The Secret to Cleaning Vintage Glass Bottles

2 Materials
$8
2 Hours
Easy
If you love collecting vintage glass bottles and finding glass bottles at garage sales or maybe on the roadside. And if you are like me and like using these in your home decor check out an awesome way to clean them up!
Dirty vintage glass bottles found on a creek bank at my parent's farm. The are covered in dirt and rust and some have dirt stuck on inside the narrow necked bottles. Garbage service was not a popular thing back in day so these just kind of got tossed aside in a pile in the dirt.
Get a big pot and fill it with water and about 2 cups of vinegar or more if the bottles are very dirty. Boil the bottles in a mixture of water and vinegar to soften any dirt or debris that might be inside. I let these boil for about 10 minutes and then sit to cool for about 30-45 minutes.
My secret to cleaning inside the bottles in using a ceiling fan pull or metal ball chain to shake around inside the bottle to loosen stuck on dirt or rust spots. If there is rust or spots on the outside of the bottles that a regular scrub brush is not getting off I like to use steel wool and gently rub the rust or dirt off.
Last step is to let the bottles air dry. And now you have perfectly vintage bottles to display, paint or use a vases!
Suggested materials:
  • Vinegar   (Grocery store)
  • Metal Ball Chain   (Local hardware store)
Amy Duyck
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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