Works for Me Wednesday: Repurposing Bottles

Welcome to our fourth installment in The Frugal Bookworm’s series on “Repurposing”. I’ve been doing this series as a part of my usual “Works for Me Wednesday” posts. If you’re new to this series, please feel free to review my previous entries on repurposing bags, boxes, and baskets. Today, we’re going to talk about repurposing bottles! There are many inventive ways you can repurpose bottles in your home, from arts & crafts projects with the kids to using them to help save your plants in the garden while you’re out of town!

Plant Waterers: Are you going out of town for the weekend, or for a week? I’ve often seen the tip to fill your bathtub with an inch or two of water and leave your household plants in them. I’m sorry…but that’s just messy, and you certainly can’t do that for a garden! We recycle, so I saved all our plastic two-liter and water bottles (I know, bad Amy, but we’re trying to get away from using them). Using a drill, I drilled two small holes around the upper part of the bottle. Dig a tiny hole just big enough to hold your bottle lid near your plant. After filling the bottle with water, flip it upside down and put it in the hole. Instant plant waterer, and it’s much cheaper than those globe-things you see on t.v. commercials! Our plants looked totally healthy when we returned home (at least until the weed killer incident, but that’s another story!).

20 oz. water bottles: There’s such a debate going on now about these kind of bottles. You might consider refilling these once with water before you recycle them. If you have left these bottles in a hot car, however, I would not use them again. Although the evidence is still sketchy about chemicals leaching and causing breast cancer, it’s better to be safe than sorry! You could also refill these about half way, stick them in the freezer to take up space (and lower your energy costs with a full freezer), and then use them in coolers or lunch boxes to keep things cool.

Snack holders: When you go to the park, or travel, do you have all kinds of little snack holders you take along? You could wash out your plastic bottles and use them as snack holders. Put in some cheerios for a toddler, or chex mix (that we can get o-so-cheap at CVS and Walgreens) in for an older child, or yourself! Clean plastic bottles would make great snack holders. You can put the lid on them if your child isn’t finished, and the plastic will help keep your snack from getting crushed! How messy is a Ziploc baggie of crushed chex mix? You certainly don’t want that all over your backseat!

Crafts: This is my favorite way to repurpose plastic bottles! We’re going to be trying some of these, so look forward to pictures when we do! Artists Helping Children has a whole page of crafts (we’re going to try the penguins this Christmas!). The Family Crafts website also has a great selection! Although this craft is for a bottle print t-shirt, you might try using bottles as stamps for all kinds of art projects…I’m thinking this would be a great way to get the Princess to help me make scrapbooking paper!

Fun Ideas: What about sending your kids a “message in a bottle”? You could send your husband or boyfriend a love note in a bottle! You could put a pet’s treat in a plastic bottle and let them roll it and play with it until they can get it out to eat it! I’ve seen those expensive toys that hold treats…why not use a clean recycled plastic bottle as an alternative?

Spray bottles: Any spray bottle with a cleaner in it should be washed thoroughly before being repurposed! You can repurpose spray bottles as bottles that spray plain water, or use your clean spray bottles for white vinegar, a safe cleanser! If you buy cleaners in bulk, you can use cleaned spray bottles for these. Mix a small amount of mild dish soap in a bottle and add water…use this mixture to help keep bugs off your plants!

Milk & Juice Gallon Jugs: After you wash out your milk and juice jugs thoroughly, you can put two “tubs” of Crystal Light or another drink mix in them, fill with water, and shake thoroughly. This is a great way to make a large batch of lemonade or tea if you’re expecting guests! These jugs also make great crafts. Check out Family Fun for their gallery of milk jug crafts, and Family Crafts at About.com for more ideas. Rachel Keller wrote a great article at Better Budgeting, pointing out that milk and juice jugs make great caddies and organizers! Her ideas gave me several aha! moments.

There’s so many things you can do with plastic bottles! Because of the energy it takes to recycle them, we should try to get as much use out of them as possible. Please remember to recycle your bottles! Head over to “Hooray for Free-Bates” and read “Saving Solutions: Reusing Household Items” for some more great ideas about repurposing!

Please join us next week as we conclude our “Repurposing” series with a link round-up! Please send me your ideas and favorite sites about repurposing! And stay tuned…this great series will eventually be an e-book!