Unusual Uses for Chopsticks

Not only are they great for eating delicious take out, they can be used for several other things too and the best part is they are free...kind of. If you work in an office, or live in house, I would bet dollars to donuts that you have a junk drawer full of ketchup packets, straws and probably chopsticks. When ever we get take out I always ask for extra chopsticks which end up in the junk drawer. Well if you ever wondered what else you could do with them here are a few uses that you might find useful.

<Cue cheesy infomercial voice> Has this ever happened to you?!?! This is probably the #1 way to ruin my morning routine. It seems like if my coffee filter falls in to the coffee grounds I can pretty much assume the rest of my day will be horrible. Sadly I don't realize the coffee filter has failed me until I take a nice big gulp of coffee and coffee grounds, nobody likes chewy coffee. Well I no longer have to worry about that happening. I just took a pair of chopsticks and measure across the width of my coffee filter holder, I make a mark and cut both to length. The next time I make some coffee I add my coffee grounds to the filter then I push down the chopsticks one at a time in an "X" pattern to secure the coffee filter to the walls. (Bonus chopstick fact: you know they are food safe because you put them in your mouth)

I recently started to let my kids work on small projects with me in the shop. I'm convinced all kids like to hammer on things but a slip of the hammer on to a little thumb or finger can be a painful lesson to learn. Using a pair of chop sticks as a nail holder is a great way to make sure little fingers don't get accidently crushed. Simply place the nail in the chopsticks and slide it up the gap until it is snug.

Now the chop sticks are holding the nail while the fingers are a safe distance from the hammer head. If the little one is not quite coordinated enough to hold the chopsticks while also hammering then the parent can hold the chopsticks while the little one hammers away. This tip keeps everyone's fingers safe.

Once the nail is set the chopsticks slide right out. I also use this when I am hammering really small nails that are hard to hold.

While this tip seems pretty obvious, I always keep a few sets of chopsticks in the shop for stirring up old cans of stain or small cans of paint. The slim profile and flat bottom of the chopsticks makes for a nice stirring stick. I also use chopsticks to mix and apply epoxy. I prefer to use the flattened type of chopsticks for mixing they seem to work the best but really any kind will do. I hope you enjoyed this Instructable and found at least one of the tips useful. I plan to enter the "Unusual Uses Contests" if you think this deserves a vote and are so inclined please vote for my Instructable. Thank you!