New Uses for Old Things: Water Bottle Toy Storage

Corral the Tiny Toys and Make Them Easy to Find

• What: Water Bottle Toy Storage
• When: Any time
• Why: Repurpose extras
• Where: At home

Do you have a drawer or cabinet in your kitchen overflowing with water bottles? Maybe you have difficulty parting with these drinking containers, knowing how often your kids leave one behind. Or perhaps you want to keep a few of your favorites, even though they’ve been replaced with newer and better options. Try this trick to repurpose your water bottles into storage.

Water bottles, especially the clear kind, work great for keeping track of small items. Does your child have younger siblings? Water bottles keep small choking hazards out of the hands of little ones while making it easy for older kids to put items away. Use themed water bottles to make it super easy. A Pokemon water bottle, for instance, makes a great way to store their Pokemon pin collection.

Have kids that move between two households or visit grandparents frequently? A water bottle makes it easy to pack irregular or small items for transport. Keep animal erasers or writing utensils for school corralled inside a bottle that’s easy to tuck into a backpack. Or let kids store their animal Squishies inside one so they don’t collect dust and hair.

They even work wonders to keep small pieces from getting lost in larger collections. Anything from LEGO to Playmobil can drop easily inside a wide mouth, and kids will have no trouble finding the container in a large bin of items.

If you want an easy way to contain the small detritus of childhood and clear out some space in the kitchen, try putting your water bottles to use as storage containers for small toys.