Getting crafty with restaurant cups

We have accumulated quite a collection of kids’ restaurant cups over the years. I don’t like leaving them just in case they get thrown away and wasted, and they work really well for things like bath toys, tooth-brushing cups and guest cups. We have a lot of visitors, so they get put to good use—but there still seem to be an overabundance of cups around here. Thankfully, we've found plenty of ways to use them up. Here are some ideas for your restaurant cups.

Nail them to a board and make a water wall. Add other containers, like soda bottles, or even tubes to make it even more fun! We've had ours for over a year now and it’s been a source of fun for my daughter as well as her guests.

Fill them with treats, candy or small toys, wrap them with cellophane or tissue paper, and deliver them to hospitals, live-in care facilities or friends.

Grow plants in them!

Use them in sandboxes, dirt piles and fairy gardens.

Use them to hold things around the house—we have a couple in the hallway as chalk holders for our chalkboard, and one in the office that holds paint brushes (and doubles as a water holder when we paint).

Use them to make play phones—attach string to them like you do with tin cans.

Stack them for building castles or games, as you would plastic cups.

Use them as shakers. Fill one up 1/3 of the way with beans or lentils, then glue and tape on another on top to make an egg-like shape and shake!

Photo courtesy of Sara S.