A few years ago I shared how I turned Starbucks Coffee
Bottles into the popular faux milk bottles for parties, it was the perfect
combination of making something similar to a product that I couldn’t afford, as
well as recycling my trash! I also shared
how I turned beer holders into a cute utensil container instead of buying a new
one. I love using containers that I
would otherwise throw out as something useful because I feel like I’m getting a
bigger bang for my buck!
I ran into two different issues in my kitchen that needed a
solution and I decided to use my “trash” that was sitting in my recycling bin
to fix!
Dish Brush Storage
The first issue I had was with the way I was storing my dish
washing brushes, and I shared some of this project on my instagram (follow me
here!). I love using the dish washing
brushes from Aldi because they seem to get my dishes cleaner and are easier to
use compared to sponges. They also last
longer, but are harder to store. I also
just purchased two straw brushes from Amazon to clean my plastic straws that I
wanted to make sure didn’t get beat up in storage as they are a little bit flimsier
than the Aldi brushes.
My current storage container was a plastic cup, yes, a plastic
cup. This worked for one or two brushes,
but each time I went to grab one of them from under the sink, the whole thing
fell over. Also, the times I could get
it to balance and stay standing, I had to store the brushes handle down which made
them hard to get out and put away after use.
Since I store my brushes under the sink, I didn’t want to spend money on
a caddy, the solution to my problem didn’t need to look “pretty”, it just
needed to work.
My goal was to get a container that was large enough to hold
all the brushes handle side up and be able to drain, much like a plant pot. When I found an empty pretzel container in my
pantry cabinet (yes, empty, but that’s another story), I thought to myself
“Self, could I turn this into a bin for my dish washing brushes?” And then I thought, “Why not try it and if it
doesn’t work out, I can just toss it in the recycling bin?” I decided to try it out by throwing my
brushes in the container to see if they would fit, and they did!
To turn this pretzel container into a brush holder, I first
took off the label. I did this by using
hot water, soap, and a magic eraser. By
the time I was done scrubbing, you couldn’t even tell it ever had a label on
it. It was just a clean clear bucket.
Next, to make drain holes, I drilled some holes into the
base. I used a ¾ inch bit and drilled
holes in the base about an inch and a half apart.
For a tray for water to collect under the container, I decided to try out the lid. It was either use the lid or a plastic plate, so I opted for the lid to see how it worked.
Then, to keep my two new straw brushes safe, I added two
command strip hooks to the inside of the bin to lock in the straw brushes. The brushes just happened to fit in the
command strip hooks, so they stay put when in storage but are easy to pull out
when needing to be used.
And there you go, an easy answer to my lack of dish washing
brush storage!
Dish Soap Container
The second issue was with my dish soap container. I had a very cute dish soap dispenser that I
bought from the Container Store several years ago, but it rusted through most
of it’s parts and no longer worked. (it
was a very sad day when I said good buy to this dispenser.) In the interim, I tried to use a spare olive
oil bottle for a cute replacement, however it was glass (breakable) and was
very slow to dispense any soap onto my dishes in the sink because I had to turn
it upside down and wait for the soap to slooowly come out of the top of the bottle. It became more of a chore to use, and even
though it was “pretty” on my counter, function wins over form what it comes to
dish washing! So I was on the hunt for a
new container for my dish soap. Could I
just stuck with the Dawn or Palmolive soap container? Sure, but I wanted something cute because it
sits out all the time!
The solution to this issue started with washing my hair,
yes, washing my hair. I started buying
Pantene Charcoal Shampoo and Conditioner a month or so ago, which by the way is
AMAZING and totally worth the price if you ask me!
The bottles have a nice large pump that
doesn’t clog and the plastic is sturdy, not too flexible. When my shampoo and conditioner ran out for
the first time, I noticed that the labels were on the outside of the bottles,
meaning it is a removable wrap label, not melted or glued onto the
bottle. I cut the label off to see what
the bottles looked like without it and thought “these types of bottle sell for about
$15 bucks at the store, what can I use this for?” My answer to myself was “DISH SOAP!”
What is nice about reusing this type of container is that the
bottle isn’t flimsy, but if I need to replace it, it won’t be as sad as tossing
out a soap dispenser I purchased from the Container Store. I can just recycle the old one and use a
newly finished bottle of shampoo. Easy
Peasy!
Now doesn’t that look so much better than a regular ol’
bottle of soap sitting on the counter?!
How do you re-use containers around your house? Do you think about how to reuse a nice
container before throwing it in the recycling container?
