New Wargaming Hobby Items From Around the House 

TOOTHPICKS! I keep a box of 500 toothpicks (which is like $2 at Walmart) on my table. The 3 main things I use them for, apart from getting food out of my teeth, are: 1. Mixing paints B. They are great if you want to put superglue (gel works better) in a very small exact spot. Pour some glue in an old bottle cap then dip the toothpick in the glue to give you a really nice small bit of glue on a nice pointy, hard applicator to put the glue exactly where you want. III. painting small details. Space marine eyes are a great example, whittle/sharpen a toothpick into a flat fine point, lightly dip into paint, poke the space marine in the eye and you're done. Much easier I've found than a brush sometimes.

False nails - those ones that my daughters like to use - make great looking shields, suitably painted and glued to outside of vehicles, over the entrances of buildings, or to pimp up models bases.

Instead of $15 for fishing containers, go to the jewelry making department at Hobby Lobby, they have nearly identical containers for $2.

This guy's voice is like butter

fun thing about being a watchmaker is having really high level tools to make small thiungs with

If you're on a budget or simply don't have easy access to some of the things suggested in this video. Here are other solutions for storing minis and bits: - Small resealable plastic bags. They also take up less space than for example tupperware. You'll get the for example when buying electronics or even if you buy a new shirt or trousers, cause that's where the replacements buttons are kept. - Empty matchboxes - Empty ice cream containers If you want to, you can mark everything with sharpies or if you want to reuse them for different stuff buy a few franking labels and use these. A very unconventional idea for acquiring basing materials: If an electronic breaks on you and the warranty has expired, take a screwdriver and disassemble it as much as possible. Inside you'll find lots of interesting shapes. Afterwards take all the big stuff like the casing and use a side cutter to clip and rip the it apart. Again, you'll get lots of different, interesting shapes you can use as ruble.

I use Crown Royal bags for my dice. Free bottle of whiskey with dice bag purchase

I use bottles of artificial tears for my eyes because they get dry. When the bottle is empty it can be reused for flow aid or something. Just make sure you relabel it so you dont squirt flow aid into your eye...

It seems that your most valuable item is "infinite amount of storage room"

The poundland stores in the UK are awesome for cheap solutions. Not only can you get super glue, hobby knives, sponges (for terrain rocks), floor brushes (for terrain trees), clear resin (for water based terrain) and other tools, but you also get the segmented containers that Uncle Adam got from the tackle shop. They are deep enough for me to keep my Bolt Action miniatures in. 4 minis per segment and a piece of sponge to keep them from banging into each other too much in transit to the club.

Blu Tack. This thing is useful in so many ways. Got a siphon feed airbrush and want to seal them paint bottles that still have paint in them but they don't have any sort of cap? Blu Tack. Want to attach a mini to a cork for a savvy temporary painting handle? Blu Tack. Want to try a pose for a complicated kit before gluing it all? Blu Tack. Want to make some fancy camo on a vehicle using an airbrush but don't know how to mark out and mask complex shapes to get nice patterns? Blu Tack. Want to scrub some color here and there for a nifty weathering effect? Blu Tack. Want your overall hobbying experience to be a blissful journey of untarnished enjoyment? Blu Tack.

I have one! Empty sauce squeeze dispenser for water, thinner and pva glue :) And thimbles are great mixing pot for small amount of paint!

Cork sanding block from the DIY store. £1 each. Cut it up for cork stones for bases. Based an entire army with one and used about £0.25 worth.

I steal my wife's nail polish crackle effects for lava. throw down some orange/yellow a layer of varnish for protection and then apply the effect and boom! instant random cracked lava. Great for all kinds of details, lava swords/skin/spit. I used it on my blood letter swords and chaos ogres.

For stripping paint off small numbers of models, I recommend using salsa jars: they're short and have a wide brim, so you can get your hand in to remove models easily and you won't need to use as much Dettol (or similar) when soaking. They don't tip over as easily as taller glass jars and the resealable lid keeps the fumes contained.

IKEA candle accessories called "kulört". It makes excellent rocks and pebbles for terrain.

Earl Grey Tea...use as woodland debris on bases.

the wife's/girlfriends/mom's card nail files; they are super cheap and even come in different grades!

Off the top of my head: • prescription medicine bottles with locking lids, with some blu-tac, use them as paint handles • spice bottles, plastics jars • said before but bears repeating: toothbrushes, never through those away, wash them and store them for hobby uses • thick cardboard pieces, what ever size, useful for a disposable work surface • old t-shirts, cut them up into paint rags

I don't have a fancy vibrating jewelry cleaner, so when stripping models I put them in Simple Green and leave them on the dryer for a couple of days. Half a dozen loads of laundry later and they're good to go. I also use an old electric toothbrush rather than a manual one (for models that arent delicate)

Aquarium supplies. A great cheap source of terrain pieces and basing materials.

I have been binging your videos! You are like the "Bob Ross" of miniatures. Great content.

"Things you probbably already have" *pulls out food dehydrator* sure buddy ;)

I found a 400ft roll of coax cable (the stuff you use for your tv) for $5 at a thrift store. I strip out the copper and use it for pinning.

Daylight bulbs and a cheap desk lamp from local hardware store.

i bought bamboo kitchen draw inserts normally used for forks and knives. turn them on their side and they make great paint shelves

I use an old toothbrush quite a lot, it's great for getting little bits of plastic you have sanded off your mini and if you wash your minis first it's a handy thing to have. I also stole/was given my girlfriend's eye brow tweezers and they are useful for alsorts of stuff! Great video as always mate!

For a quick and extremely efficient paint shaker I use a jig saw and a tool speed clamp. You can either file the clamp into shape so that it fits into the jig saw. Or drill holes in the clamp and saw blade and connect them using nuts and bolts. There are several RU-vid videos on how to do this.

After Christmas, we picked up some Tupperware style ornament cases. Very cheap on clearance and they have moveable dividers so you can make whatever sized cell you want and they can be linked when stacking them. Great for army transpo.

Bamboo skewers. I use them to mix paint, sculpt green stuff, I've used them and poster tack ( or whatever you call it) to hold smaller fiddly bits for glueing and probably other stuff

For paint storage, I repurposed a cheap plastic three-tier lazy Susan that was originally used for makeup. It has six divisions per tier so I organize paints according to color family, metallics, washes, varnishes, etc. What I like about this setup is it eats up very little real estate on my table and easily portable when I need to move it all and use the space for something else.

I used a sandwich size Tupperware container to make my painting palette. I fold a paper towel into quarters and put it in the bottom with a piece of baking parchment on top. The paper stays wet for weeks at a time and is perfect for painting.

You can also get those "bitz boxes" at craft stores, used to organize floss for needlepoint or cross-stitch. Even cheaper than at a sporting goods store. I also use a pencil box to store tools like knives, files, etc.

I use the tupaware "tubs" for 2 different things: 1. Storing my magnetised weapons, got a different one for each squad so i can keep all weapon options handy for them, 2. Water/Palette, i havent yet got round to starting to use wet palette but the tupaware boxes work well to store water for washing brushes, while the lid itself makes a good dry palette. At least that way they both stay together :)

Makeup sponges for simple gradients. Paint your colors in lines on the sponge then dab it on (works best for larger, flatter areas).

I like to use old pill bottles or baby food jars to hold my minis while I'm painting them. They also double for storing various things for basing (small bits of leftover cork, crushed glass, etc..)

one of my best yard sale finds is this little device, often called a photo holder clip, or card holder clip. Its just an alligator clip, on a positional spring/wire thing, with a weight at the other end. Its great for holding little bits while you paint them, or for holding bits in place on larger models while the glue dries.

On the tubs front, if you get butter or sandwich spreads etc in tubs, those are endlessly useful. I've washed loads up for later storage, including spare bits and tea leaves for flock.

What you find in your Garden. Small stones, twigs, sand, moss all for free. My Bretonnian Green Knight stands on a small piece of wood that looks like an old Log. I am also currently thinking of starting a Sylvaneth Army in an Autumn/Ruins theme for the Bases, so small rectangular stones are important. For that, Stuff that Modeltrain people use is perfect, they got loads of great stuff on Amazon. I'm also thinking of a Skink-Skirmish Warband with a star motiv, but that is something else entirely. Both however are in the far future, first I have to paint Karl Franz and 8 Necron Warriors to complete my 1000p 40K list.

For organization and long term storage of bits, I go straight to the bead section of the crafts stores. The fishing box type containers are something I use for what I'm working on, but I use tiny plastic baggies for deep storage of spare bits to save space. My "nerding kit" paint carrying solution is actually a 1500 count plastic card storage box. I use nail buffers and files more than the pin files I bought for models now a days. 400 grit sandpaper as well. Also from the nail care section, I use clear polish for water effects.

Old jam jars for stripping metal miniatures using acetone. Fine wire brush used for cleaning suede shoes for a fairly gentle brush over after removing mould lines. I use an old plastic plastic sweet tub left over from halloween to wash off resin models.

The lure boxes are SO SMART because they are cheap and give us a consistent search term Thank you, good sir!

Raid the bathroom = make up brushes are good for drybrushing, make up sponges are good for weathering effects, Nail dryer also works in place of a small fan, Hair spray also for rust/weathering effects. Raid the kitchen = dryed tea bags for ground scatter, dryed coffee grounds for loose earth, baking soda for show effects. that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

Respect the last podcast on the left t-shirt, great podcast

I use food court serving trays for my projects and paints. They are perfect for models and if you spill your wash it contains that too!

Masking tape. When preparing parts of new figures, use a 6inch strip of tape to stick the parts of a model to as you work. Each trooper gets a strip, stops all the bits getting mixed up. Also you can fold the end of the tape and write a label on it like 'leader' or 'gunner'.

I use cheap small planting cells (used for planting seeds, normally in 5x3 cells and come in plastic or soft materials). I get a boat load for £1. I put them in my old starter boxes which fit 20 cells perfectly. I use them to transport models.

Nail art stensils are fantastic, you can get all kinds of designs and patterns on ebay for cheap and add designs to miniatures when painting. They also make lots of rhinestone shapes, i buy tear shaped ones for my bloodangels.

I've got a jeweler's lamp that came with a magnifying glass in it. The glass mostly just messed with my depth perception so I popped it out, and now I have a desk lamp that I can move aground that has a big hole in it that I can look at my models through while the light is shining straight down on them. Great for painting.

Hey Atom! Just found your channel a couple days ago and had to subscribe because you answered almost every question I had (and a few I didn't) keep up the great work! Can't wait to see more videos while I paint my Horus heresy imperial fists

And as always I love your channel Atom. Keep it up buddy!

Cigar boxes. I can carry opposing armies for 15mm DBA in one box. Flooring samples from Home Depot for elephant bases. Electrical outlet boxes make great industrial/scifi terrain. lava rock for gas grills make great asteroids.

My maybe $5 green floral foam block from Walmart has really paired well with my $2 set of alligator clips from Amazon. I haven't done very many miniatures, but my Gundam painting and building has improved dramatically by letting pieces dry on there.

Dollar tree rules you can get spackle foam board glue little tool organizers and in October all kinds of cheap Halloween stuff I made a cool chaos guard tower out of a plastic skull wine glass

A tip is to get friendly with the guys who work at your local tip/dump (or dechetterie en Francais) and ask them to keep an eye out for stuff you're after. My part time job is to look after the local dechetterie and our hobby area is pretty much made up from stuff I've rescued from work. Lots of little boxes mostly but I got some brushes for drybrushing and stuff that ruins brushes, paint palette is white bathroom tiles, got a big mug for water and my brush holder is made from pallet wood and clothes pegs from the tip. Last week I got a bendable vice thingy, already used for fixing my wife's glasses! Best of all my desk is actually made from wood rescued from work. Just ask, it's hardly difficult to keep an eye out for bits people are after. If your local guy says he's not allowed to, he's lying and probably keeping it for himself or selling it!! Here in France, a lot of DIY "sundries" (Screws, nuts, bolts etc) come in little plastic boxes that are really sturdy and reusable. Lidl and Aldi (Found all over Europe) sell loads of their "didn't expect to find THAT in here" stuff in very good boxes as well.

I second the old tupperware thing. Great for holding water. And since no one is going use it anymore for food, it just is easy to dump and not care. I also have an old rice cooker that i use the pot from for cleaning models and stripping them. I recently stripped an armiger warglaive and it fit in the old rice cooker container perfectly. Let him sit for 30 mins and everything came off because he fully covered. Old medicne bottles that once clean are perfect paint handles.

My hairdryer also gets used for straightening bent plastic models (spears etc). Plastic stackable storage boxes from Staples for storing all my paints & basing materials. Plastic disposable spoons from the pound store for mixing paints, varnishes, PVA glue etc. Cocktail sticks for many uses including mixing pots of separated metal paint. Damp cotton buds make great paint erasers when your painting. Tops off mouthwash bottles for model holders whilst painting. Dettol (simple green) for stripping paint. Isopropyl alcohol for cleaning airbrush, also used in making homemade paint thinner. Filtered water from my dehumidifier & Glycerin as flow improver. Glass beads 8mm for paint agitators. Scotch magic tape as a sub for masking tape. Plastic disposable cups for water pots.

Hi, I use a load of cheap golf tees for holding lots of small minis. Get a piece of wood, drill loads of holes in it then put the golf tees in the holes. You can use blue tack or hot glue to stick the minis to the tees. Great for production line painting! All the best and thanks for the great videos!!!

Empty TicTac containers, for drill bits and tiny pieces. Great for pigments as well. Pizza savers, as a support to lift drying parts. Beers caps, for mixing paint. Bamboo skewers + paper/alligator clamps as makeshift part holders. And of course your local brand of The Ever-Popular Acrylic Floor Polish Liquid (TM).

This was probably already mentioned, but I save all the plastic lids from cottage cheese containers and the like (large plastic yogurt lids or even the plastic lids from coffee cans) and use them as pallets. I obviously use the smallest for single figs and small group paintings, and the larger ones for painting a full unit. Please note, I haven't tried the wet pallet other than a make it yourself on which didn't work for me, so dry pallets are the way I go. Since I don't actually travel with all my painting stuff, I use simple jars and even the foam insulation for soda cans for brush holders. I separate out my brushes by terrain, medium, fine/detail and cosmetic (for dry-brushing). Easy to grab, simple to use. Be aware that if you have a cat in the house, put your sable brushes in a lidded container or you will find the brushes all over the house. Cats love sable brushes. I repurpose items from my older hobbies, such as bead-work, to make my mini-building life easier. I use my bead-tray for assembling units, because the handy little areas hold my sprue-liberated pieces nicely separated until I can file and/or glue them together. Also there are larger areas to keep tools, glue-tubes and the like handy. One invaluable tool is the flat-edged bead scoop. Hard to describe, but its like a teeny tiny broom tray, and makes it so much easier to move small piles of tiny bits around. Big time saver! Lights: study lamps. You can never have too many. When I paint I never just have one light source, usually two or three. Reading glasses. If you have an old pair of reading glasses in a junk drawer, rejoice! These are handy-dandy instant magnifying glasses that you can wear upon the tip of your nose for close up work. Even if you have perfect eye-sight, try this. You'll never go back to eyeballing a mini the old way whilst painting and/or prepping.

Jam (I think Americans call it jelly) jars for painting water pots, one for non metallics and one for metallics. Even come with lids. Ice cream containers for WIP models that have been shelved for a bit. Keeps them together and keeps the dust off. Make up blusher brush for dusting models that are being worked on on the desk but have been left for a while. Store it in a zip sealed bag. Old pill tubs for things like scalpel blades, drills, paper clips.

I've got that same fan; But I use it mostly to cool myself. Things I use: Wooden clothespins (the kind with the metal spring) to hold pieces together while the glue drys to help prevent gaps. Also to keep pieces up off the table while glue dries if ther's no good way to set them Plastic desk lap-drawer organizer to keep pieces together but separate while working on them. Wooden toothpicks for disposable application of glue.

Toothbrush! Old and used or new but cheap depending on your preference. Great for all sorts of cleaning. I went with the new and cheap option and made sure it was a soft brush.

I use my wife's old makeup brushes for dry brushing. They hold paint extremely well, and work amazing when dry brushing.

LOL the fishing tackle thing is so true, I have 8 for keeping my unfinished minis and extra bits. Also recommend a plastic tote that can fit them all fairly snugly, makes it so much easier to store them if you ever need to make space or move. I also tend to use random container lids, from ice cream or margarine, as places to put minis while paint dries or for painting certain visible sections of larger models prior to gluing if required (Land Raider interior is one good example I have done) It gives you a surface that you don't care gets paint covered and can make the models easier to move around in numbers if say your girlfriend gives you a hard time for taking up half the kitchen table right before dinner.

My tips…. Cheap white china dinner plates of about 8 to 10 inch diameter. These are perfect as washable palettes for both acrylic paint and oil-based. The white allows you to gauge the opacity of the paint while the white china is dead easy to wash off. I will soak a dirty one in warm soapy water overnight and then run a pot brush over it and it is clean again. I currently have three or four such plates on the go. Another tip - buy yourself 50 or 100 stainless steel ball bearings off the internet, 6mm are about the right size. Pop one BB into every acrylic paint pot with a little acrylic thinner and give it a darned good shaking. The BB lifts and liquidises the paint in the same way that BBs in aerosol cans do - you can hear them smashing around inside the can. Since doing this and switching from water to proper acrylic thinners my painting seems to have improved. Make sure the BBs are stainless steel as normal steel will rust in acrylic paint. :( Final tip - I was discussing my hobby with my optician and she sorted me out for a close-focussing set of reading glasses. These focus at half the distance of normal reading glasses and have been a great aid as that is the range which I paint at. So good, in fact, that I now look at my older stuff and think it's all rubbish! Some of my friends may agree! :) I hope there ideas assist you, they have really helped me. Barry

I'm just getting warmed up with mini painting, but I thought using a big cheapo plastic 50ml syringe with no tip for water dispensing was pretty darn clever. Suck the full 50 of nice clean water into it and easily dispense by the drop when thinning paints. Works great for moving and measuring paint into the airbrush, and it makes a respectable little squirt for rinsing the cup between colors! I got a pack of 5 from amzn for different project for like 5 bucks. Killer videos dude- Thanks for all the help!!!

for all the uk lads, Big sports direct mugs make for great be all holders, glue snippers, paint brushes everything

I worked at an apartment property and one family moved out and left a sweet silver makeup box with cantilever shelves. Works great for holding paints, tools and glue.

baking soda (also known as bicarbonate of soda) is the ultimate super glue accelerator.

I have been meaning to post this since this video was posted but I keep forgetting. Better late than never- SILLY PUTTY. It works great for masking off areas that you don't want to get paint on and then it just eats the paint that you do get on it. Cheap and easy and widely available. Keep up the great vids Uncle Atom... even though you're not really an uncle nor a singular atom.

If you don't have a wife, or live in fear of her wrath, Dollar Tree has your back. You can find all kinds of tools of the feminine verity, to re-purpose on the cheap. For those who have never been, everything at Dollar Tree sells for $1.00. Nail Files (pack of 4) Emery boards (pack of 24) (sand paper popsicle sticks) Tweezers Cuticle Nippers (good for cutting model pieces from sprue) Nail Scissors (tiny scissors) Cuticle Pusher (I use to work green stuff) 9-Compartment Organizer Case (5.5" x 6.5") (currently on back order) Chopping mat (pack of 3) The quality, of course, is not top of the line. But for the price, the money you save on the stuff that you like will more than pay for the stuff you don't. No, I don't work for, or have stock in, Dollar Tree.

While perhaps not a "around the house" item for a lot of people - one of the most useful tools I've stumbled on for terrain building is the 123 Bocks. These are heavy metal perforated blocks (measuring: 1"x2"x3" - hence the name) used for aligning shop tools. They're heavy, reasonably cheap and perfect for measuring 90 degree angles and holding walls/items together while drying for glue. I use the 1" width side for spacing between wood bits when making ladders, etc. Really incredibly useful. Add to that a Fiskar's cutting mat with the 1" blocked grid ---- very cheap, great quality and I use the 1" grid often for making cuts/measuring or eyeing things for alignment.

I use a desk fan when I am glueing models together because of the fumes. Funnels, tweezers, Small needle nose pliers, small channel locks, coping saw, tack hammer, coffee mugs, green scrub pads,

I also bought, off ebay, a set of dentist's tools for sculpting green stuff etc.

Makeup brushes for dry brushing. Plastic from take away food boxes (with patterns) as metal plates

I use silicon spatulas when mixing sand and acrylic paints for terrain. As a simple tray for painting I use an oven tray for my magnetised miniatures and holders.

Old glass jars from jelly, jam, salsa, tomato sauce, etc are great for holding pens, pencils and brushes as well as soaking single minis in alcohol. Also I keep some old dirty isopropyl for scrubbing out really old junk brushes if they get too gunked up. Keep the lids too, prevent evaporation.

good background today the black with the red, like it

Plastic clothes pegs, little plastic clamps, rubber bands and pencils. All for holding things in place while gluing. I have a box of Overhead Projector Film I use when making sign templates. Cheap sets of art brushes for working on terrain. Plastic containers with divider inserts for keeping supplies organised.

Idk if someone has mentioned this but bead holders at Walmart are much cheaper than those fish hook ones and comes in a few sizes depth/shallow

I've made several miniatures cases out of egg-crate foam and a neat container. Suitcases, Toolboxes, heck, even a cardboard box, throw some egg foam in, and you've got a minis case. It's not the greatest, and you probably shouldn't mix model sizes, but if you have a butt ton of infantry and they don't fit well in your pluck foam trays, they just slot right along between the bumps in the egg foam.

My local dollar store sells handy parts organizers for $3 apiece. Plus the leftover compartment separators make for great barriers and panels in scratchbuilt terrain. Also a good source of bricks is vinyl erasers, which can be cut up, rounded, pitted, and are like 3 for a dollar.

I cant believe you're wearing a Last Podcast shirt! I love this channel even more now, if that's possible.

One of my favorite things for transporting minis and such are the bags for holding scrapbooking supplies some on wheels. They can many times be less expensive than a comparable bag or case (especially citadel) (army transport etc) still need to make sure your foam fits but most do also Ottlites are awesome for lighting. Places like Michael’s or Joanns can be a great place to get these items.

Use some cheap plastic ice cube trays for painting pallets they work just as easily and can be found like literally anywhere..

Clapton wire for vaping can make great tendrils for AdMech and making servo skulls

Cardboard moving box + boxcutter + patience = ghetto brokentoken style custom insert for any boardgame/army box you have.

Bought a massaging machine for my bad back years ago. Occurred to me a few days ago that it also makes an excellent paint pot vibrator for thoroughly mixing paints.

Plastic tubs for applying base materials in so you dont waste any Plastic containers for storage and stripping Blu-tac for posing during testing to see if it looks like i think it will and for sticking bases to something for undercoat spraying Old cutting boards for painting/moddelling on That broken coffee mug with no handle for a water pot

I know I'm late but it makes me happy uncle Adam like the last podcast on the left. It's my favorite podcast the one that got me into podcasts.

Honestly you can use pretty much anything. From tic tac containers to plastic spoons. Not just for storage but there’s loads of things you can make if you’re not afraid of trying. That’s what I like about this hobby. The potential. Edit: also a bag of washed sand is also a great idea. I mean $7 for 20kg which is more than you will ever need to use.

Thanks for the ideas and tips. Btw, killer shirt, man. One of my fav podcasts.

Not sure if you get these in the states, but larger square Ferrero Rocher chocolate boxes are a win win solution. You impress and feed a loved one and when they give you the empty box most minis with a 25mm base fit in fairly safely.

Finger and toenail clippers. I like the curve on them, it really helps.

I use an old white ceramic tile as a painting palette. Because it has no ridges and doesn't scratch like plastic it cleans really easily.

Cutlery drawer tray turned on its side makes an excellent vertical paint pot store for your hobby desk

Wal-Mart sells a Hyper-Tough Organizer Set, 4-Piece for under $10. They have a 2-piece set of the flat larger size, also $10. They are red/black/clear lids. Home Depot carries an HDX brand that is orange/black/clear lids in a 2 piece flat set and a 5-Piece set that is similar to the one at Wal-mart for about the same price. The best part is that the lids can be locked closed. They work great for storing model and model parts while they are being assembled. Add some foam and they might work for storage after painting.

I use the plastic containers that "Ferrero Rocher" comes in for my wet pallettes. Ideal size for me, and a great excuse to gift my wife some of her favourite chocolates. :-D Other than that, kitty litter (unused!!) is a great basing material. Oh and get free customer cards from all the shops to use as plasticard for basing/terrain. Instead of pill bottles as something to tack my minis to during painting, I use shot glasses hehe

At my local craft store (Michael's where I live) I get .125 oz plastic paint pots with snap on lids. They come 18 to a package for around $2.00 per pack. When I mix a custom color I drip the paint into the pot, shake it up after thinning it with a little water and then I paint directly from the pot. When I'm done I snap the lid shut and the paint will be usable for weeks or months without drying up. The one problem is with the lid open the pot will want to tip over. You can either snip the lid off so it's no longer connected to the pot or, what I do, is use Velcro dots. I put one on the bottom of the pots and one on a small plastic surface to hold the pot upright and in place while I'm using it.