10 Ridiculously Helpful (and Surprising!) Uses for Chopsticks
Chopsticks are wildly useful little tools to keep handy. And while most of us save our spare ones, or buy a more permanent pair, there are all sorts of clever ways to use chopsticks around the house.
From cleaning crevices to stirring paint, read ahead for 10 brilliant things you can do with an extra set of chopsticks.
1. Clean crevices.
Searching for a foolproof way to deep clean tough-to-reach nooks and crannies? Wrap a cloth around a chopstick or two and use it to clean details like vents, grout, faucets, and other small fixtures and crevices around your home.
2. Clean your shoes.
Searching for an easy way to ensure you never track dirt, snow, or worse — dog poop — into your home? Keep a pair of chopsticks by your door to dislodge anything still stuck in your shoe treads that your doormat might miss.
3. Stack stuff in your fridge.
No lids for your leftovers? No problem. You can still stack them sturdily inside your fridge to free up storage space. Just break a set of chopsticks apart and rest each chopstick over the lip of the bottom bowl. They’ll create a bridge of sorts that’ll help hold up another bowl.
4. Dry glasses.
When having friends and family over, it’s easy to run out of dish drying rack space, especially for wine glasses. Next time you find yourself with more glasses than your dish rack can hold, space a pair of flat-sided chopsticks a couple inches apart on your countertop to prop up your glasses while they dry.
5. Level ingredients.
Looking for an easy way to level off dry ingredients when measuring? Grab the nearest chopstick, run it over the top of your measuring utensil to get rid of the excess and voila: you’ve got the exact amount of ingredient you need.
6. Prop up growing plants.
Dainty young plants often need a little support to grow. Luckily, all you have to do is stick a chopstick into the soil near your needy seedling to help it grow nice and tall.
7. Stir paint.
Forget to pick up paint stirrers at the hardware store? No worries. A pair of chopsticks held together provides just the right resistance to quickly whisk a can of paint.
8. Fix a stripped screw.
Who knew chopsticks could help you fix a pesky stripped screw hole? Simply dip a chopstick into a little wood glue and insert it into the screw hole. Once it dries, break off the rest of the stick so the remaining part of the chopstick creates a new spot for driving in the screw.
9. Pit cherries.
Cherry pits are, well, the pits. Good thing you can use your chopsticks to remove them, just place the chopstick on the stem-end of the cherry and push it through — no cherry pitter necessary!
10. Stir drinks.
Who needs fancy spoons and stirrers when you can mix your cocktails with chopsticks for free? Keep a set or two handy on your bar cart so you can whip up a mixed drink on the fly.
This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Organize the Fridge, Support Your Plants, and 8 Other Things You Can Do with Free Chopsticks