28 Genius Ways To Use Lids From Old Jars Instead Of Tossing Them

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You can upcycle pickle jars into soap dispensers, use pasta sauce jars to make money-saving natural dryer sheets, and turn salsa jars into DIY reed diffusers, but what about jar lids? In addition to being a creative way to reduce waste, taking the time to find new jobs for your lids can stretch your budget. These sturdy discs are versatile craft supplies, handy garden helpers, and convenient tools for keeping your home organized.

Lots of DIY projects that call for old CDs or other sturdy, circular objects may be made with jar lids. So can quite a few crafts that call for small, shallow dishes or lids repurposed from plastic containers. Jar lids are suitable saucers for dolls' tea parties and holders for messy art supplies such as glitter and paint. Don't overlook their outdoor possibilities, either. Whether you're seeking inexpensive edging material for your flower garden or need a spare piece for a jumbo game of checkers in you've set up on your patio, jar lids are ready to rise to the challenge. Here are a bunch of other ways to use them in your home and yard.

Give a jar lid a second life as a small sunburst mirror. Find a mirror that fits inside the lid, perhaps one repurposed from a makeup compact. Also, grab a box of toothpicks or several packs of bamboo skewers. Paint the lid and the sticks gold or silver. Then, hot-glue the mirror in the lid and attach the toothpicks or skewers to the other side, making sure they're evenly spaced and extend a few inches from its edge. After completing one round of rays, add another that reaches a shorter distance from the lid's rim.

Canning jars have lids with two parts: a disc and a ring that doubles as a photo frame. Trace the disc onto a photo, cut out the circle, and position it so it looks out the "window" the ring creates. Secure the picture with tape. For an impressive display, frame multiple photos in this way and screw eye hooks to each ring's top and bottom. Link the hooks with wire or ribbons, and hang each string of photos on a rod, a tree branch, or a broomstick you've customized with paint or washi tape.

Though jar lids make wonderful little paint palettes, turning paint and a lid into a work of art is more satisfying. Reused lids aren't a big commitment since they cost nothing, and any painting style is fair game, so try your hand at impressionistic landscapes, hyperrealistic pet portraits, or whatever you feel inspired to create on a given day. Treat each lid's interior as your canvas and its edge as a frame. Then, make a gallery wall with your creations. Arrange them in a circle or square to explore the artistic possibilities of geometry.

Prevent your paper towels from unrolling or disappearing in the back of a cupboard by making a dispenser stand. First, find a jar lid that's wide enough for a full roll of the towels you buy most often to stand on end. Next, hot-glue a rod that's roughly the same height as the roll to the center of the lid. Then, give your creation some flair. Attach beads to the lid's rim or wrap yarn or washi tape around the rod. Finally, place your new dispenser on a kitchen counter, sliding the rod into the roll's tube.

Need a spot to keep lipstick tubes, jars of spices, or small houseplants? Jar lids can help. Conserve counter and cabinet space by turning them into a tiered organizer. Grab two or three lids and construct a circular fence on each one's border with a little help from E6000 Craft Adhesive or another strong glue that works on multiple materials. Objects that are relatively thin and short — think marker caps and clothespins — make good fencing. Then, use your glue to join the tiers with dowels, candlesticks, cardboard tubes, or other column-like items.

Nails like to roll away at inconvenient times, and stepping on them is the worst way to figure out where they've gone. Keep them from escaping your workspace with a clever jar-lid hack. Screw a lid to the underside of a desk, near an easy-to-access edge. The flat top should be flush with the desk's surface, and the screw hole should be within an inch of the rim. When pulled, the lid will rotate so it juts out from the desk. Install additional lids to hold different types of hardware.

Have at least a half dozen jar lids? Turn them into a bowl to corral unpeeled pieces of fruit or display decorative objects such as moss balls. Cover the tops and sides of the lids with fabric, and line the insides of the lids with colorful felt or tight coils of rope. Find a round melamine plate or another large, sturdy circle for the base. Stand the lids on their rims and hot-glue them side by side on the plate's edge. Add a handle to turn your bowl into a basket.

Some objects are easier to locate when they're hung up rather than stashed deep in a pocket or purse. Ring-bound keys and ID cards on lanyards are two examples. Help yourself find these items quickly by fashioning a hook station with jar lids. Outfit several lids in fabric or wrapping paper, decoupage them with fancy paper napkins, or spray-paint them with enamel that complements your other decor. Hot-glue a hook to each lid, arrange the lids in a row, and attach adjacent rims to each other. Then, mount your project on a wall.

You don't have to hang up your keys or necklaces to keep them from getting lost. Simply paint the interiors of jar lids and rest these items on the decorated surfaces. Set rings, hair ties, earbuds, and other small objects there, too. Acrylic paint and nail polish are two options for making your lids more colorful. Use the circular space to paint round objects — say, bicycle wheels or fruit slices. Or, go abstract and experiment with dots, loops, and squiggles. If you love botanical decor, paint a flower on each of these little canvases.

Embellish a jar lid's interior with materials that catch your eye or phrases that make you think or laugh. You could affix seashells, photos, children's drawings, or even cut-out words you've arranged into a haiku. Hot-glue a strong magnet to the undecorated side of the lid. Once the glue has hardened completely, use your new magnet — or an entire collection of them — to give your refrigerator doors a personality infusion. Take advantage of your magnet's holding power, too. A strong magnet is perfect for attaching flyers, recipes, and grocery lists to the fridge.

If preserving the finish on your coffee table is important to you, putting coasters beneath liquid-filled glasses and mugs is a must. Making customized coasters that you truly love will increase your likelihood of using them. Create tiny collages in your jar lids using images from magazines, comic books, or old family photo albums. You could also incorporate cut-out words and symbols. Then, glue down each component and seal your creations with a coat of Outdoor Mod Podge or another product that can handle moisture, since the glasses you set on your coasters are bound to sweat.

Even if you use LED candles that don't melt, eliminating the need for holders that catch dripping wax, placing them on platforms elevates their look. Line lids with jute twine to add the textural appeal of an organic material to your decor. Hot-glue a knotted end of a twine ball to the center of a lid's interior, then wind more twine around this point to create a swirl. Line the lid's edges with more twine or some wavy rickrack. Then, pop an LED candle on the lid and illuminate your space in style.

If you like to make big pots of soup or stew, create a large trivet with seven metal jar lids. This item places a protective layer of insulation between the hot bottom of a cooking pot and the surfaces of tables and countertops. Use a hot glue gun to cover each lid with fabric, then arrange the lids in a flower formation, adding more glue to hold them together. For an extra dose of visual appeal, add cording around the edge of each lid or on the perimeter of the flower shape.

A suncatcher filled with pressed flowers or pieces of colorful autumn leaves creates lots of opportunities to admire nature's beauty in the comfort of your home. To make one, trace a jar lid seal on a small square of contact paper, remove the backing, and carefully place your pressed flowers on the sticky side. Sandwich them between another piece of contact paper, cut out the circle, and glue it inside the lid's ring. Complete your suncatcher by gluing a twine loop to the lid for easy hanging.

Turn a canning lid into a pincushion you can attach to a jar of thread, buttons, and other sewing supplies. First, cut out a fabric circle with a diameter that's at least 1 inch wider than the lid's disc. Next, hand-stitch around the circle's edge, leaving a ½-inch margin. Then, fill the little fabric bowl you've created with stuffing. Press the disc into the stuffing with its underside facing you. After that, tighten the thread at make a few stitches to hold it in place. Finally, push the puffy part of this cushion through the ring.   

Craving separation between two rooms or more privacy on your porch? Create a privacy screen with leftover lids. Decorate a large collection of lids and attach them to long, wide pieces of ribbon or other strips of attractive fabric. Lay out the lids before hot-gluing them to the ribbon to make sure they're evenly spaced. You could also enhance the spaces between the jars with buttons or other small decorations. Position a piece of rope horizontally and sew or glue the lid-studded ribbon pieces to it so they hang vertically, with minimal space between them.

Have 20 canning jar rings? Transform them into a plump pumpkin to celebrate Halloween, upgrade a Thanksgiving centerpiece, or simply welcome fall's arrival. Turn the rings orange with Rust-Oleum Gloss Protective Enamel or a similar rust-preventing spray paint. String the rings on a piece of twine, making sure they're all facing the same way. Bring the ends of the twine together, forming a circle and tying a knot. Then, space out the rings to create a pumpkin shape. Finally, add a pipe-cleaner vine and a stem made of a stick or even a candy bar.

You can make wreaths for any season with lids, and there are numerous ways to do it. Craft a tiny wreath by winding yarn around a canning jar ring and adding a bow.  Create a larger wreath with lids from any kind of jar. Cover them with red-and-green plaid flannel for a Christmas wreath, or paint butterflies in their centers as an ode to spring. You could even paste pictures of people in them, perhaps relatives or characters from children's books. Then, hot-glue them onto a wreath form or a donut-shaped cardboard cutout covered with burlap.

Whether you need name labels for Christmas gifts, Thanksgiving place settings, or your kids' backpacks on the first day of school, the discs from canning jar lids provide a simple solution. Use stencils to adorn holiday gift tags with triangular fir trees or shimmering snowflakes. Decorate Thanksgiving nameplates with pictures of pies, vegetables, and other highlights of your feast. For backpack labels, buff away any sharp edges with sandpaper and coat the flat surfaces with black chalk paint so they resemble little chalkboards. Then, print each child's name in white letters.

Want your kitchen counter or dining table to look more festive around the holidays? Dress it up with a Christmas tree made from canning jar rings. Arrange 10 rings in a triangle made of stacked rows. The bottom row gets four rings. Hot-glue the rings together. Next, make a stand that looks like a tree trunk. Sandwich together three rings, then attach a fourth ring flipped on its rim to add height. Trim your tree by hanging an ornament from each ring. You could even put a shiny star on top.

Jar lids are superb bases for conical creations made with narrow sticks. These pointy-topped objects can become a number of different holiday decorations, from trumpet-tooting angels to gnomes wearing Santa hats. They make especially cute pine trees for a Christmas village. To build one, affix the blunt ends of eight bamboo skewers to the edge of a lid and hot-glue their sharp ends together to form a point. Wind green chenille yarn around this skeleton, gluing it to the sticks as needed. Then, trim your tree with sequins, beads, or dots of puffy paint.

Jar lids aren't deep, but they are 3-dimensional. This means that they can hold smaller 3-D objects such as beads, pompons, or figurines. Try turning a lid into a diorama-style Christmas ornament that tells a story by sharing a small, charming scene. Start with a canning jar ring and a circle of thin, clear plastic that fits snugly inside. In the example above, itty-bitty bottlebrush pine trees, Epsom salt snow, and a Bambi-like deer figurine join this little world — along with some hot glue — to create holiday magic.

Looking for ways to repurpose old bed sheets and the rings from canning jar lids? Pair them with bamboo skewers or other thin sticks to make flowers. You could also use sewing remnants or handkerchiefs for the fabric. Puncture the rings with a hole punch to insert the skewers. Then, cut out fabric circles that fit inside the rings and make strips of material for the petals. Each strip should be about 8 inches long and ¾ inch wide. Fold the strips in half and tie them to the rings so their ends extend outward.

Want to bring more feathered friends to your backyard? Turn mason jar lids into dinner plates for local birds during the winter. Clean and dry a lid, then stuff the open space with suet, a rendered fat that gives birds lots of energy when other food sources are scarce. Press birdseed into the suet to add texture and extra nutrition. Or, put oats in your feeder to attract even more birds. You can pop the suet cake out of its mold before serving it or hang the food-filled lid on a tree branch.

Trying to grow microgreens from seed? A jar with a mesh-lined lid will increase your chances of success. Instead of dropping $5 or more on one of these lids, repurpose rings from canning jar lids to make a whole set for less than $1. You can purchase plastic needlepoint mesh, such as the Aster 4-Piece Set of Plastic Mesh Sheets or use flat metal mesh from an old splatter lid. Grab a marker and trace the disc that fits inside each ring onto this material. Then, cut it out, pop it into the ring, and get growing.

Labeling plants doesn't just help you remember what you planted in your garden. It reminds you where you planted different flowers and vegetables, which can prevent you from overwatering and installing not-so-neighborly plants nearby. Jar lids work as plant labels because they're tough enough to withstand raindrops, the sun's ultraviolet rays, temperature changes, and whatever else Mother Nature has in store. Write plant names on your lids in permanent marker and decorate the borders with outdoor acrylic paint. Use a waterproof adhesive such as Titebond III to attach each label to a 10-inch stick.

Did you know that jar lids make excellent drip trays for houseplants? Find a lid that's slightly larger than a plant pot that's missing one of these saucers, and simply slide it underneath. The pot's base should go in the lid's interior so its sides prevent excess water from spilling onto the floor or the table where the plant resides. Consider decorating the exterior edge of the lid with waterproof paint. The Shuttle Art 25-Color Outdoor Acrylic Paint Set or another multi-pack of pigments designed to withstand rain should give you plenty of options.

Jar lids suspended from string rotate in mesmerizing ways. If placed in a breezy spot, they'll also bump together, creating sounds that may scare hungry creatures away from your garden. Make several of the suncatchers described earlier and hang them on a repurposed pot lid to DIY a wind chime. Or, coat them in vibrant outdoor paints and affix their strings to a tin can. Make a mixed-media version by lacing silverware, keys, or earrings on the strings, too. For a more elegant indoor mobile, hang sequin-covered lids from an embroidery hoop.