15 Genius Ways To Repurpose Metal Water Bottles Around Your Home & Garden

It's okay to feel a little guilty about the amount of metal water bottles you have filling up your cabinets. Even if you've found an unexpected spot in your kitchen to store your water bottles, you might need to find other ways to repurpose them around the home and garden. While some recycling centers take metal bottles, you don't necessarily need to get rid of them completely. There are many ways that you can use them for things besides beverages or turn them into something totally different. 

While some ideas to reuse metal water bottles are as easy as grabbing an old one that you no longer use and finding a new purpose for it, other projects involve a little bit of creativity. Discover all the fun, unique ways you can upcycle metal water bottles to get the most use out of them around the garden and the house. You might end up very surprised at the many reasons you have to hang on to your used water bottles.

The water-tight design of many stainless steel water bottles makes them a great option for kitchen storage. Whether you want to use them to store nuts or beans in a more colorful container or want something you can throw in a bag to take with you, you don't need anything but a clean, spare water bottle. Make sure the bottle is clean and dry before storing anything inside.

Instead of keeping a watering can somewhere on a windowsill or shelf, where it can easily be knocked over, consider using a metal water bottle. No changes are required to make a water bottle more well-suited for watering plants. The narrow profile fits perfectly on a sill. If you have a disposable metal bottle with a metal cap, use a hammer and a small nail or metal punch tool to carefully make holes in the cap to control the flow of water.

In this DIY, TikToker @ksmlady81 uses a plastic water bottle to recreate an inexpensive bird feeder. You can easily swap an old plastic water bottle for a stainless steel one. This DIY bird feeder comes together with a few other basic supplies that you can grab around the home, including an old pan lid, yarn, and super glue. Gravity will keep the seed coming while you get to enjoy beautiful birds in your garden.

Get ready to let your creative side shine with a simple, yet stylish, way to turn a metal water bottle into a pencil holder for your desk area. The best water bottles to use for this purpose are shorter ones, otherwise you might need to cut off the top portion. On YouTube, @HandmadeByI shows a metal bottle painted with bright flowers that would work perfectly as a pencil holder. Try your hand at a colorful design that makes a bright statement, or paint a solid color that matches your interior decor.

A metal water bottle also makes a fun DIY wind chime. To make a wind chime out of a metal water bottle, remove the bottom portion using metal shears. Tie a string to the lid and add washers or beads so that they clink against the inside of the bottle in the wind. You can add paint and decorative elements to make the wind chime suit your style. For example, Art Bhakt Corner uses metallic paint for a sleek look.

Using paint and a little imagination, you can create a lovely new vase for flowers or herbs. It doesn't matter what color or design your metal bottle is before you start. You can cover it with white acrylic paint and then add new designs to match your style. Before you start, consider how to style vases in your home so that you have an idea what colors to use or designs to choose.

You can propagate plants or herbs from cuttings in anything, including a metal water bottle. Just add water to the inside and toss in your cutting. If you'd like more space to work with and to ensure your plant grows properly with enough sunlight, carefully cut the top of your water bottle off. You want a nice wide opening so that your cutting has room to grow.

When you are on-the-go, but still want to save your food scraps, what do you usually do? With a metal water bottle, you can save banana peels, apple cores, and other food waste until you can return home after a hike or outing. Once you get back, take your water bottle and shake out your scraps into the compost bin.

Save for a rainy day using your old water bottle. A metal bottle is a sturdy and compact storage container where you can toss loose change. A fun activity would be to add coins to a metal water bottle coin bank until it is full. Shake out the change, count it, and see how much you were able to save. Or you can place the bottle near your front door so that you always empty your change when you get home.

Have you decided to jump into baking without checking if you have all the tools necessary? In a pinch, an old metal bottle can make a fine rolling pin. The round, smooth sides are easy to clean, and it's durable enough to be used to roll out tough-to-flatten things like a cold stick of butter.

A spare water bottle can easily be turned into a rainstick toy for children. A classic rainstick uses an old paper towel roll, but a metal water bottle works as a great substitute. Fill the bottle with aluminum foil, plus little items to help make noise. Beads, beans, corn kernels, and rice will add the best sound effects inside a metal bottle. Plus, this instrument is much more durable than one made with a paper towel roll. 

Take a metal bottle out the next time you need to shake up a homemade salad dressing, but don't want to dirty multiple dishes or utensils. Add the ingredients, close the top, and shake. You can then pour out the dressing you need for lunch, throw the bottle in a lunch bag, or store it in the refrigerator for later. You can even purchase a stopper spout from Amazon ($5.99 for 2) to convert your bottle into an olive oil pourer. Just make sure you measure the mouth of your bottle to get the right size.

Take off the lid of your metal water bottle and replace it with a pump from a used soap dispenser or buy one to fit the opening. Add your favorite soap from another container or make your own, because making foam soap at home is easier than you'd think. You can paint the bottle or glue twine around it to match your kitchen or bathroom decor. In a YouTube DIY, Kelly Barlow Creations shows how to turn used glass bottles into soap dispensers. A shorter stainless steel bottle would also work perfectly for this project.

Reusable metal water bottles, especially insulated varieties, are designed to keep things cold. Throw one or two in the freezer so that you always have an ice pack to grab to put in a lunch box, keep drinks cold, or ice an injury. The bottle will stay cold after you pull it out and you can put it back for next time when you're done.

With the right tools and plenty of creativity, you can turn any metal water bottle into unique garden art. If you have an old bottle that you don't use anymore, grab some scrap metal and tools to craft an abstract butterfly for your garden. Cut scrap metal can be (carefully) made into butterfly wings and attached to the bottle with a heavy-duty epoxy, but be sure to use safety precautions to avoid cutting yourself.