Picnic-Kitting Caddy Hacks with Plastic Jugs and Cut-off Bottles

With gettogethers indoors or in yards or other outdoor venues, use plastic milk and water jugs to create caddy containers. The scope is narrow, pretty much light organizing of plasticware and containers to hold them. Additional items in the video include napkins and some condiments.

Use cut-off bottles for holding smaller bunches of same-type plasticware, which can fit into gallon jugs. BTW, milk/water jug handles are handy for tethering other jugs together using a shoestring and a cord lock. View usages in the video.

In various reuse/repurpose blog topics, I've shown jugs and bottles in other household uses. You might be surprised at how many second lives the jugs and bottles can have. Amusingly, my own use of many jugs and cut-off bottles include containing refrigerated produce, produce in pantry, draining the most of shampoos and lotions, and props for my slide shows.

Reuse/Repurpose Articles and Videos

Easy DIYs! Economical! Practical! (View bottom section of articles for terms of interest. Science info terms include HDPE, high-density polyethylene, PET plastic, and Polyethylene Terephthalate.

• "Get the Most Out of Shampoo/Lotion Bottles, Etc." (video | article)
• "Reusing and Repurposing Plastic Milk Jugs" (video | article)
• "More Ideas For Reuse/Repurpose of Cut Plastic Bottles and Milk Jugs" (video | article)
• "Reusing/Repurposing 2-Liter Soda Bottles--Self-wraparound Tubes" (video | article)
• "Picnic-Kitting Caddy Hacks with Plastic Jugs and Cut-off Bottles" (video | article)

Get the Most Out of Shampoo/Lotion Bottles, Etc.

Got frugality inclinations? How about extracting the last of shampoos and lotions near the bottom of their bottles? My topic is primarily modifying and repurposing suitable size/shape plastic bottles so they can hold those almost-empty bottles upside-down. With gravity, the positioning of dispensers with remaining slo-mo fluids does away with numerous bottle tip-overs, shakes, and/or flow waits.

Additional slo-mo fluids besides shampoos and lotions include mustards and liquid hand soaps. (The liquid soap hack is repurposing a soda bottle top into a funnel, described farther down.)

Cutting A Prospective Empty Bottle for "Cradle Cup"

The modifications of bottles require careful handling when cutting. I used an xacto knife and pair of scissors (not shown).

I rinse and air-dry a suitable empty plastic bottle. (Suitability means the empty "cup" cradles the product bottle vertically with only a little extra gap.) With an xacto knife, I slowly poke short, horizontal slits into the upper portion of the bottle until the top portion detaches or becomes loose enough to easily remove. I then use a pair of scissors to gingerly trim the cup's edge neatly.

Rant about Some Shampoo and Lotion Dispensers

Ever wonder if shampoo and lotion companies deliberately package their products to have the consumer waste the last drops? Most bottles have press open/close lids or fliptops for easy dispensing. Less convenient dispensers are screwtop caps and pumpers. Least convenient are bottles that manufacturers have attached snapped-on dispensers.

J & J Baby Shampoo exemplifies the worst of dispensers--snapped on pumper. The top requires prying off, and the straw is too short, making end-of-product extraction difficult. Suave shampoo is flip-top, but the top also requires prying to remove it.

J & J travel size shampoo is cute. It has a flip-top dispenser. However, the mouth diameter is so small that only an eyedropper would fit, making refilling impractical.

My advocacy for cuppish bottles doesn't address snapped-on dispensers for some shampoos. About all I can advise is the following steps:

1. Use as much of the shampoo as possible. Inverting the bottle is helpful, maybe even with a modified cup.
2. Pry the dispenser off.
3. Add a little water to make the shampoo easier to pour out.
4. If the bottle is a suitable size/shape, cut it open and reuse it for holding inverted product bottles.

Beyond Shampoos and Lotions

I have emphasized bottles for shampoos and lotions. Another item that is suitable for upside-down cradling is a mustard bottle. Coincidentally, I found a salad dressing bottle to be a good size and shape for the cradling cup.

A specific use I have for another cradle cup is for placement of a small bottle of baby oil at the sink. The cup's slightly larger size and wall prevents the smaller bottle from tipping over.

Prospective Cradle Cups

If you already stand your low-supply bottle upside down, do you position the bottle amongst other containers? Lean it into a corner? Use a cuppish item? Want ideas? Look the kitchen, pantry, and bathroom for prospectives for plastic bottle cradles. Some existing and prospective examples:

Soda Bottle Funnel Frugality

Liquid hand soaps, imho, are way too concentrated. Undiluted, they tend to run out fast. For a long time, I used a standard funnel to pour half of one bottle into another, then add water. The process was slow for both pouring the full strength liquid and adding water.

It occurred to me that a 2-liter soda bottle might have a mouth diameter that fit the liquid soap bottles. Voila! If you dilute your liquid hand soap and haven't tried this hack. the video includes the info.

My method for making the funnel is similar to making previously mentioned holders. The soda bottle material is much thinner than previously referenced plastic cradle cups. (I made a second funnel as an example for method, which I discarded afterward.)

The modifications of bottles require careful handling when cutting. I used an xacto knife and pair of scissors (not shown).

I rinsed and air-dried an empty 2-liter soda bottle. Halfway up the bottle, I used an xacto knife to slowly pierce some touching horizontal slits. The gap became long enough for pressing the wall and easily slipping in scissors. I then cut and neatly trimmed the edge.

Ready to squeeze out more of your liquidy products? Hope I've provided some food for thought.

Reuse/Repurpose Articles and Videos

Easy DIYs! Economical! Practical! (View bottom section of articles for terms of interest. Science info terms include HDPE, high-density polyethylene, PET plastic, and Polyethylene Terephthalate.

• "Get the Most Out of Shampoo/Lotion Bottles, Etc." (video | article)
• "Reusing and Repurposing Plastic Milk Jugs" (video | article)
• "More Ideas For Reuse/Repurpose of Cut Plastic Bottles and Milk Jugs" (video | article)
• "Reusing/Repurposing 2-Liter Soda Bottles--Self-wraparound Tubes" (video | article)
• "Picnic-Kitting Caddy Hacks with Plastic Jugs and Cut-off Bottles" (video | article)