Simple office clips have many creative uses

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Sunday, May 29, 2016 | 2 a.m.

They may look humble — just bits of office paraphernalia, no more exciting than sticky notes or a stapler. Ah, but the things you can make with binder clips. The black-and-chrome clamp thingies can be used for stacking bottles, keeping earbuds untangled, holding smartphones and so much more.

Here are 10 hacks that may give you new appreciation for the simple clip.

1. Power-cord holder

Clamp binders to the edge of a desk so the handles face away from it. Thread the cord ends through the wide part of the handles, nearest the jaws of the clamp. Once the ends are through both handles, pull the cord back so it goes through the narrow area in the openings. Assuming ends of the cords are wider than the loops on the handles, the cord can rest in the clamp. For cords with large ends that won’t fit through the handles, it’s necessary to unhook the handles, place the cord on the back end of the clamp and then reattach the handles around the cord. Sound complicated? Not as complicated as a mess of cords.

2. Earbud caddy

Open the binder around the cord, then let the buds slide through until they come to rest on the edge of the clamp. Then wrap the cord around the handles and thread it through the loops. Buh-bye, life-ruining knots.

3. Calendar or notepaper holder

Clamp a binder around a calendar or pad of notepaper, and hang it on a nail or tack by one of the handles. A pen can be perched on the top of the clamp, or hung through the loop on the other handle.

4. Money clip/key fob

Fold bills around credit cards and use a binder to keep them clipped. Then remove one handle, thread your key chain or car fob through it and reattach.

5. Pants hanger

Position two large binder clips over the bar of a clothes hanger so the handles point upward. Clamp the binders on the bottom hems of a pair of pants, and the pants can be hung without draping them around the bar. No more creases at the knees!

6. Chip clip

Why buy a schmancy clip for your potato chips when you can put a binder on that unruly bag?

7. Smartphone holder, Version A

Using a medium binder, swing the handles down below the jaws and press them together at a 45-degree angle. Then take a large binder and clamp it on the handles of the smaller one. Adjust the angle so the two binders form a cradle for the phone.

8. Smartphone holder, Version B

Clip binders at either end of a piece of stiff paper or cardboard 4-5 inches long. With the handles pointed away from the center of the paper, a phone can be nestled in the openings of the top handles. (Yes, phones like to be nestled.)

9. Smartphone holder, Version C

Clamp a small or medium binder around a phone-charger cord so the prong sticks up through the jaws of the binder and the cord comes out one of the open ends. Remove the handles. Then clamp a bigger binder around the smaller one, positioning the jaws of the bigger one just under the jaws of the smaller one. Remove the handles and plug the phone into the cord. The binders will form a base for the phone to stand vertically.

Bonus: Bottle stacker

If you have a wire grate in your refrigerator or cupboard, binders can be used as braces to stack bottles on their sides in a pyramid fashion. Just make sure to clamp the binders around the grate so that the bottom handle rests on top of the grate and the other one sticks up. Then you’re on your way to a proper beeramid.