DIY – Simple, Easy Bottle Drying Rack for $2 or Less
Filed Under: Do It Yourself on December 24, 2009
I think most of you already know that we have a baby on the way at our house. In fact, it’s getting pretty imminent. So we’ve been doing all of the things that new parents do to prepare for a new member of the family. You know, reading books that don’t really tell you anything about child care, telling everyone we can who might possibly send us a check in honor of the joyous occasion (PayPal link on the left..), etc.
I’ve been doing a few things around the house to fix up and rearrange as well. We had to get the cat’s entirely out of the kitchen, for instance, which meant I had to build a new feeding station for them. So I built a new shelf-thing that will adequately hold food bowls out of reach of the dogs while supporting the weight of a couple of cats as well.
Well, in the process of looking at baby stuff and talking to family and friends who have recently had children, I’ve learned that there are a ton of gadgets for babies. One of the things that commonly comes up are “drying racks” and “sanitizers” for baby bottles.
Whether you breast feed or not, you’re going to need a bottle sooner or later. We now have several. They make microwave “sanitizer” contraptions, plastic drying rack things that hang bottles above your sink, and more. I have a lot of problems with those, which you can probably guess at. One of them being that they require me to buy something.
Remember: green is the new word for “frugal” which is the nice word for “cheap.”
So I decided to make a bottle drying rack on my own. It turned out pretty awesome, I think. All you need is a stable platform (I got this trophy base at a thrift store for 25 cents) and something to put in it to hold bottles. I was originally going to use coat hangers, but decided that wood doesn’t rust, so it would work better. The dowel cost me $1.30. The rest was just me and my tools.
I took the base and drew out lines on it and then marked drill starts with a punch. I measured the dowel against the tallest of the bottles (an 8oz) and rounded to the nearest easy mark (7-1/4 inches). I then marked this along the dowel and cut it with a hand saw. The dowel is 1/4″ thick, so you know.
Then I took my hand drill, placed the base on top of something I could drill into, and found a bit that was just slightly (1/16″) skinnier than the dowel. Then I braced the bit and turned it into the base. Oh, did I mention I used a hand brace rather than an electric drill? For angled holes, you tend to get more control this way.
The holes are angled out at about 15 degrees. I eyeballed it. Once all the holes were drilled, just press the dowels into place and use a rubber mallet to drive them home.
No glue, nails, screws, etc. are required. This means that if the dowel warps or breaks, you can push it back out and replace it easily. I also didn’t put any finish on the dowels as I didn’t want any toxins coming in contact with the bottles.
Viola! A bottle drying rack. It looks nice, sits stably on the counter or shelf, and does the job well. All for less than two bucks.
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