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How do you use clothespins, beyond pinning clothes?

Christopher Weeks

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posted 2 months ago

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So, weird story -- my wife just thanked me for bringing clothespins into her life. I was like 'wut'?

I turns out that the way I grew up, we always had a surplus of clothespins around the house -- sure sometimes for hanging out the laundry, but mostly for closing bags of corn meal or chips or bread when the twistie got lost or paper on the easel after the clamp broke, or two sheets together when making a pillow-fort or a million other thing. And my wife's family didn't. I'm not sure what they used instead, but...OK.

So then it got me wondering; did I just assume that clothespins are a ubiquitous object or is it common for people not to use them? What about you?

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Pearl Sutton

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We do hang things in the house, on hangers, and sometimes use clothespins, but 95% of the clothespin use in this place is "other." My mom will use them for the weirdest things...

A whole row of them on the edge of a tablecloth as a weight so it didn't blow in the fan.
In the fridge or freezer on ziplock bags because she doesn't trust them to stay shut.
To hold her book open, keep the trash bag in the kitchen trash can.
To hold things where she wants them in the car.
On her coat to hold her scarf still.
In her bathroom to keep the hand towel still on the towel bar.
To hold wires where she wants them.

The list goes on and on....
I think if they all disappeared, she'd have withdrawals :D

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Pearl Sutton

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Pearl Sutton wrote: My mom will use them for the weirdest things...

In her defense, I am her daughter!!
I have clipped sheets with a LOT of clips to hold them over plants on cold nights, have covered my whole big arch arbor with fabric all clipped on...

And I'm the one who came up with weighting her tablecloth down with them :D

:D

Jay Angler

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I screwed a row of clothespins to a board in my sister's garage so she could pin up her wet gardening gloves to dry.

We use them to hold the rain flaps up on our portable chicken shelters to they get a breeze and sun in the summer.

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Daniel Schmidt

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I think I lost the two that I made, but I had taken a branch and made around 1 1/2" diameter versions of the kind without the spring that were flat on top. If I needed to keep an important note or piece of mail easily visible so I wouldn't lose or forget it, I could stick it in one to hold it up on my desk. They were also great for bags of chips, pretzels, etc. They got misplaced when moving, but if I find them or make more I will have to take some pics.

I also needed some medium sized alligator clamps one night to replace rusted ones on a battery charger and had to get creative. I JB Weld'ed some 12 gauge wire to the ends of a pair of the spring type, bent in a shape that would clamp on to a battery terminal. I attached the battery charger wires to that so I could charge someone's battery after their alternator failed. I had seen in years past where someone did something kind of similar, using foil around each end and held an insulating spacer in the end tied to a string. If anything pulled the spacer out, it would complete the connection to a micro controller to turn on a light. If you have to work with what you've got, then having clothespins around is quite handy.

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Carla Burke

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I use them for bobbins, for braiding, kumihimo, and just keeping yarn big enough to tangle but too small to bother making a ball. They keep stuff like papers, scarves, mittens, caps, etc handy on those wire shelves, holding the edges of fabric or paper together, for cutting or just until I'm ready for the next step. If I'm using a recipe card, I use them to hold the card on a cabinet door handle, so it doesn't get lost and is easy to see. Of course, holding bags closed &/or together. John uses them to anchor bags in place, in the sous vide, so they don't float around. And, I've used them to make decorative garlands & as a clip to attach flat ornaments to Christmas trees, seasonal wreaths, hanging herbs to dehydrateand, and of course, I've used them for hanging clothes to dry, inside and out.

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Nina Surya

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I'm a "wooden clothespins only"-gal, and frequently use them for all kinds of things, including holding clothes as they dry.
Most of the uses have been mentioned already, there's only one more left: in the springtime as I'm re-potting seedlings, if I run out of labels I use wooden clothespins with the name of the plant written on it with a sharpie, clipped to the edge of the pot

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Anne Miller

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Clothespins are handy for a lot of things, like closing a bag of chips ....

I use mine mostly for handing clothes out on the line ...

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Re' Burton

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I love clothes pins but was the recipient of about 200 large bankers clips, which are a chip eater's best friend. I also use the bankers clips to hold up the plastic on my poly tunnels, a quick fix to floppy chicken wire, hold the shade cloth in place on cow panel arches, and there is enough room to prop up vines inside them while holding a trellis. The last batch of clothes pins that I purchased are terrible plastic ones that cannot hold thick things on the clothes line. I will seek out old-timey wood ones again.

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Jay Angler

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Re' Burton wrote: The last batch of clothes pins that I purchased are terrible plastic ones that cannot hold thick things on the clothes line. I will seek out old-timey wood ones again.

I simply won't buy plastic ones as even if they do a good job in the short term (some do, some don't), they solar degrade too quickly and fail me when I'm counting on them most.

However, I have struggled to find good quality wood ones that still have a decent spring in them, like my Mother used for decades. I broke down and bought a package of stainless steel ones. We haven't looked back. Yes, they're pricey, but they're tough and last. I gave a package of them to my sister for Christmas one year (the one that's *really* hard to buy for - I'm suspicious that every family has one of those types?) The next year I asked her what she'd like for Christmas and she asked for another bag of them!

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Josh Hoffman

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Jay Angler wrote:
I broke down and bought a package of stainless steel ones. We haven't looked back. Yes, they're pricey, but they're tough and last.

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Anne Miller

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I just remembered, I smashed a scorpion that was coming into the house when I went to take out the dog. Clothespins were the only thing handy and I did not want to get bitten.

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Jennie Little

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I use them to hang the paper bags I use to dry herbs.

At the end of summer, when my lunch bags of drying herbs far exceed the amount of hooks, etc. I have, I hang plastic chain instead.

Then, I clip bagged herbs to the chain with clothes pins. What's in the bags is written on the bottom. When the herbs are removed, the leaves are stripped in jars, the stems go into the kindling box (or fire starters), the paper bags into the wood stove's paper bin and the chain and pins are put away until needed the next time.

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Kristine Swaren

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"If I'm using a recipe card, I use them to hold the card on a cabinet door handle"... My dad got tired of seeing clothespins on door handles, so he made a recipe card holder for my mom. I don't have a photo, but it was pretty simple - a base piece of wood about 4" square (could be round too), an upright dowel to a convenient reading height, cut at a 45-degree angle at the top, and then a clothespin glued onto the angled bit so the clamp part pointed upwards.

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Tereza Okava

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i also use them for everything! when i visit houses of people who do not hang their laundry, i'm often scrambling for something to use for whatever silliness i'm getting up to. Now in sewing people are often using small clamp type clips instead of pins, and between them and office bulldog clips I usually can cover my bases, but my kitchen and office are full of clothespins. I have a few "nice" ones (covered wire) that I can even throw in my luggage, because you just never know.

Deane Adams

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I have the newer kind with the springs that I use indoors and outside. I have set aside the really old one piece pins with the slot and button top. Don't know why, someone may like them one day !

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Douglas Alpenstock

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I find regular clothespins far to wimpy (or the ones you can buy these days anyway). I no longer have an outdoor line, so they have all long expired and gone away.

OTOH I use binder clips extensively. These last forever and are very strong. I get a lot through my work and find big bags at thrift stores for $2. Talk about durable goods -- they even live in my car camping kit. They will rust if left outside though.

There are alternate uses for regular clothespins, but this is a family forum.

Jill Dyer

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Eons ago, as kids we used the wooden split type with the knob on top to make clothespin dolls. Today, I have, ashamed to say, the plastic type with a spring. Used to hang laundry, both inside on the clothes airer and outside on the hoist ( we hang our laundry out in squares on a gadget that rotates - space saving and no need to run around the line.) I didn't think I had any other use - then I went looking for the bag of epsom salt, and found the top was closed with a clothes pin, aka a peg.

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Riona Abhainn

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Yes to chip clips, and yes to forts when we were kids. I assumed everyone did these things too haha.

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