Reuse A Common Pantry Item For A Budget-Friendly Planter Drip Plate

It's a lovely sunny day, and you've just come home from a trip to your local nursery or garden center. You had a lovely relaxing time walking around and admiring all the pretty plants. Just before heading out, these cute little succulents caught your eye, and you just had to have a couple of them. As you bring your newfound treasures inside, you're not all that happy to put those 4 ½ inch nursery pots directly on your antique dining table, but you don't have any saucers that small, which wouldn't look out of place. Fear not! Just like you can use common household items to turn into beautiful planters, all you have to do is head to your pantry and look among the snack section to see if you have any Pringles. If you do, you've just found the perfect budget-friendly planter drip plate.

The plastic lid that's normally on top of a Pringles tube is the ideal size for placing directly under your teeny pots to help protect your table from getting scratched by the nursery pot or the plant leaving a dirt trail. Those plastic lids that would normally end up in the garbage have the perfect second life, protecting your precious wooden surfaces. And it's not just Pringles lids that will work –- if you're a fan of Lays chips instead, those lids are also perfect. Just make sure that you don't make a common saucer mistake that could kill your houseplants, and that is to leave excess water just sitting in the drip plate, especially if those precious plants are succulents.

While those Pringles lids are perfect for really small pots, what about if you've just potted up a few plants you've propagated into slightly larger pots? Head back to the pantry and start hunting through what you could possibly use. For instance, do you have coffee canisters that have plastic lids? These would work just as well if you can match the size of some with the size of the pots you have. Once you've exhausted the pantry, you might like to have a quick peek into the fridge.

You probably have some yogurt and sour cream containers that have plastic lids, which would work. What about those plastic lids that screw onto the jar of mayonnaise or peanut butter? Actually, any plastic lid that looks half-decent and will fit under a pot will work perfectly. Of course, now that you know this, you'll want to save all those plastic lids that you used to throw away. Grab yourself a nice basket to store them in, or use one of those fabric holders that used to house plastic bags. You could even ditch the clutter and adopt a clever space-saving DIY storage idea instead, using a slinky and a lazy Susan.