If you’ve ever used a travel baby wipes container, you know they come with a nifty plastic lid that opens and closes and keeps the diaper wipes from drying out. I love these lids, but I don’t love throwing the empty wipes containers out. I started separating the lid from the bag and putting the lid in the recycle bin, but even then the teacher in me had a hard time seeing such a versatile piece of plastic go to waste! So, here are some brilliant ways to repurpose baby wipe lids instead of tossing them.
Take a look of these clever ideas that you can do with old wipes containers. The next time you have these flip lids, you’ll have some creative ideas and new uses for them. We are trying to cut down on our plastic waste so this is the perfect way to reuse the plastic. Small children will strengthen fine motor skills as they open and close these lids and it’s a brilliant idea for developing language skills and vocabulary. Give one of these DIY projects a try.
Open/Close
This is a great way to teach the concept of open/close to your little one. My little man is 14 months and he is in quite an open/close obsession at the moment. He loves to have one of these lids from an empty baby wipe container in the car, at the grocery store, or if we are quietly waiting somewhere. I tell him “open” or “close” as he plays with it to help him learn these words.
Stack
If you have multiple wipes lids saved up it is fun to stack them together and try and peel them apart. My little one loves a challenge like this. It’s a good use for just a few of these lids.
Sensory Board
Place several of these lids onto a piece of thick paper and glue soft and colorful fabric, coarse sandpaper, bumpy materials, sticky glue, etc. of all different textures inside the lids. They’ll love opening each lid and feeling the textures inside! Talk with your child about what they are feeling, i.e. “Oh that sandpaper is rough!” That is the best way to develop vocabulary.
Peek-a-Boo Boards
This is probably the most versatile idea and our favorite way of using these lids. You could use it to teach things such as colors, shapes, emotions, food, sign language signs…the possibilities are endless! Glue a lid onto a piece of paper. Write a word on the outside and on the inside of the lid have a picture or other representation of the word. Little man and I made one for the color blue because we’ve been doing all kinds of fun activities related to blue.
For older children, you could use this idea to teach other concepts such as letters, numbers, seasons, opposites, plants, animals, state capitols or abbreviations, science terms….and so on…. really anything.
Family Pictures
Using the same idea as the Peek-a-Boo Boards, your child can have fun opening and closing lids with pictures of loved ones underneath. Encourage language by talking together about who it is and something special about that person.
DIY Advent Calendar
These things just seem like they would make a pretty huge, awesome advent calendar around the holidays! If you can save up enough lids (which I am sure you can), your kids would have a blast opening one a day during the Christmas season. Cover them with Christmas paper or spray paint them and glue onto a huge poster board. Have your kids decorate it like crazy with kids’ craft supplies! What a creative way to count down to Christmas.
Change Purse
I stuck two of these lids back-to-back and noticed it made a pretty nice little change purse. I actually didn’t even need glue because the lids are so sticky and it was the perfect size! It’s held up for a few days already and it is pretty handy to take for walks in the stroller when I just might want to get a coffee. If you have a little princess in the house, glue some yarn onto it to make a strap for the purse. Have her decorate it with jewels, googly eyes, glitter, pompoms, or whatever else you may have in the house! What a genius idea!
We hope you have found the perfect solution for repurposing baby wipe lids. Turn an empty wipe case into a cool new activity for your toddler.
You can also repurpose old baby clothes, especially the ones that make you sentimental! Check out Empirical Mama for ways to use them again!