Old glass bottles can be cleaned to restore them to their original or almost original condition. Simple methods, such as using dishwashing liquid or copper wool, can help remove dirt and preserve the bottle’s integrity. To clean antique bottles, gently remove dirt with warm soapy water and soft brushes, avoiding harsh chemicals.
To clean narrow bottles without a bottle brush, fill the bottle about a third to half full of luke-warm water, add a tablespoon of detergent, a few spoonfulls of kitty litter, and shake vigorously for several minutes. Pour a generous amount of salt into the bottle and add a bit of warm water until it creates a good consistency.
For stubborn spots on the outside of the glass, use a magic eraser by rubbing alcohol and Epsom salt, cover the opening with plastic wrap, and shake vigorously. After the bottles have cooled or sat overnight, use a scrub brush and Dawn dish soap to immerse the bottle in hot water mixed with white vinegar, baking soda, and soak for 15 to 20 minutes. Clean with soap and see if the bottle comes out clean.
Some cleaning suggestions include using room temperature water only, turning the bottle upside-down and leaving it in the box over night to drain all excess water. Vinegar and vinegar can also be used to clean old glass bottles. By following these simple cleaning tips, you can restore your old glass bottles to their original beauty and charm.
📹 Cleaning Antique Bottles: Dirty ‘Wee’ Secrets of Scotland
A short bonus video to explain how I clean my antique bottles after they’ve been dug.
📹 HOW TO CLEAN ANTIQUE BOTTLES! The Easy Way! Remove Stuck On Stains!
How to clean your old antique bottles the easy way! You do not need a bottle tumbler for this method of cleaning! It’s pretty much a …
This seems like just the thing to clean out the miscellaneous bottles I picked up from an estate sale. Though, I do have one question: is there a way to make sure these bottles are clean to a food-safe degree? The reason I’m asking is because they seemed to be drug/chemical and/or perfume bottles. Not that I’m intending to use them for that, but I’d like the option. Either way, great article!
If you have bottles with hard to get to corners that a brush simply cannot reach, I’ve had great luck with pouring a tiny bit of aquarium gravel into the bottle, adding a bit of liquid cleaner or water and then just swishing the bottle back and forth so that the gravel contacts the dirty spots. Works well.
I grew up in northern Wisconsin across the street from an old bottle dump in the 60s and 70s. We were quite poor, so the bottle dump was our playground. I still have some of the bottles that we dug up as kids and I am going to use the Super Clean and your techniques to get them cleaner. And interestingly enough, my husband and son in law tore the front steps off of our daughter’s 100+ year old home today and found a ton of old bottles. I just shared your article with her so she can clean those bottles up and enjoy them. A great, big THANK YOU to you.
Thanks so much, this worked like a charm. My local Harbor Freight had this product. I only left it for about an hour and it cleaned most of the the bottles I soaked. Letting the bad ones sit overnight. I dug 100 old bottles out of an old city dump that was uncovered when they razed an old tobacco barn in my town. Glad to be able to get them clean. Harbor Freight has a pack of bottle brushes for $5 as well.
I ordered a jug of Super Clean online, I am in the states and couldn’t find it at any of my local hardware stores. Anyway it arrived & I followed your instructions… It works great! I was concerned that maybe the active ingredients would be different in the U.S. due to federal regulations, but apparently not the case- It did the job!! It even cleaned some badly stained bottles I had in the garage for ten years; thanks for the tip & the demonstration article!!
Quick question i recently found 3 glass bottles in my backyard while i was letting my nephew help me diff for a new fence we are putting up they are pretty old tried searching up one and it showed it was from 1889 from a old company here in Los Angeles. Now i just don’t know what to do with it so i was wondering what you do with all the bottles you find. Should i just keep it and save it ? Or ?
Fascinating that the material safety data sheet specifically says to avoid contact with glass. Wow, but does not say why. Ingredients are Sodium Metasilicate and Sodium Hydroxide. The first ingredient is an emulsifier and the second ingredient is lye. Strange advise to avoid contact with glass in that lye is often used to clean glass beaker ware. BUT this is a strong agent and gloves and eye protection would seem very prudent.
I’ve cut a bunch of copper wire scraps into gravel. Putting it into bottles & shaking is helpful. The extreme corners of handmade meds catch grains at times. “Chore Boy” brand dishwashing pads are wove copper, so good for scrubbing bottles-Not painted ones! Acid Magic cleaner is pretty good, but acidy-watch your hands & cuts. Construction supply stores have good stiff nylon brushes for cleaning out holes drilled in concrete. Various specialty tradesman’s suppliers have varieties of specialty brushes-check them out.
Hello, I tried this on amber bottles (the kind that essential oils come in/that are used as spray bottles). I left them completely submerged in Super Clean (3 parts water, 1 part Super Clean) for 5 days. Can degreaser damage glass if left in contact for too long? Like half of them have a haze/fogginess that reappears immediately after wiping them off with glass cleaner. I think they’re… etched? Or it looks like “sickness”? Not sure if those are the proper terms, but it looks like there won’t be any easy solutions to get them clear again.
One small suggestion, shorten the lenght of that brush handle 😁 It is scary wobbly and a shorter handle would make it stiffer and easier to use as you would not have to fight off as much sideways movement as you are now. It is mostly to improve comfort for your wrists and to avoid any chance of bottles and such slipping off your hand. Btw if you add some sort of cork stop and shorten the brushes a little you could get it to fit in bottles as well, the cork could act as some sort of bearing preventing the steel handle from touching and maybe scratching the neck of the bottles. I don’t know if this helps, it is just a wierd idea that came to me perusal your article 😅
I finally decided to clean two amber growler jugs that have been sitting for probably two decades. One of them still got a screw cap on. I’m planning to use them for homemade alcoholic beverages. Do you have any tips or word of caution for me? I’m really worried of anaerobic microorganism in there; assuming the screw cap holds really well this whole time. Also, can amber glass be stained if I use particular cleaner/chemicals for cleaning the inside? Thank you. Really great article, by the way. I learned a lot from it. Never knew that degreaser can be used for cleaning bottles. Cheers!