15 Genius Ways To Repurpose Leftover Balloons Around The House After A Party

Balloons are a fun and colorful way to bring a party to life. Not to mention, they're versatile. They can be used to create decorative arches, for party games, and even as creative cake toppers. While there's no denying that balloons are fun, they can have a fairly negative impact on the environment. For example, it can take anywhere from decades to hundreds of years for foil balloons to break down. And, even though latex balloons are technically biodegradable, they can still take several months to decompose. If you're striving to reduce your environmental impact, you may be wondering how you can save those balloons from the landfill after your party. Fortunately, there are several genius ways to repurpose leftover balloons around the house and garden.

Party balloons don't have to be single use. By inserting a straw into the flap of a Mylar or foil balloon, you can deflate it and save it for another occasion. On the other hand, latex balloons generally cannot be reinflated because they start to fall apart and lose their elasticity once they've been used. That's not to say that they aren't still incredibly handy around the home for unique crafts, lighting, and even pest control. And, if you choose not to save your Mylar balloons for reinflation, they have their fair share of uses for upcycling as well.

Interested in a fun tablescape idea for summer dinners on the patio? Consider creating a beautiful lantern from an old balloon, tissue paper, glue, and faux candle. Wet the tissue paper so it sticks to the balloon, and then brush it down with glue to make it stick. When it's dry, add decorations to personalize it. For example, you could glue on pretty foil accents or even paint it with some stencils. When it's all dry, pop the balloon, place the candle inside, and enjoy your new light fixture.

Globes can be a stylish piece of home decor that gives your space a worldly feel. While one option is to purchase a globe to display in your home, you can also make one. To start, gather old newspapers, tissue paper, or whatever you have on hand for paper mache, and an inflated balloon. Once it hardens, take green and blue paint, eyeball a map for reference, and paint on the oceans and continents. Leave it at that, or take it one step further and add country names before you put your DIY globe on display.

When we use balloons to celebrate a big milestone like a birthday or graduation, it can be nice to have some type of keepsake or memento from the event. One excellent way to do this is to upcycle party balloons into a colorful framed keepsake. All you need to do is shred the balloons into tiny strips with scissors and then toss them inside a glass picture frame box. To personalize it, you can print out a card detailing what the balloons are from, or paint on the glass to remember the occasion.

Whether you're hosting Thanksgiving dinner, a birthday party, or a backyard barbeque, it can be tricky to keep track of which drinks belong to which person. While DIY wine charms can do the trick with stemmed glasses, they won't quite work for standard sized cups. A fun and colorful way to do this is to take an old balloon, cut it to widen the opening, and then attach it to the bottom of the cup. Then, you can either keep track of the cups by their colors or by writing names onto the latex itself.

If your lamps are looking a little dated, perhaps they're in need of new coverings. Fortunately, you can easily make one using yarn, wallpaper paste, and a large inflated balloon. Simply coat the yarn with the paste, and cover the balloon with it. Feel free to lay the yarn down randomly for an abstract look, or create unique designs. When it dries, pop the balloon and cut a hole in the bottom, both for you to remove the balloon from and also to fit the light through, and you'll be left with a fun, abstract lampshade.

Another genius way to repurpose leftover balloons is to use them to create giant ice cubes. All you need to do is add in flowers or other creative decorations, put the balloon over the faucet, fill it up with water, and leave it in the freezer overnight. You can then cut the balloons off and you'll be left with big spherical ice blocks that are perfect for decorating your ice bucket. After being surrounded by latex, the ice won't taste very good, so we don't advise putting them directly into your drink.

Whether you're celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival or simply looking to create some beautiful decor, you should give this balloon and plastic water bottle upcycle a try. Use a razor to slice vertical cuts up the sides of the water bottle all the way around it, taking care to leave the base of the bottle intact. Then, slip a red balloon inside, blow it up, and both the bottle and the balloon will expand into a lovely festive lantern. Then, feel free to decorate and hang it up.

While it's true that you can re-inflate Mylar balloons, that doesn't mean it's the only way to repurpose them! Since these balloons typically come covered in flashy and festive colors and designs, they're perfect for upcycling into gift bags. All you need to do is take some scissors and cut the balloon into wide strips. Then, hot glue the pieces together to form the bag. To give it a handle, punch holes near the top, and tie on yarn, twine, or ribbon.

Even if you've spent years carefully curating a special collection of Christmas ornaments, there may come a time when you're looking to change it up a little. Even though there are many different ways you can DIY upcycled Christmas ornaments on a budget, sometimes coming up with a whole new set for your tree just may not be feasible. One way to circumvent this is to cover your ornaments in latex balloons to change up the color scheme without needing to buy any new ones, or altering any that you already have.

Mylar balloons can also be used to create flashy and exciting cards. Simply cut them up, and glue them to cardstock or basic stationary. The foil of the balloons can also be used for scrapbooking and journaling. Latex balloons aren't quite as handy for decorating cards with, but you could certainly cut them into circles, glue them to cardstock, and add yarn or twine for strings to cleverly depict mini balloons made from real ones on the cards.

There are a lot of reasons you may want to repel birds from unwanted areas around your home and garden. You might want to protect them from flying into windows or keep them away from your crops. Whatever it may be, Mylar balloons can be the perfect solution. All you need to do is cut the balloon into strips and hang them where you don't want birds to go. The shiny, reflective material should deter the birds and keep the at a distance.

On top of being a little creepy, cockroaches also carry all sorts of diseases, and they're one of the last insects someone wants to find crawling around in their home. One of the most common ways that roaches can get inside is by climbing up the drain. To fix this, you can use old latex balloons as drain covers to keep the roaches from popping out of the pipes. Just cut the balloon open to widen it, and then put it over your drain cover.

Even if we try to go as long as we can without washing our hats, eventually there comes a time when they're due for a good cleaning. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in the hats losing their shape. To fix this, blow up an old balloon, and place the hat on top once it's finished washing. Leave the hat on top of the balloon until it's fully dried. The round shape of the balloon should work to keep the fabric of that hat in place so it can dry in its original form.

We all know the struggle of trying to clean the bathroom sink when the faucet only sprays straight down. While some of us might use our hands or a cup to splash water on the sides to rinse the bowl, there is an easier way. Take a balloon, and put the mouth of it over the faucet of the sink. Then, cut a small hole in the bottom to control where the faucet sprays. That way, you can easily spray and rinse down the top and sides of the basin to make for much easier cleaning.

Old latex balloons are also perfect for creating fun art pieces. All you need is a canvas and some glue. Feel free to either cut the balloons into small pieces, or use full deflated balloons. Decide what shape of art piece you want to create, like a heart, star, or maybe something more detailed. Then, place glue down on the canvas everywhere you want the balloons. Finally, lay the balloons onto the glue to fill in the design. Hang it on your wall, and enjoy your new sustainably friendly abstract artwork.