Take a look at these vintage soda bottles, recycled by Monika into easy-pour bottles for her oil and vinegar. This is a great idea for this week of the Kitchen Cure, as we ask you to finish deep-cleaning the kitchen, and do one thing to make your kitchen more beautiful. This is an easy way to make your kitchen a little nicer: get rid of your ugly branded dish soap bottle!
We have encouraged you to get rid of your dish soap bottle before. There are three good reasons for this:
• Aesthetics and functionality: You can replace a big, heavy, or ugly bottle with something more squeezable, something more beautiful, or just more functional.
• Frugality: When you have a standard bottle in your kitchen you can just buy bags of generic dish soap, or buy it in bulk.
• Water it down: Most dish soap is much too concentrated. In fact, it's so concentrated that it doesn't do a good job cleaning the dishes. This is counter-intuitive but true; it takes a lot more water to lather it up and wash the slick, heavy soap off the dishes. I dilute my dish soap with an equal amount of water, and it actually works better (and lasts twice as long too).
These recycled soda bottles are a very cute option, especially for a bright mod or vintage kitchen.
You can do the same with vinegar or oil, too. I buy my basic olive oil in huge cans and refill a darkly-tinted bottle every week. The dark tint protects the oil from the light, and I have an inexpensive plastic pourer that pours smoothly.
What about you? Do you switch out your dish soap, vinegar, oil, and other kitchen liquids into a reusable bottle? Here are some photos from how other readers have done this.
Related: Pantry Organization: Put Your Grains In Jars
(Image: Monika from House Tour: Monika's Evolving Experiment)
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I have my dish soap in a pretty oil/vinegar dispenser I got at DollarTree. I make sure I get a pretty color and water it down -- works great, and looks so much nicer in my tiny kitchen.
I already do this with my old wine bottles. One tip: most detergents are too thick for it to pour well using those clear dispensers in the photo. Either water your soap down like the article suggests, or use the silver syrup dispensers bartenders use (the ones with a wider tip and have a rolling ball inside).
I must be missing something, this just seems kinda silly. Is there something inherently tacky about reusing a plastic dish detergent bottle that I don't know about? It seems much easier than bothering to find a glass bottle with a top that fits, you can't even squeeze the soap out of these.
If you don't like the way it looks put it under the sink when company comes over.
Rolen, I tend to buy my detergents and cleaning fluids in bulk bags so I can refill my existing bottles. Just less packaging to recycle. It's a good way to keep and show off pretty bottles, even if that's kinda silly.
@Rolen, I don't use a glass bottle for my dish soap; I use a small squeeze bottle that is actually a lot more functional than the big jugs with handles that cheap dish soap usually comes in.
Where'd you get the toppers on these bottles? I like that they're clear.
I'm amused by the suggestion that the branding on washing up liquid is horrible and tacky, but the branding on a glass soda bottle is beautiful and fresh.
I guess if I just hang onto my horrible branded plastic bottles for another 15 years or so then they will be transformed into chic objets d'art by merely becoming "vintage."
That said, buying bulk and refilling an old container is cheaper and less wasteful, so I'm all for that.
Fun! I use old tavel bottles for my water carafes when I entertain:
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/hydrotherapy
Duuude! Yes! This came just in time. I've been looking for a cheap'n'pretty alternative to my bottle of Dawn sitting on the sink.
Looks nice but according to me it isn't very practical as glass gets very slippery when it's soapy. I would definitely not use a glass bottle for my dish soap. And bottles with a pump work way better as you don't have to put your soapy hands on it.
I reuse baby soap/shampoo bottles that have a pump and I remove the labels and they look decent.
I just recently pulled the the champagne bottle we drank at our wedding and filled it with olive oil. Perfect size, and green color. I got my little spouts from the container store (they come with a cap too). It was a multi-pack, for not much money. They work fantastic! I am planning on doing the same again with vegetable oil and a (almost gone) bottle of white wine.
I do the same thing with my soap! I just couldn't stand looking at those plastic dispensers so I've started using an olive oil cruet that I had just sitting around.
we've been doing this for years, and it's not silly or problematic at all. Soda bottles are contoured, so it's not awkward to hold with wet hands (and when you use dish soap, it's usually when your hands are dry, before you've begun washing). You can find the pourers at just about any kitchen store - we found ours at Crate and Barrel for about 70 cents each. They're all made to fit a standard size bottle, so no problem with making a match. The bottle we chose fits our color scheme and the dish detergent actually looks quite pretty, all bubbly in the clear glass.
This Is A Great Idea! I am opening a bulk soap refill shop in Nevada City CA. You can bring in Glass or Plastic, and refill dish soap, Laundry and shampoo and conditioners. Of Course Bronners! We Carry all Bio Clean Soaps! Every town should have one! 55 gallon drums to pump and refill your old containers. REDUCE FIRST! Recycle after a few uses! Love! Save Our Ailing Planet...Soap.