One of our cats is a serious trash hawk. Before if there was ANY piece of the trash bag peeking out from under the lid he would work at it and work at it until he had pulled it out and scattered the trash all over the floor. We put one of these around the top of the inner bin and trash bag and he hasn't been able to successfully cause a mess since. Of course that doesn't keep him from trying. I've also been able to take some of the dry good boxes out of my extremely limited cupboard space wrap a couple of these around them and stack them on some open shelving. Doesn't hurt the ingredients to get bounced around the floor and I don't end up with dry oats all over the cats :).
I bought these Big Rubber Bands for home use but I can think of several uses for them also at work. At home the lock on my patio door wants to slip down and thus can lock me out if I'm not careful. I purchased these rubber bands and use one to secure the locking mechanism in place in both the lock and unlock positions. I simply put a knot in one end close to the end and slip it over the handle of the locking mechanism. Then I slip the big open end over the top of the handle in order to hold it in the unlocked position and then lock the door and slip the but open end under the bottom of the handle in order to secure it in the locked position. Works GREAT!
I use these larger rubber bands in all sorts of ways in my kindergarten classroom! Sets of books for reading groups cannot be organized better than with these rubber bands. Three different titles per week for thirty-six weeks...there's 108 just for reading groups! I also use them to secure student materials together including folders. The durability of this product is incredible...even after several years of use and in storage! Shoebox sized plastic storage boxes often lose the lid causing a spill of whatever is inside! The larger rubber bands are perfect for extra security.