101 reuses for toilet paper rolls

these are cute:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/tp_roll.htm
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/binoculr.html

My cats love to play with paper towels rolls too. The cheaper the toy (FREE) the more they play with it!

thank you for all the tips.
How about using it with long telephone cords to help them stay untankled.

Use to pack small breakables......

put around wrapping paper rolls to keep it from unravelling.

My last dog loved to tear these up! They were her favorite play toy!

This may sound strange, but before I let the kids play with them I spray them with a disinfectant spray. That way if there are some germs on them, the germs are gone.

Many gardeners, myself included, place them around the base of planted leeks. This increases the growth of the tender, white, blanched part of the leek. The part most of us eat. You can also start you carrot seeds in tp rolls. When they've sprouted the entire roll goes into the garden. It will degrade as the carrot grows.

Believe it or not your local zoo would be glad to have all you can get. Also paper towel tubes, empty oatmeal boxes etc. They are given to animals as "enrichment" meaning it gives them a new thing to play with. Sometimes used to hide food to encourage foraging behavior. Just call the zoo and I'll bet they can hook you up. I'm a docent here and give all mine to the zoo and most of the other docents do too so that is a LOT of paper tubes. They get torn up so can always use more.

I just put mine in the recycling bin.

Susan said:

This may sound strange, but before I let the kids play with them I spray them with a disinfectant spray. That way if there are some germs on them, the germs are gone.

Click to expand...

With the Swine flu as a threat this is a very smart thing to do.
I save mine for fire starters, along with dryer lint.

Cat

They are great for wrapping small gifts.

I also place them around tomato plants when planting, to prevent cutworms from getting plants. Also around zucchini and cukes.

At our house, we smack the dogs on the head with the rolls. Drives em nuts, but they love it.:teddy2:

You can use empty toilet paper rolls to roll your hair. If you have shoulder length or longer hair, empty toilet paper rolls work perfectly. Use toilet paper rolls to roll you dry hair. You can use bobbie pins, or clips to hold in place. Leave it up for about an hour. When you unroll it, you'll have fuller, smoother, flowing hair, with soft curls at the bottom.

Turn toilet paper and paper towel tubes into kindling and logs for your fireplace. For fire starter, use scissors to cut the cardboard into 1/8-inch (3-millimeter) strips. Keep the strips in a bin near the fireplace so they'll be handy to use next time you make a fire. To make logs, tape over one end of the tube and pack shredded newspaper inside. Then tape the other end. The tighter you pack the newspaper, the longer your log will burn.

I use them to make spiderman 'web-shooters' for my DS's. First of all I paint them red, then draw on the web with black marker pen and finally coat them in watered down pva glue.

Other than this the children use them for junk modelling or they go in the recycling.

I have no kids and after having so many no shows for them when I offered them on freecycle, I just flattened and put in the paper recycling bin. Same thing with paper towel rolls.

You can also cut them up and put them in the compost pile. I do that occasionally also.

I remember exactly how, but my mom and I used to fashion kaleidoscopes out of paper towel and or toilet paper tubes. It was fun, easy and cheap and provided hours of enjoyment.

I'm sure you can rustle up a good craft project with them on the web.

dogmatix said:

You can also start you carrot seeds in tp rolls. When they've sprouted the entire roll goes into the garden. It will degrade as the carrot grows.

Click to expand...

Here is a good link that will give you a step by step description on how to do it. I think it's kind of a neat idea.http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2007/04/13/toilet-roll-seed-starter/

I save our TP rolls (I dont buy paper towels any more) and take them to the kids school they have a huge toddler and pre school program and can always use the empty rolls, some times I have oatmeal containers too for them.