I’ve decided to only drink liquids out of glass – not plastic, which is fine when I’m at home, but not when I go out. It’s almost impossible to buy water or drinks in glass bottles so I started drinking kombucha. To be honest, the first time I tried it I spit it out because I thought it was rotten juice. It took some getting used to, and now I’m on connoisseur of kombucha.

I also love the thick glass bottles that kombucha comes in, and found it difficult to put them in the recycling can. I saved a few to refill with water, but soon found that I had over 50 glass bottles in my cabinets. Not wanting to recycle them, I decided to reuse or repurpose them.

Putting pen to paper, I designed a simple shelf system to house over 50 bottles. My buddy Mario and I put it together and installed it in just a few hours. That was the easy part.

Then I decided to reorganize my entire tool shelves. I pulled out every drawer and sorted drill bits, router bits, screws, hooks, and every odd piece that sat in my drawers. I like this new system better because I can see everything in the bottles instead of having to read labels and pull open drawers.

My daughter Nicole and I both share this uncanny enjoyment of sorting and organizing things. We find it therapeutic to transform messes into organized systems. I think she’s the only one who appreciates my latest project. A good friend teased me by asking if Nicole and I share the same therapist! Some people just don’t have a sense of humor…