A Time Saving Kitchen Tip for Drinking Glasses
This post may contain affiliate links from which I will earn a commission. Learn more in our disclosure.
You know by now that water is really important for health, right? Of course, you need to make sure that it's filtered water, but the common thought on drinking water is that you should be drinking 8 glasses of water a day.
Remember my post on the Top 5 Tips for Healthy Eating? There was drinking clean water – right at the top. Note that I said “clean water.”
Didn't know that tap water is full of a lot of stuff that I am sure you'd rather not be putting in your body? Well, this post is not for the timid, but check out Is Your Water Safe?
I try to keep myself and my family hydrated, but we quickly end up with glasses all over the place. And my kitchen is already cluttered enough without extra glasses all over the place (anyone else identifies with this? Please tell me I'm not the only one :-)). And in these super busy and financially tight times, who needs to spend extra time and money washing extra glasses because someone says, “I can't remember which glass was mine!”
And if you don't have a family, then when you have guests over, you can quickly have the same problem, right (and who wants to make a mistake of drinking out of the wrong glass during the flu season :-()?
Well, I have a simple DIY idea for you that will help you keep track of whose glass is whose and help you reduce clutter in the kitchen.
Think of this as DIY water glass “charms”. While they're not as cute, they get the job done!
This tip gets credited to my one and one-half day helper. Due to my long struggle with adrenal fatigue / fibromyalgia symptoms, things have really piled up around the house here, so I've been getting some help weekly while I get caught up. And frankly, it's been helping me pay some attention to my blog that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise while juggling homeschooling, our whole foods lifestyle, and my special needs son.
Typically, my “helper” brings her own water bottle over, but one day we were sampling homemade sugar-free lemonade (you really need to check out that recipe!). We were trying to keep glasses straight and she said, “How about this idea?”
Just put a rubber band around each glass, with a different color for each person!
Well, I posted my little idea on Twitter in response to a blogger who said she couldn't keep glasses straight in her home either.
Her response was, “I don't have enough rubber bands for all the people in my family!”
So here are some ways to adapt this to make it work, no matter how many people you have in your home.
Save all the rubber bands you get (washing them first) from produce, mail, etc. That way, you end up with a lot of colors and thicknesses
Mix and match the bands so that some people are identified by combinations (e.g. oldest son's glass has a white and a blue band on it – youngest son's glass has two blue bands)
Use a Sharpie or other permanent marker to write initials on thicker rubber bands
Works well for me – and my youngest gets a kick out of having his own personalized glass ID band.
Maybe I need to patent this and start a new business :-).
Other Time and Money Saving Ideas Can Be Found here:
- Saving Time in the Kitchen with Measuring Tools
- Save Time and Money Cooking Pasta
- The Easiest Way to Peel Garlic
How about you? Do you have a simple kitchen organization tip to share?
Hi Adrienne! Your idea is brilliant…and much more inexpensive than these, though they are very cute:
(link removed by blog owner since the site / post was removed).
I gain nothing at all by putting this link here, just thought you’d be interested/amused!
How funny, Jamie! I guess I should make mine cuter and sell them off my site :-). By the way, I checked out your blog – did you see that I used to live in Japan?
Good idea! I also use wide rubber bands to label glass jars in the refrigerator. Yogurt or broth or leftovers are easily identified from the side. You can write on the bands with pencil or ballpoint and they can be reused.
Nice tip about the leftovers, Diane! I often wonder what to do w/ non opaque containers!
We do the same thing — even with just the two of us! Learned it from my mom. Just gotta remember to occasionally *wash* the glasses. 😉
Very funny, Denise! I don’t wash them daily either. Dishes- yes. Glasses – when they are clearly dirty and when the dishwasher is otherwise needing to be run :-).
I love tips like this! So easy, so logical! There are only two of us using real glasses around here (since the toddler uses a sippy cup) but we have this problem too! And we don’t have a dishwasher so anything to cut down on number of dishes is a huge help. You know how many dishes the real food lifestyle generates!
I love tips like this! So easy, so logical! There are only two of us using real glasses around here (since the toddler uses a sippy cup) but we have this problem too! And we don’t have a dishwasher so anything to cut down on number of dishes is a huge help. You know how many dishes the real food lifestyle generates!
Yes, Joanna. I know what you mean about the dishes! My kitchen is sooooo busy. And cluttered! Every little bit helps!
We use Silly Bands, the shaped bracelet craze that was so last year! The kids have them in 20 different colors. Rubber band colors are more limited. I like that they can go through the dishwasher, too! We don’t use plastic cups at all. The kids use 4 or 8 ounce Mason jars, adults use the 16 ounce jars.
What a great idea! Thanks for the dishwasher tip! I love drinking out of Mason jars :-).
Our Family of 5 each has a different glass. We went to the thrift store and everybody choose a glass they liked. It’s fun to see our various glasses sitting on the counter to be used again.
Nice idea – I have thought that it would be great to have just a bunch of different glasses! Cheaper too!
We really love this idea. I use it all the time for Annie’s cups….I did a short post about it in October for Kitchen Tip Tuesday.
https://www.stacymakescents.com/kitchen-tip-tuesday-10411
Hi Stacy! I’ve missed connecting with you! I thought it was a great idea too :-).
This is a great idea. We have a large family and have struggled with the glass problem. Our answer has been to leave them at each person’s spot at the table. But that gets confusing too, since we do a lot of school at the table. The glasses inevitably get moved. The rubber bands seems doable.
Thanks, Heather. Yes, we school at the table too. Glasses on the table…glasses on the counter….:-).
That’s actually a really brilliant idea. We don’t have to worry about this too terribly much since my oldest drinks out of plastic cups and my youngest has a sippy. But it’s amazing how much my wife and I get our glasses mixed up when there are only two of us. A lot of it comes from the fact that I like to reuse glasses. If I got a completely new glass every time I had a glass of water, we’d have to do about 2 extra loads of dishes a day! 🙂
I’ll have to give this a shot!
Glad to have helped! And if you don’t mind a kind thought – you might want to check to at least make sure that the plastic cups & sippy don’t have BPA. I’ll be doing a giveaway in Jan hopefully of a co that sells great non plastic stuff for adults and kiddos!