From plastic lotion bottle to tool holster (Reuse Recipe)

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Those plastic bottles that held hand lotion, or sun lotion, or the larger ones that held cleaning product of one kind or other, lend themselves very nicely to be upcycled into belt pouches/holsters for small tools like secateurs, etc.

And it does not just have to be lotion bottles. There are also plastic cleaning material bottles that can thus be upcycled. Lotion bottles are somewhat smaller/shorter than the cleaning ones and thus the former need a belt loop of sorts added. The larger bottles can have it incorporated. One could also use purchased metal belt clips and attach one of those to the thus created holster.

The lotion bottles also make for useful “pocket protectors” in that they can be slipped (with the tool or without) into a back pocket or such. Those are also extremely useful for the DIY-er for screwdrivers, spanners and such, so as not to damage the pocket(s).

Ingredients:

• Plastic lotion bottle (or similar)

Tools:

• Xacto knife (Stanley knife in UK)
• Cutting mat/board (I use an old plastic cutting board from kitchen)
• Scissors

How to:

• Using the Xacto knife carefully cut off the bottom of the bottle
• With the scissors trim the cut off area (if it is a larger bottle then you may wish to cut it similar to the one on the left in the photo)
• For belt wear you could cut slots in the back through which to thread the belt or, alternatively, using some other plastic stock from, say, plastic milk bottle, you could create a belt loop (see Harvesting Tub). (If you don't have rivets to use then a couple of small short bolts, nuts, and washers will do that equally well).

And, voila, ready...

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