Unusual Ideas For Storage

Edinburghlass_2

Fascinating old thread here about what to do with old buttons

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=8172

dannahaz

I have a number of blades for my kitchen machine - about 5 for the continuous shredder, and three for the processor. I bought a lovely (and inexpensive) wooden letter rack from Ebay to stand them in.

jcr16

to store soda crytals i keep them in an empty 4 pint milk carton. it is then easy to pour into washing machine and stops the bag from spilling and wasting any.

lil_me

I use the letter rack too, I also freeze things into tubs then turn them out putting them into freezer bags as I don't have much room for tubs in cupboard/freezer. Buttons and little things like that are in an old vitamin pills bottle, labelled of course. My old savings tin is my pen pot

ocemeer

I love the whisky tube idea, use mine for screws but they are so decorative would be nicer on show.
resue ketchup bottles (from work little glass ones) for HM chilli sauce/blackberry vinegar etc.
the net bags for washing tablets get reused as soap containers around the kitchen sink so dont get the taps dirty.
Old wide necked glass jars - think they had posh body scrubs in are used to store my HM candles in.
very shape of coffee jar has some sort of screw in it.
and finally an old and battered kitchen bin is my 'papermulch' for making my paper logs, put in the shredded paper and water and leave until i have time to make them.

eryn_kathleen

Wanted to revive this thread as I really enjoyed reading it!

I try to reuse jars, plastic bottles, etc. but it can be quite a challenge.

Here are my favourites:
- Pasta sauce jars store lentils and smallish amounts of rice or pasta

- Plastic milk cartons store larger amount of rice and pasta shapes, soda crystals (empty washing detergent bottles are even better for this if you've got them). I also measure up the dry ingredients for bread machine bread in advance and store the mix in these.

- 2 litre soda bottles can be pretty tough to reuse, but I cut them in half and grow herbs in them on our kitchen windowsill. Soda crystals go in here too if I've got loads.

- I also peel garlic and store the cloves in garlic. They last longer and I hate peeling them so I get it all done at once. The cloves and oil go in salsa jars or curry paste jars. If I get a glut of onions, I do more or less the same but whizz them in the food processor and either put them in a larger jar or freeze them in veggie bags from the grocery store.

Also fun with soda bottles - when I was at school we made terrariums with them. We pulled the clear plastic out of the coloured bottom plastic, filed the latter with soil and a small plant, cut the top off the former and inverted it and stuck it firmly into the latter. The idea is that, if you've watered it generously beforehand it will stay moist for ever - or at least for the attention span of most kids.

Any more tips on reuseful storage? I love the 4pint carton idea, so I'm planning to switch to that size just so I can use them!