Thirteen Uses for Ice Cube Trays | Family Economics

By Trisha

Are ice cube trays becoming an old-fashioned kitchen item at your house? If so, it’s time to re-purpose and re-use them.

Don’t toss out your ice cube trays just because you now have an automatic ice maker in your freezer. There are a lot of great uses for this old-fashioned kitchen item.

Here are my top 13 ideas:

• Fruit juice ice cubes – Pour your favorite fruit juice in the tray and place in the freezer to make a summer treat for your kids.

• Frozen gelatin ice pops – Freeze gelatin for another fun treat for the kids. Click here for the recipe.

• Snack tray – Fill each opening with kid-friendly snacks such as fish crackers, raisins, grapes, carrot sticks, cereal, etc. This is perfect for little fingers and makes a fun serving dish.

• Cookie or cupcake decorating – Fill an ice cube tray with various sprinkles and candies to decorate frosted cookies, cupcakes or ice cream sundaes. This is perfect when hosting a child’s party.

• Lemonade cubes – Pour lemonade into the ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, add to your glass of water for a refreshing taste.

• Spices – Freeze your fresh garden spices for the winter. Just add the spices and a bit of water to the tray.

• Cookie dough – Scoop cookie dough into each ice cube compartment and freeze then pop out and place into Ziploc® Brand Freezer Bags. You now have the perfect size cookies ready to bake.

• Iced coffee – Pour your leftover coffee into each ice cube compartment and freeze. Now you can use them to make frozen coffee drinks.

• Jewelry – Organize and store your rings, earrings and necklaces to keep them from getting tangled or lost.

• Paint holder – Pour different colored paint into each ice cube compartment for mess-free painting with the kids.

• Craft organizer – Use to organize small craft supplies.

• Office supplies – Place an ice cube tray inside your desk to help contain your supplies such as paper clips, pushpins, rubber bands, etc.

• Dad’s work bench organizer – Store nails, screws and miscellaneous tiny things to keep dad’s work area clean and organized.