20 things to do with clothespins

Clip a dishtowel, hanky, or napkin around your child's neck and call him/her a superhero. Extra fun on the swings as it flies out behind.

Use a few to secure sheets, play silks, or other coverings over furniture to make a fort, then call yourself a great parent for cleaning it all up later.

Use two to secure a blanket over your older toddler's crib to make a 'tent' that is so fun that he/she won't risk getting out of bed and ruining it.

Set your child up with a box of them to help you match up socks in the laundry. The spring kind of clothespins are great at helping kids strengthen and refine use of muscles that are necessary for writing and using scissors.

Use the non-spring type (clothespegs) to make a happy family of dolls to entertain your children for long hours.

Interlock and hot-glue clothespegs together into a square trivet. Have your child paint it and give it to grandparents who won't be able to throw it away.

Set up a washing station in the sink or in a bucket outside with small things to wash and hang on a little clothesline. Kids LOVE this. (image via montessoriservices.com)

Glue clothespins onto magnets and use them to manage paper clutter (school calendars, photos, etc) on the fridge.

Use them to keep bags of chips, frozen vegetables, and other kitchen staples closed. Kick yourself for not thinking of it sooner since you've had a whole bag of them in the cabinet for years. Or maybe that's just me.....

Throw some in your suitcase when you're traveling to clip the hotel room drapes closed and make your room extra dark.

After you do the drapes, use clothespins to hold up a sheet or bedspread to make a tent over the porta-crib so your baby doesn't see you in the middle of the night and decide she wants to play with you while all you want to do is sleep.

When folding the laundry, use a clothespin to hold matching outfits together so your children don't dress themselves in plaid pants with a striped shirt.

Pour some heavy cream into a jar and throw in a nice clean clothespin. Have the kids shake shake shake it to make butter!

Hang up a length of clothesline and use clothespins to display masterpieces in watercolor.

Rather than an easel, set up a space on the wall with two clothespins (either fastened to the wall or using a clothesline) to paint said masterpieces.

Clip two spring-type clothespins to the bottom of a recipe card and use them like little feed to hold the card vertically.

Make lovely tissue paper butterflies using this pattern.

Use them to clip together sets of hair elastics for those two-pigtail kind of days. (image via darkfaerielibrarian.blogspot.com)

Use them to clip tiny baby skirts on tiny baby hangers.

Sing a clothespin song (to the tune of "This Old Man"):

Snap, snap, snap. one, two, three.
Clothespins all snap, look and see.
With a great big snap and little snaps too.
Hear us snap this song for you.