Readers Respond: Have you found a clever use for ice cube trays?

Responses: 82

By Erin Huffstetler, About.com Guide

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I keep ice cube trays stacked in a drawer for my jewelery. Each compartment contains a pair of earrings, a ring or a necklace. I can find what I want to wear in no time at all.
—Guest Elizabeth

That's a great idea! I freeze Iced Tea-cubes for same. Iced Diet Pepsi-cubes for same, Iced juice-cubes for punch; also when making crafts/jewelry, they're great to hold the beads or whatever small you're working with.
—Guest Lee

Wash tomatoes; grind them into puree; settle in tray freeze; and use whenever requierd
—Guest upinder

Want to keep delicious summer fruit like raspberries and blackberries but don't want them to freeze into a solid mass? Put some into the trays and freeze it. Then transfer to freezer bags or containers. Makes smoothies a snap and even makes a great frozen berry snack.
—Guest FruitMaster

When I have leftover soup stock I pour it into muffin tins, the new rubber ones are good for this, and freeze. Each compartment is about 1/4 cup, just enough liquid to use with some frozen vegetables for a nice vegetable soup.
—RoJoe

I use our mini ice cube tray as a liquid watercolor palette for my kids. I use the one from our mini fridge but a larger ice cube tray would work just as well too.
—Guest mom of 2

I like to use spring water in my cube tray and drop one seedless grape in each cube. Also frozen grapes are very good (take off stem before freezing) and are extra sweet, they do not stick together in the freezer.
—Guest spiritflowers

After harvesting my garlic and basil, I make huge batches of pesto and freeze in ice cube trays. When frozen, pop them out and store in plastic container. You can use one or as many as you need at a time.
—Guest MickieC

I use an ice cube tray for my medicine. I am a diabetic, so I take insulin and do blood glucose for blood sugar testing. So, i compartment my works for six days in advanced with all my stuff. alcohol swabs, needles, ( covered of course) and a sharps container to put them in.
—Guest Karen

I use my plastic ice cube tray for mixing my water colours in. When the left overs dry out I just add more water & reuse, no waste
—Guest berniceanne

When my boys were babies, I would freeze my homemade pureed baby food in ice cube trays, When we went out I would just pop them into the small baby food jars. Just heat & eat right in the jar.
—AuntyCookie

Freeze 1 egg white per ice cube holder. Pop them out when frozen and store in a ziptop bag. Then, when you need 1 or 2 egg whites, etc., for a recipe, defrost as many cubes as you need and proceed with the recipe.
—Barb.Rolek

I use them to sort my earrings and other misc. jewelry - they stack very nicely in the drawer to keep everything neat
—Guest Ruth

I make batches of simple syrup and freeze it so I can just pop the cubes into a batch of cooled, freshly brewed tea. Enough melts to cool the tea even further and sweeten at the same time and the last little sip is soooooo good! Even better -- add some flavor with a smidge of lemon or lime juice / grenadine. I've even frozen the leftover syrup from making candied citrus fruit and it's delicious! Just experiment to figure out the ratio of regular cubes to sweet cubes based on your preference / glass size / tea strength and add the sweet cubes first.
—BabyParentingGuide

Erin Huffstetler
Frugal Living Guide