Finding New Uses For #10 Cans

My sweetheart is always cooking up big batches of soups and sauces so we always seem to have an abundance of those great #10 (100 oz) cans that large quantities of canned goods come in.

Of course you can always recycle cans, but I do enjoy finding new uses for things whenever possible. Better still if the things you are finding a new use for saves you from having to buy something else to do the same job!

I have used #10 cans in my garage for many years. Each can holds a certain size of nails or screws labeled on the side of the can, so I can easily find what I need at a glance and take down off the shelf. I buy my favourite screws and nails in bulk, so the cans are a handy size to fill up.

I have also done some other interesting things with the cans. For example, lf you screw the cans by their bottoms to a fence board in a row (leave about a 4" gap between cans to attach a coat hook to) and then screw the board to a wall by your back door, you have personal cubbies to put mitts & toques in, the scarf hangs around the can and your coat goes on the coat hook. Everyone easily find their stuff. Ball caps also hang nicely from the can and keep their shape. I also used a larger board to stack rows of the cans placed tightly against one another that I screwed on to the wall at floor level to use as cubbies for shoes. Once the cans have been attached to the boards, you can easily spray paint them to match your decor before attaching to the wall.

A number 10 can with a plastic lid is a great container to put together an emergency kit for the car. We have a small bottle of water, a couple granola bars, a candle, some matches, an emergency blanket, bandaids, and a wind-up flashlight in our emergency kit. Of course the can itself could be used for all sorts of things, like a makeshift shovel, a container for water if the car overheats, a pot for cooking and even an emergency bucket if someone gets carsick. You can also fill a can with sand to use as emergency traction in the winter.

This year I'm going to spray paint some of my extra cans (they're automatically mine once they're empty), punch a few holes in the bottom with a nail, fill them with dirt and attach them to the side of each of my fenceposts to plant some flowers into. A neighbour of mine made a standing flower post by screwing cans to all four sides of a 6' high 4x4 post with 1' 2x4 legs screwed at right angles to each side of the post on caster wheels so it could moved anywhere. He had petunias and trailing lobelia of all colours growing on all sides, and he gave the post a quarter turn each day to keep the flowers full on each side.

If you've found a great alternate use for a #10 can, tell me about your project!