Koozies can easily accumulate over time, leaving you wondering what to do with the dozens (or even hundreds!) of branded and colorful foam sleeves crowding your kitchen drawers. As a consumable promotional item, koozies are often handed out freely at events, gatherings, and sponsored activities. While practical for keeping drinks cold, after a while, the surplus of koozies becomes less useful and more of a clutter problem. However, before tossing them in the trash or letting them continue to gather dust, consider these handy suggestions for repurposing all those extraneous koozies.
Use Them for Their Intended Purpose
First and foremost, koozies are designed to insulate cans and bottles, so continuing to use them for that purpose makes sense. Keep some handy in your cooler for when you want a cold drink on a hot day. Toss a few in your bag or car to always have one within reach. Identify the ones you like best or that bring back good memories and put those into regular rotation. Even with a dozen or more multi-colored koozies, they take up minimal storage space, so there’s no harm in holding onto a collection of your favorites.
Give Them Away as Gifts
Know someone who loves to crack open a cold one? Give them a half dozen koozies with their next six pack. Tailgate lovers and sports fans appreciate koozies to keep their game day drinks frosty. A homemade “koozie bouquet” also makes a fun and inexpensive gift. Simply roll or fold a number of koozies together, secure them with ribbon, and add some tissue paper or shred for presentation. The gift recipient can then put the koozies to use themselves or regift ones that don’t suit their tastes.
Repurpose Them for Storage
Koozies can be upcycled into handy holders for small items around your home, garage, office, car, or college dorm room. Their tapered shape and stretchy collar is perfect for securely stashing pens, makeup brushes, scissors, slim tools, toothbrushes, silverware, and other items prone to getting lost in a junk drawer. Get creative by slipping koozies over the ends of curtain or shower rods to corral hair ties, q-tips, bracelets, and more. They can also be used to neatly store craft supplies like paint brushes, beads, wires, and other small accessories.
In the Kitchen
Slide koozies over the handles of cooking utensils like wooden spoons and spatulas for convenient storage. Group them on a metal baking sheet using magnets hot glued to the bottom. Keep spices, seasonings, oils, and sauces from dripping or spilling in the pantry by popping their bottles into snug koozies. Use koozies to protect surfaces and contain messes.
In the Bathroom
Make organizing small toiletries easy by separating everything into individual koozies – cotton balls, q-tips, cotton swabs, tampons, pills, razors, you name it. Hang koozies from towels rods or shower caddies using shower hooks to create compartments for each family member’s items.
In the Garage
Prevent hardware like nails, screws, nuts, bolts, and washers from getting lost by sorting them into labeled koozies. Protect sharp tools like box cutters and small scissors by sliding them into koozies when not in use. Corral various types of batteries into separate koozies to easily identify them at a glance.
Recycle Them
If you’ve found uses for all the koozies you need, don’t let the rest go to waste. Most koozies are made from foam containing polystyrene or polyethylene, which can be recycled curbside in many municipal recycling programs. Check with your local waste disposal service to find out if koozies can go in your curbside bin. If not, koozies made from #6 polystyrene foam can usually be dropped off to recycle at large retail stores. #2 and #4 polyethylene foam koozies require special handling but can also be recycled in some areas.
Before recycling, remove any fabric sleeves, magnets, or other non-foam components. A quick rinse is also recommended if a koozie is dirty. Once stripped to just the foam body, flatten the koozie and bag up large quantities to drop off for recycling. This allows the foam to be broken down and made into new products, reducing waste sent to the landfill.
Donate Them
Does your local community theater group need drink coasters for their set? Do the booster clubs at school fundraise with goodie bags for athletes? Consider collecting clean, gently used koozies and donating them to nonprofit organizations in your community. Churches, event planners, caterers, food banks, shelters, colleges, and schools often appreciate donated items they can use or give away to support their mission.
Sell Them
If you have a large, unique, or especially desirable collection of koozies, consider selling them online or holding a garage sale. Vintage, personalized, or rare koozies may appeal to collectors or enthusiasts willing to pay for specialty finds. Sports fans may want to get their hands on a hard-to-find koozie with a team logo or player. You can also sell bulk lots on auction sites for crafters and DIYers to upcycle.
Selling koozies provides a little extra cash and clears out your clutter quickly. Be sure to charge fair prices based on factors like age, condition, quality, and demand for that particular style of koozie.
Craft with Them
With their fun colors and flexibility, koozies are a crafter’s dream. A simple Pinterest search delivers dozens of imaginative ideas for repurposing koozies into new DIY projects.
Kids’ Crafts
Koozies can be made into puppets, finger paint palettes, stamps, picture frames, pencil toppers, and all kinds of other crafts to keep kids creatively occupied on rainy days.
Home Décor
Jazz up plain vases by lining them with colorful koozies. Use hot glue to stack koozies into decorative bowls. Even turn them into rope lighting lanterns or candle votives for a cool modern vibe.
Fashion Statements
With some scissors and needlework, koozies can be upcycled into one-of-a-kind hair accessories, earrings, bracelets, brooches, rings, sunglass cases, eyeglass holders, and more. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
Conclusion
Before throwing out a stack of promotional koozies, consider the many ways these foam sleeves can be reused. Keep some on hand for your beverage cooling needs. Gift or donate extra koozies to share with others. Or get crafty and transform them into unique home décor, fashion statements, kids’ toys, and organizational tools.
With so many possibilities, there’s no need for excess koozies to go to waste. Find new purposes and keep them circulating. Your creativity can give neglected koozies renewed life and function.
