I have been collecting old wine and liquor bottles since we moved into this apartment. On occasion so bring them home from work, the rest are from cooking and personal consumption here at home. Since hubby gathered them all together and they filled a whole box, I figured I better use them.
My first project will be a set of small organizers for a small metal rack in my bedroom. The wire shelves make using some containers here troublesome, so I figure heave glass containers will be the perfect solution for holding combs, brushes, and other small items that always seem to get lost and tossed around. Plus it has to look better than the old shoe box I am using now.
The first step is to clean the bottles and remove the labels. I hit up Pinterest as usual and came across a very useful pin that compared label removal methods. To spare you the trouble of looking it up, soaking the bottles and a mixture of very hot water and baking soda works best. Since not all ornate bottles were clean, I decided to combine the cleaning and label removing steps and added dish soap to the soak water. It seems that the cheaper the wine, the harder it is therefore the label. Ok, there's nothing scientific in that, just observational. Also clear bottles seem to be a bit harder to work with - perhaps a stronger adhesive?
Here are my results from the first four bottles that I soaked. While I got all of the labels off, I am left with a bit of glue to clean up. Still, this is better than hours of peeling and scraping. To remove the left over residue, and even some left over sticker scraps from the second set I did (not pictured) I turned to canola oil. Just wipe a good layer over the affected areas and allow it to sit for a n hour or two. The oil beaks down the adhesive enough to be easily wiped or lightly scraped from the bottle. Then just wash away the oil with dish soap.
Here are the final results, all ready to be cut and decorated. I can't wait to get to the next step!
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