The next time you have a party try this tip I discovered last night at a friend’s house. Instead of using a sharpie to label everyone’s paper cups, try a dry erase marker on your own plastic cups. The marker wipes off at the end of the night and you can wash and reuse the cups over and over.
If you don’t have many plastic cups, check Target and Walmart for end of the season clearance. I have been able to purchase plastic cups for under $0.25 a piece and they last for years. I never thought about using them for a large party until we were eating with friends last night. She just got out a stack of her plastic cups and labeled them with a dry erase. It works as well as the plastic cups and a sharpie, but it saves money over time since you aren’t replacing cups. Even those nice Solo cups crack after repeated use, plastic last forever.
I meant to take a picture, but in my vacation laziness I totally forgot.
Jen@Balancing Beauty and Bedlam says
You deserve some vacation laziness…
Now the cup tip is great unless your my children who hold the cup with wet hands and then it smears. 🙂
Mrs. White says
I never thought of using paper cups for company at a party. It’s certainly a very creative idea.
Blessings
Mrs. White
Amanda from Faith, Food and Family says
Great tip! When I was working at Mother’s Day Out we would write the names on sippy cups with sharpies (permanent marker) and we could get it off with hand sanitizer. You could test a small spot to make sure. But it’d be handy in case you don’t have any dry erase markers.
God bless,
Amanda
Angel says
Great idea. Can’t believe I never thought of that. We’ve been throwing away our plastic cups or letting the kids play with them. (We get them at all the mardi gras parades we attend) Now I’ll keep them cause I’ll know what to do with them.
Anne-Marie says
You can use permanent marker too. Despite it’s name, it’s not so permanent. If you can’t scrub it off with the sponge, you just use some rubbing alcohol on a cloth. Rubbing alcohol also removes permanent marker from white boards & microsuede furniture.
Rebecca says
You can also use sharpie on wine glasses…it washes right off with soap and water
Mary @Raising 4 Godly Men says
I always love your frugal tips. I sure miss you tons on TWT.
Blessings and ((HUGS)) my SSiC
In Him<
-Mary
Frugal Girls! says
I absolutely love that tip! We just had friends over tonight, and I wish I would have read this earlier! 🙂 Now I know for the future – thank you!!
Young Wife says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
L2L says
heck, I’m not waiting for a party!! this is the perfect way to end the where’s your cup, or who left their cup in here delima!!!! Thanks!!!!
TheHappyHousewife says
I agree, I think I am going to do this with my kids, since we usually have 23 cups sitting around the kitchen and no one to claim them!
Katie says
Great idea! As I was reading it I also thought of using the dry erase on glasses. My family doesn’t have any plastic cups (beyond sippy cups)so using dry erase or an overhead projection marker (are they the same??) would work great!!
Thanks for always sharing great tips!
God Bless,
Katie
Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Very enviro-conscious tip! I love it!
Kerry says
Great tip, another idea is to buy stickers. We often use this technique. different colour spots, stars of you could go with a theme for kids, butterflys, teddies etc.
Christina says
Ugg I only have 2 kids and they seriously will use 6 plus cups a day! DRIVES ME INSANE!
Nancy says
Great tip…we chucked paper plates long ago, but haven’t done as well with cups at grill-fests.
Don’t know if I should turn artsy daughter loose with markers on my wine glasses, though!
Intentionally Katie says
Genius! Some people…I tell ya. I don’t think of things like that on my own. I have to borrow other people’s grand ideas!
Bowmania says
well… I use a sharpie and plastic throw away cups.. so there 🙂 lol ….
like I said before….. for some reason my real cups get tossed if I use them, that or they end up in the fire (sorry Kristy) BUT you are right, that is a wonderful idea. 🙂
Emily says
It seems like the dry erase marks would get rubbed off accidentally. I usually do use a sharpie on a disposable cup, but once accidentally grabbed a wet erase marker. When people’s names started coming off as they used their cups (because of condensation), I checked the marker and realized my mistake.