Decorate them with a nice lable and fill them with matches, glue a striker surface inside the cap and gift them to friends and family for camping, fishing, hiking, gold prospecting, survival kits etc.

That's my two cents.

I watched HGTV today and on the quilting show they drilled a hole in the top of a prescription bottle for broken needles, pins, etc. so you don't have to throw them in the trash loose. They also used the bottles to sort bobbins of thread by color.

Pill bottles are usually airtight so they make great seed savers. I have also used them in drawers and added all of those little items that end up in the junk drawer- buttons etc. In the garage they can hold screws and nails.
You might also do a search for what to do with film canisters to get other idea. The bottles are often similar in size.

Thank you all! There are some really good ideas here. The seed savers concept is particularly appealing, given last year I was putting seeds in a very stylish (ahem!) plastic baggie. :)

The sewing items idea is a good one, too, though. They'd fit so nicely in a sewing box.

Hmmm... so much good food for thought! Thank you for your time and brainpower, everyone.

--Jenn

I hadn't thought about this in ages! My Grandmother, who deeded me her "crafty genes", used to do crafts with my brother and me. One that we loved was to melt (in the oven) prescription bottles along with bits of glass, chunks of crayon and other little "doo dads" like broken jewelry, etc. This worked especially well with the hard plastic amber bottles - I haven't tried with the newer more opaque ones...Anyway, you arrange little piles of junk, bake in a 500 degree oven on an old cookie sheet until it flattens the piles out and once cooled, they make really pretty medallions for necklaces and sun catchers/windchimes. You just have to drill a hole in them.

Hi susie bird,

When you put these little piles in the oven, were all these doodads + the bottles just all grouped together, or were the doodads inside the bottles?

This idea appeals to me....I think I have a ton of these amber prescription bottles and loads of costume jewellery that I inherited from my mom.

I have faced this, also.

I do a lot of crafting.
I have a label maker and I label each pill bottle for speed of time in finding something.

I use them for beads, jewelry making pieces, seed saving, small amounts of spices for the camper...

Also, there is a local church that collects them and they recycle the containers in third world countries when they do a medical clinic.
They will even take the remaining medications if, for whatever reason, you were not able to use it.

Hm... I do have the amber bottles myself. In addition to Justlinda's question about whether you put the goodies inside the bottles before you bake them, do you line the cookie sheet with something like wax paper?

I too have a lot of little beads and doo-dads that would be useful here, and can actually see getting into this sort of craft.

I do also like Wandaredhead's reuse idea, though, too.

That's the marvelous thing about these boards-- you get so many different ideas and options you'd never come up with on your own.

Many thank yous to everyone.
-Jenn

Don't know why I forgot this one.

I put several bottles standing upright in a plastic bowl.
Put them close so they won't tip over.
I fill the bottles with water and freeze.

The size is wonderful for ice cubes for those drink bottles with small tops.

I also either drill a small hole in the tops or use aluminum foil over the tops and make a small hole in the foil.

These work great for rooting leaves like African violet, herbs, etc.

There was a study that said clear containers work better than colored containers but I have had good luck with the medicine bottles.

Please everyone be very careful about 'melting' plastic in or on the stove - they can put out hideous fumes that can make you sick and possibly kill pet birds (as will Teflon fumes). Your grandmother may have gotten lucky with a particular type way back when, but considering all the chemical junk that's out there now, I wouldn't take a chance.

THANK YOU !! You guys are the greatest! I'm the least crafty person in the world - but love the trash to treasure & am an avid recycler...
You would not believe how many plastic grocery bags of pill bottles I have!!! [I never told my DH that I moved them to the new house.. shhhhhh it's a secret!!]
I've given lots to a couple of friends who do crafts for storage...
But we have a 'farm museum' which also sells heirloom seeds. and I called them to see if they'd like some pill bottles...
As long as I promised to never tell -- the museum will take them -- the last thing they need is a hundred people showing up with their 'pill bottles' . They don't want to be tossing or storing them either!
Tell me why the industry hasn't come up with a bottle that decomposes after a while..

Once my mother filled one with quarters and wrote on the outside "take one a day or as needed". She gave it to my son for his birthday.

I saw some that had been put over the small white bulbs of Christmas lights, the kind you string on your porch. The bottles gave the lights an amber glow.

I just use them to better organize my drawers. At my bathroom dressing table, they hold eyeliners and eyebrow pencils upright so they're easier to locate quickly. A larger one holds my mascaras. In the laundry room drawer, they hold stray buttons, paperclips, etc. Nothing exotic or imaginative, but they do help me to stay more organized.

they make a nice sewing kit, cheap bobbins filled with thread will stack inside then put needles and pins in the middle, decorate the out side and make a small pin cushion for the top.

Here is what I did with my lids and they are so easy and pretty.http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/junk/msg022254547805.html?13

Here is a link that might be useful: plant markers

I'm glad this thread got revived as i've got a bunch of them as well. I never thought about the air tightness for matches and spices for camping. I was thinking of using some of the larger ones for concrete molds for mushroom stems. They would be a nice size for turret molds on the top of sand castle walls at the beach too.
Saving seeds container is a great idea.
Kathy

You could also donate or sell them to a Speech Language Pathologist (check your local nursing/rehab center) to use in therapy, teaching people medication management~

My husband collected a bunch from family for years. They always wondered what he was going to do with them. He made a very cool table out of them using these as the legs. I need to take a photo of it sometime

Hubby uses the bigger ones in the garage to hold various screws, nails, washers, etc.

I made little first aid containers: bandaids (roll them to fit), single use or little antibiotic tube, folded q-tips, etc. Very handy in car or purse

I like the first aid idea... great post!

I love the idea of melting stuff in the oven to make wind chimes or garden art. Yes, any fumes would be dangerous, but that is what open windows and fans are for. I will just arrange everything in the oven, open the windows and put a large fan in a window taking all the fumes out. Then while it is baking, I'll work in the garden outside. When the time is up, just turn off the oven, leave the oven door open but take my "art" outside to cool. Keeping the fans on all the while. After an hour I am sure the fumes will be pulled out.

What a fun, inexpensive idea. I'll probably add some of those glass stones. To make sure nothing explodes, I'll put some lid or cover over the glass, tho.

Let us know if anyone does this. I cannot do photos but I would love to see your photos.

I get my prescriptions from Target. Their bottles are bright red and odd shaped. I am going to turn them into a large solar light for the yard once I get enough of them collected. :o)

Love this ideal about the empty prescriptions bottles! Thank you! Im new here and i love this website already!

I melt mine in the oven and made a spiral sun catcher wind chime from them with beads it is beautiful and has held up well mine is 2 yrs old and still pretty

I put root tone in one and keep it with my gardening tools. It make is easy to dip a plant stem into when rooting new plants and I use the edge to tap off the excess. Works great and is not messy.

Please DON'T melt plastics in your oven. The fumes are toxic, accumulate in your body over the years, and an open window isn't enough to protect you. Residue coats the interior of your oven and will contaminate future foods you cook. You can't get all of the residue out by washing the oven because it is inside the air flow vents.

We snowbird and each year we ship a box of things we can't live without to our destination. One of the items is cooking and baking supplies. I put enough herbs and spices, baking soda, baking powder and parmesan cheese to get us through a few months. At the end of the trip, I give the left over seasonings to those who live farther north than we do and therefore stay longer. I recycle the containers that I empty.

I have to chime in on "don't cook plastics in your oven." If you must do it, buy an old toaster oven at a thrift store and do it outside.

Animals shelters here in Maine are always looking for these. Also, we use ours for spare key(s) in our glove box.

Wrap them in twine, then add a pretty kraft paper label, to make seed holders to save the seeds from your garden plants. You can also add a few to a basket with a few hand tools and a watering can (use a basket that can hold veggies or flowers harvested from the garden!) to make a gift for a gardener friend. They're also good for carrying small snacks, like M&Ms, etc., in the car. AND, if you wrap them with the twine or decoupage them, you can make up a shower gift with the spices needed to make a particular recipe; put them, along with a recipe card, into the container needed to make the dish! (I get twine here.)