Gum or Mints? Personally, I prefer mints any day of the week. Growing up, my mom always had Altoids in her purse. Her favorite were the cinnamon flavored ones. This is probably the reason why when I think of mints, Altoids always pop into my head. I still can’t quite handle the cinnamon ones though, so I tend to stick with peppermint or wintergreen. Some of my favorite brands of mints are Altoids, Ice Breakers, and Mentos NOW. One problem I have though is that I hate throwing things away when I could find an alternative use for them. Since I always have mints on me, I end up with so many empty tins. With all them, I figured there must be a way to reuse them. Here are 5 ways to give new life to mint tins:
1. Mini First Aid Fit
I started making these back in 6th grade and have carried one with me ever since. The best part’s that it’s the perfect size for a regular-sized band-aid. Here’s what’s currently in mine:
- 4 band-aids
- 3 safety pins
- 3 cough drops
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2. Mini Sewing Kit
Sewing’s a hobby and skill I keep telling myself to start doing. Besides sewing a pillow in 4th grade and attempting to fix a hole in my pajama pants freshman year of college, I have very limited sewing knowledge. Trust me, I’m no Betsy Ross. I’ve always been told to have a sewing kit on me though and it actually gets more use than I would’ve thought. A mint tin’s a great size to carry some thread and needles in just in case you or someone else ever need to fix something really quick.
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3. Headphone Holder
How many have you put your headphones in your backpack and the next time you need them they are somehow all tangled up in your pens. The Altoids Artic container is perfect for holding your headphones. You can wrap them up and they fit perfectly in the container. No tangles and no hunting through your bag. The next time you need them they’re readily available and you get listening to your music even sooner.
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4. Bobby Pin Holder
I used to lose my bobby pins like it was my job. Keeping them in a drawer was an option but whenever I needed one, boom they’d all be gone. Since I’ve started keeping them in a mint tin, they’re in one organized location and are always there. They fit great and with the tin they become super space efficient.
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5. Travel Earring Holder
Earrings are my go-to accessory and one of my favorite things to shop for. They require no dressing rooms and can be bought for relatively cheap, especially if you stop by Forever 21. The one thing I hate about earrings though is losing them, especially when traveling. Also, I never know which earrings to bring with me, so I just bring them all. If your earring collection is anything like mine, you might think wait how do I travel with all those? The answer’s an Altoid tin. It’s by far the easiest way I’ve found to transport earrings. I take my earring dish and just pour them all into one of my empty mint tins. It’s small, convenient and super portable.
Tip: I normally have three tins in my backpack: one for mints, one for headphones and one for my first-aid kit. It can get confusing when you have so many. My friends and I went to our school’s Dance of the Decades and I had brought my earring tin and my mint tin with me when we got ready. One of my friends brought a purse to the dance and had accidentally grabbed the wrong tin.  It turns out she had been carrying around all my earrings the whole night and not mints. Learn from my mistake and label your mint tins when you reuse them. I now put washi tape on mine to distinguish which holds what.