Cool uses for velcro fasteners?

May 5, 2012 12:47 PM

Cool uses for velcro fasteners?

I was inspired by a Lifehacker article to buy a pack of Velcro fasteners (adhesive on one side, velcro on the other) so I could easily stick and unstick things.

There must be lots of other cool / useful examples where this would come in extremely helpful but for some reason I am having a mental block.

Anyone have any examples they use, or just ideas?

posted by inbetweener to home & garden (14 answers total)

Remote controls on the wall.
posted by hypersloth at 12:50 PM on May 5, 2012

Haha, I just picked up some velcro for the SO. He uses it to stick his guitar pedals (stomp boxes) to his pedal board.
posted by Glinn at 12:50 PM on May 5, 2012

Attaching your GPS to your car's dashboard --- much less obtrusive than those suction-cup holders. (As far as a thief is concerned, the sight of either an empty suction-cup holder or the ring it leaves on the inside of the windshield means exactly the same thing: Break In Here, We Have A GPS For You.)
posted by easily confused at 12:59 PM on May 5, 2012

Also flashlights stuck to walls or inside a cabinet or whatever convenient places so you don't have to fumble around for them in the dark.
posted by hypersloth at 1:05 PM on May 5, 2012

You can use it to hide a spare key behind a gutter or inside the "roof" of your mailbox or under the sofa in the lobby of your apartment building (SHHHH DON'T TELL).
posted by argonauta at 1:16 PM on May 5, 2012

When I was in high school and had a beat-up old car with a dashboard clock that didn't work, I covered the area above the glove compartment with velcro and stuck a full-sized wall clock to the dashboard.
posted by XMLicious at 1:19 PM on May 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

I have used Velcro to earthquake-proof my pet mice (stick the cage to the top of a filing cabinet that was anchored to the wall) so that's a thought if you are in the very specific situation of being a pocket pet owner in earthquake country. Probably also useful if you have both pet mice and pet cats.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 2:27 PM on May 5, 2012

Another cat-related use: cats love to chew on the fuzzier side of velcro, and it does a super job of cleaning their teeth. I attach pieces to their toys, brushes, and places where they hang out. When I trim their nails, I give them a strip of velcro to chew on for distraction.
posted by Corvid at 3:20 PM on May 5, 2012 [3 favorites]

Do you have a workshop/hobby area? You can use small jars (like babyfood-sized jars) to keep screws/nuts/bolts/beads/sequins/whathaveyou sorted, stick a piece of the velcro on the jar lids, then stick the jars to the underside of a shelf --- keeps small objects neat and handy, but doesn't waste counter space. Also works in a kitchen for spices.
posted by easily confused at 3:55 PM on May 5, 2012

I use velcro to attach pencils to the music stands my kids use in class; the sound of all the kids un-velcroing the pencils and writing what I just asked them to do in their music more than outweighs the costs of the pencils and bulk Velcro.

I got the idea when the gym I go to did the same thing on their curcuit weight machines so you could keep track of your workouts on a card easily.
posted by charmedimsure at 4:47 PM on May 5, 2012

I attached a power strip to the top of the back of the end table by the sofa so I can plug things in without crawling behind the sofa and table. I also velcroed the cordless phone to the top of the table so I can't knock it off anymore.
posted by artychoke at 5:50 PM on May 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

I attached my tv remote to the display on my elliptical. Also mounted my ATT U-verse receiver to the back of my wall mounted LCD TV to conceal it.
posted by PSB at 8:06 AM on May 6, 2012

My son sleeps in a loft bed and velcroes his iPod to the wall just above his head every night (he uses his Pod as an alarm clock).
posted by cooker girl at 11:49 AM on May 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

cooker girl, that's fabulous! I also sleep in a loft bed and I'd never thought to do that!
posted by fiercecupcake at 12:25 PM on May 8, 2012