacks, paper clips, bag clips, duct tape, safety pins, coupons, receipts, take-out menus, pens, pencils, scissors, and spare change. But, according to an NPR survey, rubber bands are the most common item found in junk drawers.
If you have a hard time throwing away rubber bands, you’re in good company. These handy stretchy come in various sizes, widths, colors, and strengths. And they have many uses around the homestead.
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Let’s take a look at 30 off-grid uses for rubber bands.
1. Hold a Bandage
You can use rubber bands to secure a cloth around a wound in an emergency.
2. Serve as a Tourniquet
A large rubber band can serve as a tourniquet in a life-and-death situation.
3. Make a Temporary Sling
You can also use large rubber bands to help secure a broken bone until you can get medical attention. Smaller rubber bands can keep broken fingers or toes in place.
4. Attach Gear to Your Backpack
Rubber bands can serve as handy fasteners for items such as water bottles, flashlights, and other things that you don’t have room for in your backpack.
5. Use for Fishing
You can cut large rubber bands to serve as makeshift lures. Tie bait to one end and dangle it over the side of a boat or pier to attract fish, and then use a net to catch them. You’ll want to watch the creative use of rubber bands in this fishing video.
6. Secure Bulky Rolled Items
Use rubber bands to secure tolled blankets, sleeping bags, and clothing pieces.
7. Hold Paracord Tight
You can use a rubber band to stop your paracord from unraveling in your pack.
8. Fasten and Unscrew Nails
Try using a rubber band to remove a stripped screw. Insert the point of your screwdriver and slowly turn to remove it.
9. Grip Tool Handles
Wrapping rubber bands around the handles of your tools to help make them easier to hold.
10. Use as an Accessory Strap
You can wrap a rubber band around your wrist and then loop it into a flashlight or lighter to keep it handy when you are working.
11. Wrap Up Loose Gear
You can use rubber bands to keep certain unruly items like ropes, belts, twist ties, and even other rubber bands neatly stored inside your bag.
12. Keep Cards Tidy
Rubber bands work well to hold decks of index cards and playing cards together.
13. Hold Together Books and Manuals
You can use rubber bands to hold a loose book cover onto the pages of a book. In some cases, you can try using a band as a bookmark.
14. Help Dispenser Overflow
Winding a rubber band around a pump dispenser stem for lotion or soap can help keep it from putting out too much product each time you use it.
15. Organize Cups
In a group setting, you can use different colored rubber bands to distinguish whose cup or mug is whose.
16. Label Batteries
Try wrapping different colored rubber bands to help you know which ones are charged and which ones need to be charged.
17. Keep Eyeglasses Secure
You’ll look like a nerd, but who cares? You can use a large rubber band to secure eyeglasses or sunglasses around your head. With an adjustment in how tightly the band is connected to the earpieces, you can use the band as a way to hold the glasses around your neck when you take them off.
18. Keep Tins Tightly Closed
Many of us store small items in meal mint tins or other small boxes. A rubber band ensures that the lid stays closed in our backpacks or bags.
19. Use as a Lid Remover
When you wrap a rubber band around a tight jar or bottle lid, it gives you extra traction to unscrew it.
20. Make a Ponytail Holder
Rubber bands can serve as make-do hair ties. (They will pinch and pull when you remove them, so be careful!)
21. Erase Your Mistakes
A wad of rubber bands can work as a makeshift eraser. Or wrap one around the end of a pencil that lost its eraser.
22. Start a Fire
Since rubber bands are flammable, they work well as emergency fire starters. Check out this video that shows ranger bands as fire starters.
23. Keep Broom Bristles Together
Extend the life of a frayed boom by wrapping a big rubber band around the bristles.
24. Mark the Liquid Level
You’ll be able to easily see how much paint or oil is left in the can when you wrap a rubber band around the remaining level.
25. Keep a Door from Shutting Tightly
If you want to keep a door from shutting tightly, wrap one or more rubbers band around one doorknob and then around the opposite doorknob. This video shows you how to do this simple procedure.
26. Use as a Weapon
A rubber band can work as a slingshot for hunting small game. This video shows you how to make and use a slingshot with rubber bands. Here is a video that shows how to make a slingshot with a wood handle and rubber bands.
27. Prevent Sliding and Scratching
You can prevent the TV remote or your phone from sliding off a table by wrapping a rubber band or two around it. The bands also help prevent these devices from scratching wood surfaces.
28. Use as a Money Clip
You can keep your paper money folded and secure with a rubber band.
29. Keep Spoons from Sliding
It’s annoying when your mixing and serving spoons slide into the bowl. Wind a rubber band around the end of the spoon handle, and voila!
30. Prevent Apple Browning
After slicing an apple, gather them back around the apple cire and secure them with a rubber band. This trick helps keep the slices from turning brown in a lunch bag.
You can probably add more ideas to this list. What are some ways you use rubber bands?
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