The 2 liter soda bottle. Super cheap and readily available. Offer to help clean up after a party and you can go home with an armload of them for free! Once you’ve emptied the contents, don’t throw that bottle out! Here are the top ten ways for the preparedness crowd to reuse two liter bottles.
1. Store water. 2 liter bottles make great water storage containers. After the original contents have been emptied, wash the bottle thoroughly, rinse with a 10:1 water bleach solution if desired, and fill with fresh tap water. Screw the lid on tight and write the date on the bottle with a permanent marker so you’ll know when it’s time to rotate it (6-12 months after filling). These bottles slide easily under beds or behind couches! Make a holder for your bottle from paracord and it’s ready to bug out with.
2. Purify Water. Solar Disinfection (SODIS) uses sunlight and clear plastic bottles to make water safe to drink. Clear plastic bottles are filled with water, then laid in the sun for at least 6 hours. The sun’s UV-A rays combine with heat from the infrared rays to pasteurize the water. To use your soda bottle for SODIS, it must be clear, and this method works best between 35 degrees north of the equator and 35 degrees south of the equator (which includes some of the southern part of the United States). Go here for complete instructions on using the SODIS method of water purification.
3. Store food. Smaller grained foods can be stored in emptied 2 liter bottles. Wash and disinfect as you would to store water in them, then make sure they are thoroughly dry before filling with food. Add an oxygen absorber for extra freshness and longer storage life, then screw the lid on tight, mark the bottle with the date and put it in your food storage. You might need a funnel to make the filling job easier, which brings me to use number 4.
4. Make a funnel. Cut the top of the bottle off about where the curve starts turning into the straight sides. Remove the lid and you’ve got a funnel. To use this funnel to fill other 2 liter bottles, you’ll want to tape them together to secure the funnel during filling since the necks will be the same size.
5. Make a tiny container using two tops. This is slick. Use it for medications, spices, or little valuables.
6. Make a broom. Step by step here or here’s a video showing how. Because there’s always something to sweep up.
7. Make a bowl. Cut the bottom off the bottle and use it as a bowl. Yes, there are little bumps in the bottom of your bowl, but that’s just part of the joy of improvising.
8. Then you can make a spoon to go along with that bowl you just made. Cut as outlined below. It gets thicker at the bottom, so be extra careful not to cut yourself! If your handle isn’t sturdy enough, attach a stick to it.
9. Shoes. Fashion either a pair of sandals or muck shoes out of your 2 liter bottles. Might want to add traction to the bottom somehow . . .
10. Build a boat. Here are a couple of 2 liter bottle kayaks in action. Or you could go grand and build something like this:
But wait! There’s more! Here are some fantastic bonus uses for 2 liter bottles:
11. Make a mini greenhouse to start your plants. Like the ones here. Or just cover a small pot like this. My daughter brought plants home from school once in a 2 liter bottle they had just cut in half. Planted in the bottom half and taped the top half back on with the lid removed. After the plants get somewhat established (before they shoot through the top of the bottle), remove the top half. It worked really well.
12. If you have lots of bottles, you can build a full size greenhouse! For real. The neighbors might think you’re crazy, but they already think that about you, don’t they? I know mine do. Plans at this link.
What do you use empty 2 liter bottles for? Let me know in the comments!
Keep preparing! Angela
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I store water in some, rice in some, dried beans in some. For the rice and dried beans I do use oxygen absorbers, I also tape with duct tape around the screw on lid once filled with either the rice or beans, a few dried bay leaves to keep milly bugs from forming, then the oxygen absorbers at the top so I can use a pair of tweezers to get it or them out first. Next I put the bottle inside a brown paper bag or wrap with brown paper to keep the light out. Store in a cool dry place for maximum storage life. I have used some I stored awhile back and when you open them up you hear the air rush in, just like opening up a can of coffee, so I know the oxygen absorbers, tight lids that have been duct taped for an extra tight seal, actually do a great job at keeping the air out of the product.
You can use plastic spray and spray paint some of them black if you need hot water for bathing. I mean make sure it is already purified clean water you put inside of them, but set them out from 10am to 2pm and you’ll definitely have hot water, as the sun hits that black paint and heats up the water inside. Only fill them about half to three quarters full though, and put the lid on. You don’t want to have it all evaporate away, but also want good expansion room when the water gets hot. Good to have to wash dishes with, or sponge up bathing. Make sure to keep plenty for this purpose and put plenty outside, but where none of them will cast shadows on another one you put outside to heat up. When picking them up and opening them you should use hot pads or those new gloves meant for picking up hot items. I’d pour the water into clean large cooking pots or large sink basins you have plugged. Test to see if too hot, if so add a little clean unheated water, or allow to cool down so you can use the water without burning yourself.
Cut off the bottom. Layer cloth, sand, and charcoal to make a water filter. When time and materials allow boiling is best, however.
I made ‘fish tanks’ with a group of kids. I crocheted circles from plarn and had the kids fold them in half, stitch and stuff them to make the fish. Somewhere deep in my blog is a photo of the tank and quite recently is a photo of a plarn fish
Cut th bottom off and turn upside down. Stuff plastic shop-size bags in, loosely. Now, grab one and thread thru the narrow end. One should bring out another and so on, sort of like tissues. It makes a great storage item for plastic bags and is easily fixed to the inside cupboard door. I’ve seen these since I was young, so I know they make a good gadget for storing and using plastic shopping bags. Whenever we need one quickly, just pull one out of that bottle top.