This came from the thread below about reusing soda pop bottles.

Here is a two fold use for those soda bottles. We fill them about 3/4 to 7/8 full with water and put them in the freezer. The freezer is more efficient when full and when needed, we use the frozen bottles as our "poor boy" blue ice for the ice chests. We take a magic marker and put an "I" on the cap for ICE so that we don't mix them up with current soda bottles.

We also cut the bottoms out and use them as protective covers for seedlins placed out in the garden. They protect from the wind, weather and some critters.

-- Willy Allen (willyallen2@yahoo.com), September 16, 2001

Answers

Everyone saves them for me. I freeze goats and cows milk in them. And also water to keep the freezer full.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 16, 2001.

Those bottles, washed and the label removed make good storage containers for food such as rice, grits, flour, anything that will fit through the opening. Very helpful on camping trips, ect; plus instant visual inventory of how much is left; bug proof and varmet resistant.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@maileastcitlink.net), September 16, 2001.

This summer we took our empty bottles and poked small hols in the bottom third. We then planted them beside our tomatoes and other plants. If we had to water the plants, we filled the bottles up instead. The water would go straight to the roots instead of running in the rows (same thing when it rained). The plants we tried this with, seemed to do much better and produced more. Just an idea! Lisa B.

-- Lisa B. (j5diecast@aol.com), September 16, 2001.

Take a knife or scissors and carefully cut the de-labeled bottle into one long spiral slice. Stretch it out a bit for length (just pull on it a few times to get it out of its :bottle" shape) and "paint" one side of the strip with a mettalic siver marker (available in craft stores) or glued on glitter (use a waterproof glue). You could also spray paint it before cutting with a good "high shine" metallic paint or glitter it first as well. Voila - a wind-powered bird frightener that can be hung throughout the garden to glitter and sparkle in the wind.

In this same vein, by painting or glittering the bottles and doing a little creative cutting and accessorizing, they could make a cool crown for the resident princess or prince, and there should be enough left over to make the tip ends of a handful of magic wands and so on.

Cut the top off and decorate with craft supplies or contact paper to make a spaggetti holder for the currently open bag of pasta.

Toss one or two in the car filled with water (tape the lids on securely) so that you always have enough for emergency overheats and strandings. You could also fill one with kitty litter for snowy days, if you buy small enough litter that will pour through the holes. A final one filled with a dried fruit and nut mixture (also make sure it can fit through hole easily) completes the car emergency kit, and they all fit in the space behind a seat or in a small box in the back somewhere. You can toss in a couple of those silica gel packs that come in some food packages (use the ones that come with food just to be safe) in with the dried fruit to ensure it stays good. Just make sure everyone knows no to munch it (Glue it to the inside of the lid if it's likely that this might be a problem).

You could make bird feeders from the (cut and fill to your own specifications - don't forget the perch!). They make great throw- away traveling kitty and doggy bowls (make sure your cuts don't leave any sharp edges) and in a pinch can be used to feed humans out of if (for example) your pump freezes up and the bowls are all dirty.

Fill with seeds and cut out a little hole in the neck just big enough for one seed at a time to come out (a little larger than the seed, for ease of movement, but not big enough to get two stuck in it) for a quickie sowing aid. At the price, you can afford to have one for each of your seed types.

NUMBER ONE FAVORITE USE RIGHT NOW: Cut a slit high up in the neck, set it on your desk and let it fill up with cash donations for the disaster victims. Don't even need to count it. Just tape over the slit when full, drop off at your local Red Cross and put out a new one.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 16, 2001.

Soni, Fantastic Number One Reason!!!!! Gr-rreat suggestions going here :) I try to use my head for something besides a hat rack, honestly I do folks, just too much brain fog lately~

Always Learning, Debb

-- Debb LA/MS (fly45@bellsouth.net), September 16, 2001.

Well, I snitch every Pop bottle I can get my hands on. We don't drink carbonated drinks, so they are hard to come by around our house. My favorite thing to use them for? They work perfect with out rabbit water spickets. They are the same size, and hold more than the ones 'store bought'. After about a week, I toss them, unless they get slimy or dirty. Beats cleaning the 'store bought' ones. Now if we could just get the chickens to use the spickets!

-- Bear (BarelyKnow@aol.com), September 17, 2001.

There is a hydroponic method of growing vegetables that require using empty pop bottles. I've tried it and it works well. Also if you have the 3-liter wide mouthed bottles you can use them to fill with fish fillets and fill with water and freeze.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 17, 2001.

I sometimes make a yellowjacket trap, by cutting around the bottle just about where the body begins to form the neck. take this funnel, turn it over and tape it to the bottle, this funnels the yellowjackets into the bottle, where they go for that last bit of soda, sweet stuff etc. once there in there they don't know enough to fly back out the opening. GOOD idea for picnics.

-- bill van fossan (van37725@yahoo.com), September 21, 2001.