14 Innovative Uses for a Colander in Your Home and Garden

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There are lots of great uses for colanders, but it turns out that not all of them are related to cooking. So, if you’re looking for something crafty to do with your kitchen tools or just have a lot of colanders sitting around collecting dust, we have some ideas to use them to their maximum potential.

You can use them for a multitude of purposes, such as home decor, holiday decorations, art, or general domestic usage. Just add a little paint, glue, dirt, or other items, and you can transform it from one thing to another. Some of the projects work better with metal colanders, while others work great with cheap ones from the dollar store. Once you’ve seen all the things you can do with an ordinary kitchen colander, you won’t look at it the same again.

One of the most common ways people repurpose colanders around their homes is by turning them into hanging baskets or planters for flowers or plants. After all, a strainer already has plenty of holes for drainage when watering plants. You can start this project with a mesh strainer or the type with large holes, which both work equally well.

Add dirt straight to the colander, though lining the vessel first for this project can be helpful. This is because lining the strainer with moss, a plastic bag, or small rocks will prevent the water and dirt from escaping through the holes, retaining the moisture so the soil doesn’t dry out.

If you plan to hang it, use the holes and handles that already exist in the strainer or drill extra ones to add hooks, chains, or rope to hang from a ceiling or beam. You can always take the components from an old hanging basket rather than going out and buying new parts for your kitchen tool. If you want to paint a metal strainer, metal spray paint is your best bet.

Turning a colander into wind chimes can be a fun project, especially if you take yourself thrifting to find all the components. You need a strainer, something to hang the colander with (like a rope or chain), pieces that will clatter together to make noise in the wind, and something to hang the chiming pieces. The simplest version would be to hang old spoons from the bottom of a strainer with a thin rope or chains. And there’s no reason you couldn’t add multi-colored beads to the ropes that hold your chiming components. You could also paint the pieces, if you’d like, with colors or decorations that match your decor.

We also like the idea of combining a hanging basket with your wind chimes. The hanging planter would go on top, and then you could add cutlery or other metal kitchen tools, like wire whisks, measuring cups, spice shakers, ladles, and cookie cutters, at the bottom to make a pleasant noise as the wind blows. Your wind chimes can be just as practical or whimsical as you’d like since there are all sorts of kitchen baking tools you can buy secondhand. Consider using stainless steel components so that rust doesn’t become an issue when you water your plants.

If you want to make a cement planter and are looking for a mold to use, a plastic colander might be the perfect solution. It’s the right shape for a planter, and the holes or vertical lines can make interesting designs for the cement piece. There’s a little prep required to get started. Start by taping over the holes on the exterior before you add the cement to prevent the wet cement from oozing out. 

Mix the cement with water until it reaches a pancake batter consistency. Add cement coloring pigment to the water if you want it a specific color, and if you want the interior to be another color than the exterior, make two different colored batches of cement. To lay the exterior cement, smear it on the inside of your strainer with gloved hands, thoroughly filling the holes before you add more liquid concrete inside. Ultimately, you want a layer that’s about two to three inches thick. 

Then, fill up the inside of the colander halfway with the cement you created for the interior. You’ll have to add a small plastic bowl and press down into the filling to create the cavity of the planter; it should be big enough to hold the soil and plant. Afterward, fill the rest of the colander around the bowl with wet cement. Be sure to smooth the top and clean the sides to help avoid cracking as it dries. After it’s dried for a few hours, remove the plastic bowl, the tape, and the external colander. Then, it’s ready to put dirt and your plant inside.

Another way to use a colander in the garden is to make a seedling tray. The fact that it’s mobile and has plenty of drainage for watering allows you to use it throughout the season in different settings. You can put it straight into the ground outside or move it between inside and outside as the weather changes.

It’s especially nice for doing staggered planting. One option is to start your seedlings in the colander and transfer them to the ground when they’re larger, keeping new seedlings going throughout the season. However, we’ve also seen people use it to keep salad greens going all year. As they use one head of lettuce growing in the strainer, they just plant some new seedlings to replace it.

To make the seedling tray, place some rocks at the bottom or use a hanging basket liner. Then, place potting soil in the colander and plant your seedlings. Water them regularly, wait for the seedlings to grow, and do what you want with them.

If you’re looking for unique and cheap light fixtures for your DIY kitchen remodel, a metal colander can add a lot of interest to your kitchen work area or dining area. Whether you’re doing swag or pendant-style lighting, a lighting upgrade is an easy way to make your kitchen look bougie on a budget. It’s probably easier to create than you think, too. 

The first steps are the same whether you’re doing a swag or pendant lighting. The biggest challenge is creating an opening in the middle of the colander to fit the cord from your swag light kit (like the Zarnicy plug-in pendant light cord on Amazon). Use a drill bit to enlarge one of the current holes in the bottom of the strainer and push it right through to connect to a light socket underneath. However, if the cord in your swag kit doesn’t disconnect from the socket, you may need to make a larger hole using tin snips.

For swag lighting, hang the cord from a hook on the ceiling, plug it into the outlet, and you’re done. For pendant lighting, you’ll need a light bulb adapter like the Uiouiop light socket to plug adapter that screws into your existing light bulb socket overhead and has a plug for hanging your cord.

If you’re looking for something different for decorations during the holiday season, you can turn two plastic colanders into a giant, lit decoration. The fact that it looks like an oversized tree ornament or pumpkin adds to its charm. If you don’t have enough extras lying around, Dollar Tree is a great place for kitchen supplies like plastic colanders for this project. 

You can either put a string of holiday lights inside or cut a hole in the bottom with scissors to put a solar light in the middle if you’re leaving the decoration outside. Use hot glue to keep the lights secured inside and to hold the two colanders together — top-to-top, to turn it into a globular-shaped decoration.

The next steps depend on which holiday you’re using it for. We’ve seen it spray-painted orange and turned into a jack-o-lantern, or turned into a giant holiday ornament. Hot glue is also handy for any decorations you might want to add on top, like a piece of wood as the stem for a jack-o-lantern, bows, sprigs of greenery, smaller round tree ornaments, and pinecones.

All the holes in a plastic colander make it a perfect base for an artificial flower decoration for inside or outside your home. We’ve seen this done both as a decoration for a flower pot or a hanging basket. The first option requires just one colander. You simply take your favorite artificial flowers and cut off all but the top couple of inches of the stems. Then, poke the flower stems in the holes to completely cover the colander. 

You can make it as sparse, dense, or varied as you’d like. You’ll be left with a mound of flowers. Once you’re done, just put the flowers into an empty pot or hanging basket to look like you have a bouquet of fresh flowers without all the work of growing and watering real ones. Another option is to hot glue two artificial-flower-covered colanders into a globe shape for hanging. However you do it, if you have some artificial plants that dangle down a bit like real plant greenery, it will make it look even more realistic. Then, place the arrangements as you would any other flower vases or hanging pots — outside or inside.

There are all sorts of options out there for holding yarn when crocheting or knitting. However, a colander is the perfect size to store yarn, even if it’s not rolled into a perfect ball. You can use any type, whether it’s metal or plastic, as long as it has holes or slots that are big enough to fit your yarn through. Simply put your yarn inside the strainer, feed the yarn through a hole from inside out, and you’re done. As you use the yarn, it will unwind easily without accidentally landing on the floor and unspooling everywhere.

Because of the colander’s size and the fact that it has multiple holes, you can even use it for multiple colors of yarn. So, if you’re doing a project that requires more than one skein, you can have different ones coming out of multiple holes in exactly the order you want them.

If you’re a strawberry fan and are looking for fruit decorations for your home, you can turn a red plastic colander into a giant strawberry. Once you’re done, it can sit as a pretty decor or hold anything you’d like, like your yarn.

It’s extremely easy but might take a little time because of the attention to detail. To make it, all you need is a red plastic strainer with holes, green felt, and a bright yellow paint marker like a Posca paint marker. Use the yellow marker to highlight around each hole and make them pop with color. Then, cut the green felt into leaves, hot glue it onto the edge of the colander, and your giant strawberry is ready. Use it as a cute decor around the house, add it to strawberry-themed gatherings, or store whatever you need it to hold around your house.

For a fun art project, try using a colander as a paint distributor. You can use it to make beautiful multi-colored abstract art with very little effort. It doesn’t matter if the holes are round or slots, as both options work nicely.

All you need is a working space, heavy paper or canvas, multiple paint colors, and a colander. Be sure to have something under the canvas to catch the paint overflow because it’s an entertaining yet messy project. Hold your colander over the canvas. Then, pour paint into it. You can either pour one layer of color after another or use a cup filled with various paint layers and swirl it around inside the colander.

When you’ve added as many layers as you want, simply lift the strainer and let the paint flow through the holes to create an abstract design below. You can shift the canvas in different directions to get the paint to mix exactly like you want, with excess pouring onto the protective surface below. Alternatively, you can put the canvas on a lazy Susan or other type of turntable and give it a spin to help mix the colors in interesting ways.

Another colorful art project is to use a colander for tie-dying a shirt. Colander tie dying creates unique patterns you can’t get any other way, using gravity to make the pattern. For this project, you’ll want to use the type of plastic colander that has slits instead of holes. 

Start by washing the shirt with dyer’s detergent and then soaking in a mixture of 2 cups of soda ash and 1 gallon of water. Place the colander upside down inside a tub. Then, twist your damp shirt into a spiral that will drape over the top of the colander. You’ll place dye powder in stripes along the top of the shirt. Then, you need to place ice into a bottomless container on top of the shirt, which will slowly wet the dye as it melts and drips through the strainer slots. 

After the ice is melted, allow everything to sit for 48 hours (or just 24 hours if over 70 degrees Fahrenheit). After you’ve rinsed out the dye with cool water, washed it in hot water and detergent, rinsed, and dried it, it’s ready to wear.

Colanders also make the perfect fruit baskets. However, if you have two, you can utilize vertical space to hold even more fruit in a tiered fruit basket. You’ll need a thick wooden dowel or decorative wooden spindle to stack the two bowls together. If the dowel or spindle is too tall, you may need to cut it down to size. 

If you want your tiered fruit bowl a specific color, paint the colanders and the dowel or spindle with food-safe paint before putting everything together. Then, you can use small wood to secure the dowel or spindle to the colanders. Screw several screws through the existing holes and into the wood from the bottom of the bottom colander and from the top of the top colander. Then, the fruit dish should be sturdy and ready to hold fruit both on the bottom and on top.

If you’re a colander collector, why not display your collection on the wall? There are multiple ways to do so, no matter what your collection looks like. Even vintage ones can be included in this art display.

Regardless of how you hang them, you’ll want to think about placement. One option is to hang your favorite one in the center and have others radiating around it. But you can choose another pattern of placement or simply hang them haphazardly in a way that looks best based on colors and sizes. You’ll also want to decide whether to face them so that you see the inside or bottom of the bowl.

If you decide to face the bottom of the bowls outward, try lighting the inside of the colanders. Get a set of LED lights with a remote control, like Lightbiz warm color LED closet lights, that you can mount on the wall underneath the colanders. When you turn them on with the remote, you’ll have a warm glow emanating from behind the holes of the wall colanders.

Next time you need to handwash some clothes, don’t forget that your colander can do double duty to help make the task a little easier. A strainer with holes helps you with the rinsing portion of handwashing so that your clothes come out less soapy. While you could rinse them in the sink or the same container you washed them in, using a colander keeps them from steeping in the soapy water that you’re trying to rinse off and keeps them away from any residue that might be in the sink. 

After you’ve washed your clothes with detergent, you’ll want to move them to a colander in the sink or tub. Then, use cool water from the faucet or use your dish sprayer to rinse them. The water will go right through the holes while the bowl holds them in place, and you’ll get a better rinse.