12 Great Uses For Duct Tape

If you’re from the south you’re sure to have heard the saying that “anything can be fixed with a bit of duct (duck) tape and bailing wire.” I’m willing to go a step further and argue that you don’t need the bailing wire and the tape will suffice. The following is a list of uses for duct (duck) tape that I have either tried myself or wouldn’t hesitate to try in the future. 

1. Let’s start with the obvious choice (and one of its original uses) for duct tape: Duct tape is great to use to install air ducts to hold together multiple ducts.
2. This next one’s my mom’s signature use: when her hiking boots begin to fall apart with holes in the toes she busts out the tape. She uses the tape to wrap the toe of the boot in tape, making the hole water-resistant and the boot a southern engineering fashion statement of sorts. These we can call duct-toe boots, just one step short of steel-toe boots and definitely cheaper.
3. With all of the moving I have done in the past 5 years, duct tape played a huge part in making sure all my boxes made it from one place to the next without falling apart. The duct tape left on the packing boxes also helps remind me of the memories I have of each place the boxes (and their contents) have resided.
4. For everyone out there who has a pet or has been around someone else's pet we all know that most pets shed hair like there’s no tomorrow. Fortunately duct can come to the rescue: use it as a lint roller to remove all the hair off your clothes and furniture. Take a strip (about 6 inches long) and form a loop with it with the sticky side out. With your hand in the middle of the loop you can dab away at all that pesky hair left behind.
5. Duct tape can be used to repair your favorite backpack or suitcase. If the fabric is beginning to rip, take duct tape and cover the rip on both the inside and outside of the fabric section. Works just as well to fix and replace handles and straps on those favorite bags you have.
6. Use colored duct tape and a favorite crayon color (tape should match crayon color) to make a super-sized crayon that works. Using several empty aluminum cans stacked end to end, wrap the cans in the tape and form a cone at one end. wrap the crayon into the end of the cone so that the tip of crayon sticks out of the cone. Now you can go color in the lines with a crayon you’re sure not to break or misplace easily.
7. Duct tape makes a great art medium for those who can’t decide between sculpting and canvas art. My art endeavors with duct tape involved laying out multiple strips of overlapping duct tape on an old table and cutting/carving away the tape that I didn’t want. The result was a Horned Frog mural that I could tape to my dorm room door, personalized wall art at its finest.
8. Duct tape can also be used as a personalized fashion statement in various forms. With duct tape available in multiple colors you can make made-to-fit belts or suspenders that are sure to last longer than anything you can buy. A “stick-on” tie would be a new twist on a clip-on tie, but there won’t be any mistaking this tie for formal wear.
9. Duct tape is great for wrapping around splitting pieces of wooden furniture legs so you can keep those favorite pieces of furniture around for a bit longer.
10. With a few sticky-to-sticky side strips of the tape along with a few extra pieces for the fun of it, duct tape can become a personalized wallet. Leave a little bit of the sticky part exposed inside the wallet; it may just save you from spending that elusive money we all can’t seem to have enough off.
11. One of my personal favorites is I made a case for my billiard cue sticks. With an empty Pringles can, sheets of paper, old belt buckle, a backpack strap, and of course duct tape, I have a 2 and 1/2 foot long case that can hold at least two cues and a few accessories. With black and white stripes and floppy when empty it has been deemed “the sock”.
12. Last but not least, add duct tape to your school supplies list: use it to repair old binders, folders, book bindings, and even make book covers to protect whatever is still left on any of those sometimes outdated textbooks.

Justin Bird, UBC & TCU Grad, Class of 2011