Sunday, May 5, 2013

What to do with those empty medicine bottles.

 I know this is not critical to most. I realize this may be a minor issue in the big scale of things. But seriously, old medicine bottles are like rabbits in this house and they seem to be multiplying. I really want to recycle them but for some reason I feel like just putting them in the recycle bin is not enough. They need a new life, a new purpose, a rebirth of sorts. So here are some ideas.

I got this from my mom. When she sees my nephew she hands him over one of these babies filled with quarters that he can use for games. Do they even have arcades any more? I know a few pizza places have games and that is usually where he uses them up. I keep one in my car for parking meters and it moves to my purse when I travel. Very handy.

Quarters
The bug loves glitter. And I have to say I am quite fond of the sparkly stuff as well. This container is a combination of all the different colors we use. It is the extra that gets knocked off when one is glittering. It invariably gets mixed up with other colors in the middle of a project and I don't want to taint the pure glitter color with some funky mixed color by trying to put the extra back, so it all goes into here.
Glitter
 This is one of those mega bottles and it holds some needles, a spool of thread and my cool cutter that I can take on the plane. I use it for yarn as well and thread. It is a circle with some recesses that have a blade so that you can cut your thread without cutting anything, or anyone, else. I have to get a shot of it to show you. Often I will just use a regular bottle with a bobbin of thread and a needle or two, sans cutter. But it is a handy way to carry these tools. You can throw it in your purse and you know you won't end up with some stray needle or pin poking at you from the depths of your bag.

Sewing Kit
 Throwing out old needles scares the poop out of me. I mean seriously, how are you supposed to package up that vicious little thing so that you don't hurt yourself or someone else. So I don't. I just pop them in here. When it is full the whole thing will go in the trash. Ta da!
Old needles
 This is probably the most common use for old medicine bottles. And old baby food jars as well. And it works well so I am sticking with it. Especially if you have little elements like this for a certain project, or area of your house. You can identify them so much easier in one of these little things.
small screws and nails
 I was working on a large quilt and pre-wound a bunch of bobbins. I needed a place to keep them all together so they wouldn't unwind and this was perfect. I think 6 fit in one of the standard size bottles.
Bobbins
Let's see, what else?

  • Matches to keep waterproof when camping. 
  • Money and a key to take to the beach or some other outing. 
  • Office supplies like paper clips, although why I am not sure. But you could. 
  • I also used this kind of container to hold the watered down glue we used at Easter to make glitter eggs. 

I tried lipstick or chapstick for the beach but they were too long for the bottle. And I really wanted crayons to fit so I could carry them easily for the bug. But again, just a bit too long for the bottles I have. So I'll keep looking and I'll let you know what else I find.

I truly hope you don't have any of these in your house. That would mean you don't need any medications. But if you find that you do have a few lingering, put them to work.


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