Friday, March 23, 2007

A New Use for 'Tin' Cans

Now, this is not a particularly new idea, and so I take no credit for it as some sort of original thing. I assume that the idea of putting empty 'tin' cans to use after their contents had been eaten is virtually as old as the 'tin' can itself. (I keep putting 'tin' in quotes like because they are longer actually made of tin, and haven't been for a long time now.) I can just imagine that the person who invented the 'tin' can (was it one of the Shakers?) immediately sold the idea to others by saying "And after you eat the green beans, you've got a great way to organize your rusty nail collection..."! So, nothing new here. But my basement is short on space because it has concrete block walls that I have no idea how to attach anything to, like shelves. So, I have to put whatever space I do have to parsimonious use. I attached these empty tomato cans to a wooden wall with metal screws and a drill and they make a pretty handy way to store some of my painting supplies. I'll probably add more as I make more soup, spaghetti sauce, etc. I like how the labels look, and I think you could easily repeat this with all sorts of different kinds of cans to great effect.

3 comments:

lynneguist said...

What's the trick to screwing in a screw inside the can? Does it involve a very short screwdriver, or a jaunty angle?

Celeste said...

A jaunty angle with a long screwdriver on a cordless drill. I'm not sure you could do it by hand, since you need the power to get the screw to pierce the metal. And I put two small screws right next to one another so that the cans wouldn't pivot around.

lynneguist said...

You could always pierce a little hole with a hammer/nail before screwing by hand--probably how my dad used to do this, as he never had a power screwdriver.