Ideas for Reusing a Plastic Bottle

Hello, again! I was enjoying a drink of Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai beverage when I had a brainstorm. Why not reuse this nice bottle? I thought I’d share some fun ideas for reusing a plastic bottle with you. 🙂 First, enjoy the drink inside! Lol

Carefully remove the plastic film label from the bottle. It came off fairly easily.

Wash with soap and water and dry. You can let it air dry but it may dry with some water spots left behind so I dried mine with a paper towel.

Now to refill it…you can make your own drink and pour it inside. It makes it handy to take a drink with you if you have to leave home for a bit. (Mmm! Chocolate milk!)

It can be refilled with some smallish size snacks for on the go.

How about storing some small pieces of Lego or other toys?

You can use it for saving your coins or change.

I was surprised at just how much fits into this bottle. Maybe you made rice or macaroni for a meal and and you have some left over in the bottom of the box…storing it in a bottle will keep it fresher than in a box. The bottle could be filled with water and with the lid on it would be easy to carry it to water houseplants without the worry of spilling any water. The ideas are many, but maybe this will get your brain cells firing on some great ways to reuse a plastic bottle. 🙂 Reduce, reuse and recycle!

America Recycles Day 2021

Yep, my calendar told me that today is America Recycles Day.

So what does that mean? Well, here’s a little blurb I found that explains it:

“About America Recycles Day

The Keep America Beautiful America Recycles Day is the only nationally-recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. Held on and around Nov. 15, America Recycles Day educates and encourages individuals on how to be more mindful of what they consume, where and how to properly recycle, and to pledge to recycle more and recycle right in their everyday lives.”

Ok then! So today I want to share some ideas with you about some ways you can recycle things you might have otherwise thrown away into something that can be used again. Here are a few things we’ve had fun recycling at our house.

Some cardboard pieces found in a box of tea bags…

Turned into bookmarkers!

An egg carton…

Turned into a caterpillar!

Empty toilet paper rolls…

Turned into adorable snowmen!

A empty, washed milk bottle…

Turned into a bank for saving coins!

Repurposing an empty Ovaltine container…

Into a great place to store things!

Turn an empty Q-tip box into…

A super place to store Barbie doll shoes!

How about turning an empty oatmeal container…

Into a Special Treasures container!

I hope these ideas will spark some ideas of your own on ways you can reduce, reuse and recycle! Happy America Recycles Day 2021! 🙂

Turn a Small Milk Bottle Into a Piggy Bank

Here’s a fun (and maybe a little bit weird!) idea for you to craft with the kiddos! NOTE: It does require an adult to do a bit of cutting with something sharp like a utility knife. Do your kids get milk in a little plastic bottle when you go to McDonalds? (Maybe other places too.) We grabbed some breakfast items there the other day and I got a milk. Here’s what mine looked like:

Remove the outer wrapper carefully. I used a sharp knife to get it started.

Presto! You have a white bottle!

I had some Washi tape on hand that worked nicely for this project. In fact, I had just purchased it on clearance from a Joann store.

This pack had 7 different colors/patterns.

Starting at the top, right below the rim of the bottle, I taped a piece of the Washi tape around the bottle, overlapping a little.

You can continue wrapping the different patterns of tape down the bottle. Add as many or few pieces as you like. I left some space between my layers, but you can place them closer together too. Layer number two…

Layer number 3…

Keep wrapping until your bottle looks just right to you. 🙂

There are 2 ways you can turn this into a bank…one requires cutting the lid and the second way does not. You can add Washi tape to the top of the bottle as decoration and remove the lid each time you wish to store money inside.

The other way is to cut an opening in the lid so money can be dropped inside without removing the lid.

And you have a new bank for saving money! It’s a great way to re-purpose an item that would usually just be thrown away. Have fun and save those pennies! 😉

More Re-purposing With Kids

Hello! Hope things are going well for you! Today let me show you a couple more fun ways to re-purpose things you might have around your house into some entertainment for the kids. This first one I have to show you is using and empty…and washed…plastic container that had spinach and artichoke dip in it. (Oooo, that’s making me hungry!)

The outer plastic wrap came off very easily for me.

The sticker on the lid however, didn’t come off so I simply cut a circle out from a white piece of paper and glued it on top.

Then I cut a slightly smaller circle out of a piece of scrapbook paper and glue it on top of the white paper circle.

Your project can be finished here or you can add a piece of ribbon or duck tape around the side of the container. You’ll want to glue it in place.

And there you are! Another great little container for storing special treasures inside!

Item #2 on today’s blog post is super simple! Do your kids like to play outside in the warm weather and use squirt guns on each other? (Or on an unsuspecting parent or grandparent! Ha!) But you really don’t want to pay the price for squirt guns? Save up a few dish soap bottles or spray bottles…make sure they are washed out and rinsed well. Fill them up with water and let the kids have a grand time spraying each other to cool off! (That actually sounds really good for today – it’s currently 92 degrees with the “real-feel” temperature of 95. Whew!)

Hope these suggestions spur you to do something similar for a fun project today! 🙂

Repurposing With Kids

Are you into repurposing or recycling things? It’s a great way to save some money and make something fun at the same time. The definition of repurposing is “to give a new purpose or use to”. Today let’s do just that with 2 items you might find around your house. The first item is a plastic spreadable butter container.

After we finished using the spreadable butter that came in this container, I looked at the bottom section of it and thought, “That looks like a great bathtub for a doll!”. First wipe it out with a paper towel, then wash in warm soapy water and dry. This doll fits in very nicely!

If you want to make it look a little better, you could add some duck tape around the sides to cover the label. Alas, we’re fresh out of duck tape so I couldn’t do that this time. Add a little soap and water, stir it up until you have some bubbles and presto! A nice bubble bath for your little ones favorite doll. 🙂

Look at her smile! Doesn’t she look like she is enjoying her bubble bath? 😉

Now for the second repurposing project for today…a Q-tip box. (You may call them Cotton Swabs.) This is the type of box where the inside tray slides out either direction.

You’ll need a piece of paper to cover the outside of the box. Printed or plain will do. Measure the length of the box. Write down the number so it’s easy to remember. Then measure each side around the box and add the numbers up. Add another inch so you can overlap the paper in the back and glue or tape it together. Mark out the size of paper you need of the BACK side of the paper so your lines won’t show on your box. Cut on the lines.

Grab your glue or double-sided tape. Wrap the paper around the box, bending and creasing the paper at each edge so the paper fits smoothly all around the box.

Tape or glue the overlapping edges together on the backside of the box.

And you’re done! Find some special treasures to keep inside. I’m using this one to store some Barbie doll shoes and accessories.

Shoes in one end and other fun items in the other end.

These could have a gazillion uses! Have fun! Check back soon for more repurposing fun! Thanks for visiting! 🙂