Foldback clips are one thing I’d never give up
31.10.2025
Translation: Katherine Martin
Pictures: Stefanie Lechthaler
Small but mighty – and multi-purpose must-haves. Here are five ways you can use foldback clips in everyday life.
In a moment of weakness ten years ago, I went on an office supplies buying spree, and ordered 20 packs of foldback clips, containing 10 each. Don’t ask what possessed me to do that.
Yet to this day, I don’t regret this impulse purchase one bit, because these tiny treasures have become multi-use must-haves for me. I’m always discovering new purposes for them. Here are five of my favourite hacks.
1. A stylish picture frame for a small budget
The large office clips not only add pizzazz to my stack of tax return documents, they also provide an elegant, minimalist frame for pictures and photos. The clips are perfect for large posters, as picture frames big enough for these are often incredibly expensive or hard to find.
And there’s more – the clips can be transformed into a clipboard in no time at all using a magnet. Whether it’s notes or unpaid bills: I hang everything I mustn’t forget right in front of my nose on the refrigerator door.
2. Corralling cables
If dangling cables are spoiling my otherwise well-organised desk, I quickly grab a clip. I can use it to bring order to the cable chaos. Sure, I could do the same thing with cable ties. But these aren’t nearly as easy to remove as my favourite clips when I need the individual cables.
3. Practical bedside cabinet solution
So I don’t have to scavenge under the bed for my charging cable before going to sleep, I’ve used an office clip to fashion a cable holder on my bedside table. How did I do this, you ask? I loosened the movable metal arm loops, pulled the power cable through them, and reattached the loops to the spring steel body. It’s as simple as that.
4. Warding off compost thieves
As much as I admire the crows in my neighbourhood for their ingenuity, the mess they leave behind when they rummage through the green waste for food really gets on my nerves. Fortunately, my friend recently had the ingenious idea of closing the compost bucket with foldback clips. Since then, there’ve been no more eggshells and vegetable scraps lying around.
My dear crows, you’ll just have to use your ingenuity to figure it out.
5. Keeping your crisps crunchy
Because I have so many clips, I really do use them for everything. These clips can also stop the contents of your bag of crisps going soft once open. Roll up the bag, put a clip on it – and you’re done!
A bonus tip: Advent calendars
The metal clips not only look good in the kitchen, but also under the Christmas tree. As you must have gathered by now, I’ve become slightly obsessed with collecting them. Last year I even had the idea to use them to seal the paper bags for an Advent calendar. Twice as handy: I used the foldback clips to hang the individual gifts on strings, and they looked good to boot.
Do you have any other tricks? Leave your foldback clip hacks in the comments.
Header image: Stefanie Lechthaler
Painting the walls just before handing over the flat? Making your own kimchi? Soldering a broken raclette oven? There's nothing you can't do yourself. Well, perhaps sometimes, but I'll definitely give it a try.
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