40 Thrifty and Surprising Uses for BREAD TAGS

Today, I will share some thrifty and surprising uses for bread tags. You know, those little items you have knocking around your junk drawer. Now, some of you may routinely throw them out. However, I hope that, by the end of this article, you might be thinking twice before you throw another one away.

Many years ago, I met an older woman whose family background was Russian. She was pretty creative at finding uses for things and didn’t like to throw anything out. She told me an old Russian saying, “What you throw out is what you will need next.” Many times through the years since I met her, I have found this saying to be true. Here are 40 ways to get creative with bread tags. 

Uses for bread tags in the kitchen

• Use as a non-damaging scraper for non-stick pans (thanks, Daisy!), granite countertops, glass stovetops
• Keep other plastic bags closed (e.g., frozen produce bags)
• Funky Wine charms for parties with a built-in conversation starter (“Hi there, what’s your expiry date?)
• Make your own improvised scrubber: Cover a sponge with a used netted produce bag and clip closed with your bread clip: Voila! Ready to do the dishes in frugal style! [source]

Uses for bread tags with electronics

• Keep your charger cable handy at your bedside by attaching a bread clip to your bedside table using a dab of hot glue or tape. Thread the in charger cable through and plug your phone in as required.
• Organize the many cables for your television or computer by attaching a bread clip to each one and labeling it. Super handy if you need to unplug just one item.
• Are you tired of tangled earbuds? Use your bread clip to secure nicely folded earbud cords to prevent tangling.
• Manage those tangled and dangling extension cords. Clip the end of the cord to itself with an extra bread clip when you put the item away. It will be easy to retrieve and ready to go when you need it next time. 

Bread tags for children

Note: As bread tags might be a choking hazard, please ensure that you use these ideas with children of an appropriate age. 

• For imaginary play, bread tags can make fun pretend earrings (these could be painted with nail polish or other paint or even bedazzled).
• One website claimed that children would play “for hours” sorting a pile of bread tags. Worth a try! To make the activity more advanced, you could write numbers on the tags and create mathematical games by adding bread tags with a + or – sign. For more advanced games, have the children sort the tags by “sun sign” expiry dates or some other criteria you assign (“find the tag closest to your birthday, closest one “wins”). Alternatively, you could write the alphabet on the bread tags and play spelling or sounding out games.
• Play Bingo with bread clip bingo chips (and trying saying that quickly three times!)
• Replace missing game pieces with a labeled bread clip (Sharpies work well for this.)
• Hide your massive collection of bread clips like Easter Eggs and have a prize for the most found
• Have the children put some bread clips into an empty cardboard tube or clean food container to make a musical shaker. Children can then decorate it and play it along with some of their favorite music.
• Children can make Bread Tag Creatures by painting the bread tags (Scary Monsters, Snow Men, and Gingerbread Men). Instructions are all here at Crafts by Amanda. 
• Are you feeling quite ambitious? Make an abacus/counting frame out of bread tags, a cereal box, and wooden dowels.

Get organized with the help of bread tags

• Have you ever fumbled around your pile of extra keys looking for that one you need? Clip all extra keys with a bread tag and label clearly with a sharpie. 
• Organize that junk drawer! Clip together items, such as elastic bands or twist ties, and use and find them easily.
• One bread tag on the end of a roll of any tape will allow you to find the end of the roll effortlessly and instantly. Think of the precious minutes saved of other tasks! 
• In a pinch, use bread tags as bookmarks. Put one “foot” of the bread tag where you left off and put the other foot forward enough pages that it grabs and holds well.
• I have long hair, and there are hair scrunchies everywhere in my purse, car, and house. I cannot be without a hair scrunchie, or I panic. You can use a bread tag to hold a bunch of hair elastics and scrunchies together. This could work in your purse or bathroom, where you keep your main stash. You could even sort them by color or type this way. [source]

Organize your pantry

Want to organize your pantry and always know what you need at the store? You can use bread tags to create a visual system so you can quickly assess what you need to buy to keep your pantry stocked (or your preps!). You create a board where you can hang the tags on something like a nail. Each one represents one item in your stock, which you can label using your label maker or a sharpie. 

As you use a can of kidney beans, you would remove one tag from that nail and put it in the basket on or below the board. Then, when it’s time to shop, you can check your board for items you need in your pantry. (Whereas, I am rummaging around my cupboards before shopping trying to see what I’ve used.) You’ll need some organizational skills to maintain this. But I can see it could be quite helpful, even just for certain canned items. For more details, check out this link.

Uses for bread tags with laundry

• Orphaned socks can be a real pain. Perhaps if you clip your socks together before you put them in the washer, the aliens will be less likely to steal them! 
• Similarly, you could use a bread clip to keep socks together in your dresser drawer after they are washed and dried.
• Use a wire hanger to dry your delicates by clipping them to the hanger with a bread clip.
• If you want to dry some items on a line outdoors, you could use some bread clips (probably not for super heavy items, though!). As well, you could keep a bunch of bread clips together for many improvised uses while camping!) [source] 
• Is your plastic laundry hamper broken? No problem! As a Frugalite Rock Star, you know how to repair it by “welding it” with a bread tab and a hot glue gun. 

Get crafty with those bread tags

• Knitters, don’t have a row marker? No worries: use a bread tag!
• Bread tags can clip and organize spare thread or extra embroidery thread or yarn, preventing tangling.
• Deck the Halls by using bread tags to hang your Christmas tree lights (they can be painted with festive colors beforehand if desired.)
• Type “bread tag jewelry images” into your search engine and go. Inspiration Galore!
• For the ambitious artist, you could try out an Andy Warhol-style portrait made of bread tags or an artistic shower curtain made only of bread tags wired together. The sky’s the limit!
• Bread tags make great little gift tags. Decorate them to the season or occasion by painting and bedazzling them. Show your thrifty and eco-nature as you gift your friends and family!

Miscellaneous uses for bread tags

• Need tags for your next garage sale? Bread tags can work well, either clipped or taped on, depending on the item. Here are some other tips to make your next garage sale an epic success.
• Have fun making beautiful music with your bread-tag guitar pick!
• Uh Oh! Went a bit over your painting tape and onto a window? No problem: you can use an extra bread clip to scrape that paint off.
• Are you working on your green thumb? Use bread tags clipped onto pots or seed starting containers to mark seedlings or rows of seedlings or clip loosely onto plants in the garden. Want more tips on how to grow a garden on a budget? Look no further!
• Repair aging flip flops where the strap between your toes keeps popping out by simply clipping the bread tag onto the bottom to make the hole narrower and hold the flip flop together.
• Did one of the holes for the strings on your horizontal blinds break? Glue a bread clip to reinforce that hole. Just a bit of glue, and they are ready to go!
• If you are feeling lucky, keep a bread tag safely tucked in the credit card area of your wallet and use it to scratch lottery tickets. Maybe you should buy an extra ticket on the expiry date of your tag. Good luck to you!

Other sources for bread tag uses

• The Frugal Life 
• The Many Uses of…
• Green Eco Services
• The Secret Yumiverse
• Tips-n-Tricks
• Reuse, Grow, Enjoy
• Pioneering the Simple Life

A bread tag by any other name

Whatever you call them, bread tags, bread clips, bread tabs, or something else, do you save them or throw them out? Could you see yourself trying any of these ideas for bread clips? Do you have one of your own you can share with us? Please tell us in the comments below.