20 Reasons to Save Empty Baby Wipes Tubs

It's inevitable. If you have a baby, you use diapers. And unless you live an extremely frugal lifestyle, you also use store-bought baby wipes every time you change a diaper. In fact, for every diaper you change, you probably use at least two baby wipes to keep your baby clean and happy. So it's no surprise that you end up with multiple, and often many, empty baby wipes tubs.

Once the tub is empty, it's time to throw it out, right? But when you take the tub over to the trash can you feel a twinge of guilt about throwing it away. Maybe you'd prefer to be more environmentally conscious and don't want to add more waste to the garbage dump. Maybe you want to live a more frugal life and make better use of what you have on hand. Maybe you have to pay by the pound for your trash removal and don't want to add weight unnecessarily. Whatever the reason for hesitating to throw the tub away, rest assured that you don't need to throw away your baby wipes tubs anymore. Here are twenty frugal, practical, environmentally sound uses for them:

1. Art storage - Eventually your baby is going to become a toddler, a preschooler, an elementary school student. Your growing child will use a seemingly never-ending supply of crayons, markers, colored pencils, stickers, paint brushes and other art supplies. Baby wipes tubs are the perfect place to store these items.

2. Make craft kits - Use the tub to hold items that your child could use to amuse himself in the car, at the doctor's office, or at the restaurant. Include paper, drawing utensils, stickers, and stencils.

3. Pantry organization - Put tubs in the pantry and use them to store loose items like taco seasoning packets, drink mix packets, oatmeal packets, children's fruit snacks, spices, etc.

4. Car kit - Make a kit of travel essentials to store in your car. You could include sunscreen, bug spray, spare change, or tissues.

5. Birthday fun - Hold a pirate themed birthday party, then give each child a tub to decorate. The tub instantly becomes each child's treasure chest.

6. Bathroom organization - Use the tubs to store loose items like travel size products, makeup, cotton balls or swabs, etc.

7. Sewing kit - Let the tub store sewing supplies like thread, bobbins, and needles.

8. Toy storage - Store little toys like Legos, Little People, Polly Pocket or Barbie items, and Hotwheels in separate tubs.

9. Picture storage - Keep pictures in baby wipes tubs until you can put them in your photo albums.

10. Tool shed storage - Organize and store small "tool shed" items such as nails, screws and bolts.

11. Car cleaning kit - Fill a baby wipes tub with plastic grocery bags and then put it in your car. When you need to clean out your car, simply pull a plastic bag from the tub and fill it with trash.

12. Clothing storage - Put tubs in your child's dresser drawers to organize her socks.

13. Toys - Remove the lid on the tubs and use them to build sand or snow blocks.

14. Diaper change organization - Put all the diaper supplies in a tub and put it next to the changing area. The tub can hold diaper rash creams, lotions, baby powder, etc.

15. First aid kit - Fill the tub with first aid items. Make a few kits, such as one for the home and one for your car(s).

16. Laundry catcher - Place a tub on top of your dryer. Whenever you find random pocket change or other surprises while doing laundry, place them in the tub.

17. Hair decoration storage - If you have girls who like to put up their hair, use a baby wipes tub to store all the ponytail holders, barrettes, and bows.

18. Bill organizer - Place unpaid bills in a tub for easy access when it comes time to pay the bills.

19. Under the kitchen sink organizer - Use tubs to hold sponges, the sink stopper, pot scrubbers, rubber gloves, etc.

20. Shoe shine kit - Fill a tub with your shoe shine supplies for easy access when it comes time to shine your shoes.

Hopefully these twenty suggestions will not only keep you from having to throw out your empty baby wipes tubs, but will also help you think of even more creative ways to re-use them.