Bottles and Cans and Just Clap Your Hands
source: Wikimedia ; CC license
This is actually an article about bottles and jars, but isn’t that headline more fun?
If you recognise the above reference, from Beck’s 1996 classic, “Where It’s At,” you’re probably 30 plus and appreciate that upcycling your household items is, truly, where it’s at. Today we look at how to take the many bottles and jars that stack up around the house and oversee their transformation into surprising, charming, and wonderfully fun new items.
Count Your Blessings
This one is really simple and very powerful.
Take an old jar and fill it with notes, tidbits, ticket stubs, pebbles from vacations, any little trinket that invokes a happy memory over the course of the year.
As the year winds down, go through the notes. It lends tremendous perspective to how special life is every single day.
Beer Bottle, Beer Mug
Exercise caution here, but if you want some new, hip drinking glasses, look no further than your used beer bottles. Tie a string around the bottle just above the label, slide it off still tied, soak it in lighter fluid, place the string back around the bottle, hold the bottle horizontal, light the string, rotate the bottle, when you hear the crack pour cold water on the string. The neck will come off, use sandpaper to smooth the edge, and viola, a great new glass.
Brilliant Border
Want an easy way to brighten your garden? Take your old wine bottles, bury them neck down, and create a beautiful, luminous border for your garden planters. You doubt us? Just look at a few pictures and you’ll eagerly break out the red tonight for a whole new reason.
The Vase Case
A great way to repurpose any old bottles or jars is to transform them into a brightly coloured vase. Clean the bottles or jars, remove the label, select your colour of choice (watercolours or wall paint will do), inject the paint into the bottles or jars with a large plastic tipped syringe, swirl the paint around until the glass is coated, and let it dry. Simple, beautiful, bright, this is perfect for the home or an affordable, clever centrepiece for a bucolic country wedding.
Before you pull your hair out trying to get rid of your bottles and jars, give these delightful crafts a try. Also bear in mind that household glass differes from recycling window glass.
Sure, Rubbish Please can swoop in and rid you of your bottles and jars. Rubbish Please will even ensure your bottles and jars are disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way possible, but only you can upcycle. Have fun, help the planet, and beautify your home in the process. More like bottles and jars and a round of applause!
