apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I re-use old wine bottles. The ones with screw tops are especially convenient.

I found this at a korean grocery store http://www.veryasia.com/rpl-14-bw.html , and I love it, it's really light, glass and easy to clean... I've had it for over a year now and being as clumsy as I am, I thought I would have broken it by now, but it's still intact :)

I re-use my empty glass Perrier or San Pellegrino water bottles, work great for tap water.

I have to second the Ikea SLOM bottles. I absolutely love them and use them to keep iced teas in the fridge (barley, hibiscus, jasmine green). I keep water in my Brita filter, and recycle all the disposable containers from the store.

I second the old wine bottles one. I bought a handful of pressure-sealing corks and now I just reuse old wine bottles.

Have a funnel on hand, though!

I have purchased some Lorina (made in France) sparkling pink lemonade in the past, and the glass bottles come with the type of stoppers pictured above. One 1000ml bottle I got last year is even screen printed in a lovely snowflake design! Another French lemonade brand is Efferve, no cool screen printing, but a nicely embossed bottle of the same kind and also with cool embossing on the side. I live in a small town, so I had to get them at one of those 'international mart' sort of places, but the sparkling lemonade is delicious as well, so win-win!

I had never seen the Ikea bottles before a few weeks ago, when a lady I've been working with some had them. I adoooore glass bottles, and this makes me want to trek out to the Red Hook Ikea to pick some up. I think they'd be awesome for tea, but my main concern is if you don't have a dishwasher (me), how do you get it clean all the way to the bottom? (Dishwashing novice here!)

They have nice ones at surfas too, with the little blue thingy at the top.

I second the Lorina lemonade bottles. I've been using one to get through the apple cider I pressed a couple of weeks ago.

As for washing bottles, one can either get a bottle scrub brush (usually pretty inexpensive at the store) OR use eggshells. Crumble up some dried eggshells and drop them into the bottle, add a drop of soap and some hot water, and swirl around. Repeat as necessary. It works really well!

After we use the SLOM bottles for tea or whatever I just fill them with hot soapy water and shake them hard for a minute, then rinse.

Grolsch beer bottles have that nifty attached stopper. I use one for my olive oil.

Glass pitcher carafe from C&B $11
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=370&f=32478&q=glass pitcher&fromLocation=Search&DIMID=400001&SearchPage=1

C&B also makes these glass bottles that look like plastic.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=370&f=32211

I love ez-cap style bottles. I brew kombucha and use Lorina, Grolsch and Ikea bottles. The Lorinas are my favorite because they seal great and I like the shape of the bottle and pretty details on the glass. The Ikea ones work fine, but they will leak if you don't close them right.

I have some bottles I love using I got from a sparkling lemonade. As far as cleaning them goes, I give it a quick rinse whenever I've polished off the contents then add a few drops of soap, add some hot water, then shake the bottle vigorously. Pour out the contents. Rinse as many times as necessary to get the soap out.

I use half-gallon Ball jars. I store leftover coffee for iced coffees, lemonade, even wine I haven't been able to re-seal in its own bottle.

I use a large brita container with a built-in tap for my water, but for everything else I use vintage juice carafes with oranges printed on them. I bought them at a thrift store (super cheap and very common) and they didn't come with lids. I just use a silicone coaster as a lid. They stay in place great and are multi-purpose to have around.

My carafes are like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/palebear/1077259964/

My coaster/lids are similar to these:
http://www.kitchenkapers.com/green-coaster-set.html

those ikea ones are the best!


seriously.