Shot glasses are not only great collection pieces but also very pretty and useful things to have around. Whether you collect shot glasses as souvenirs or for practical purposes, it’s always a great addition to your home. Here are some things to do with your shot glass collection.
Some of the best things you can do with a shot glass collection are to decorate your home and display your shot glasses so everyone can marvel at your collection. You can also use them for dips or puddings. Some people even sell or donate their shot glasses to make room for new pieces.
In this article, I’ll present eight ways to use your shot glass collection, apart from using them for drinking. Some things on the list require you to use your shot glasses, and you shouldn’t shy away from that, as they’re made to be used. If you still don’t like using them, stick around for several ideas.
1. Decorate Your Home With Shot Glasses
If you have an extensive shot glass collection, you should use those glasses as decorative pieces for your home. Instead of leaving your collection somewhere in the basement or the attic to collect dust, imagine how much life shot glasses could bring into your home as decoration pieces.
There are some beautiful collectible shot glasses that come in various colors or with tiny drawings on them, and if you have those, you should definitely place them all around your home.
The possibilities are endless with these glasses.
You can arrange them on some coffee or side tables or your fireplace. Be careful if you have some pets, though, as we don’t want those precious pieces to break accidentally. Also, many people like to make them into small light fixtures and hang them around the house.
Unfortunately, this means you’ll need a professional to make holes in the glasses, but they’ll serve an amazing purpose.
2. Display Your Collection
Apart from decorating your home with your shot glass collection, you can also display it for everyone to see. Some shot glasses out there just beg to be displayed with their colors and hand-drawn decorations.
Many people like to buy shot glasses as souvenirs when visiting a new country. If you’re one of them, why hide those pieces of memorabilia?
Put them somewhere to remind yourself of the wonderful time from countless vacations.
Sure, the shot glass display is a form of decoration, which makes it even more amazing, but there’s a significant difference. When decorating your home with a shot glass collection, you’d “break” the collection and put shot glasses throughout your home.
But when displaying your collection, you intentionally keep them together in one place.
Display Ideas For a Shot Glass Collection
If you’re thinking to yourself now: “That’s it! I’ll display my beautiful shot glass collection,” let me also give you a few ideas you might want to consider.
There’s nothing quite like a display case. If that’s what you desire, I recommend DisplayGifts’ Shot Glass Display Case from Amazon.com. This display case is built specifically for shot glasses, and you can lock it for extra safety.
Plus, the mirror background will give an additional wow effect to your collection.
While you don’t need a display case, you’ll need some kind of shelf, which can get quite boring. That’s why you could also try placing fairy or LED strip lights behind the shot glasses. The light will create a beautiful atmosphere and background for your collection.
Finally, this comes down to personal taste, but you could arrange your shot glasses according to some characteristics, such as:
- According to the size of the shot glasses.
- Based on similar coloring on each shot glass.
3. Make Some Money From Your Shot Glasses
There’s only so much space you can fill with your collection pieces, and shot glasses are neither super small nor thin.
Before you know it, your entire basement’s filled with hundreds of shot glasses, and it’s only a question of time before other rooms share the same fate. It’s a common problem many collectors face, so the solution is to sell some collection pieces.
If you’re planning on making huge sums of money from selling shot glasses, I suggest you keep the glasses to yourself. Your collection pieces might look precious to you, but they’re usually pretty cheap. That’s why collectors only sell their shot glasses in a limited number just to make some room for new pieces and not to make a profit.
However, they’d be a great source if you need some money.
If you decide to sell some pieces from your collection, it’s best to sell them all at once to one buyer, as it can prove too much of a hassle to sell your shot glasses individually.
Another option would be to sell a couple of shot glasses in a few batches.
4. Donate Some Shot Glasses From Your Collection
For some shot glass collectors who want to get rid of some of their collection pieces, it’s just too troublesome to try and sell individual shot glasses and deal with shipping them. On top of that, you can’t make huge profits.
For these reasons, some collectors donate some of their shot glasses.
It’s a nice gesture, and many places will know how to reuse or even sell those shot glasses. You could even donate them to local bars if they’re willing to use them, especially if you have shot glasses that are unique or old.
Another reason why many collectors decide to give away some of their shot glasses instead of selling them is some damage present on shot glasses. I’m talking about small chips or if the color fades over time.
5. Use Shot Glasses For Sweet Treats and Dips
Since shot glasses aren’t collected for their growing market value, you should use them for various purposes, not just drinking shots. You’d be surprised how multi-functional shot glasses can be.
One such use of shot glasses is found in the kitchen and on our dining tables.
It turns out shot glasses are perfect for dips, but instead of serving a dip in one large bowl, you can take a shot glass for each person present at your place. That way, everyone will get the same amount of dip. Moreover, if you have more than one kind, people can choose which dip they’d like.
You can also serve desserts in shot glasses. We’re talking about small portions, but that’s not so bad, as it keeps us in control. If you want to impress your friends when serving them desserts, you can make tasty puddings or mousses and serve them in shot glasses.
If you decide to serve some desserts in a shot glass, it’s best that you use slightly bigger shot glasses without any paint on them, as you want your guests to see inside the glass.
In the kitchen, you can use shot glasses to measure some ingredients. Since shot glasses come in different sizes, you’ll have to know which glass to use, but the most common shot glass contains 1.5 fluid ounces (44 ml).
6. Put Candles in Your Shot Glasses
Candles are all the rage when it comes to creating a cozy atmosphere in your home, which is where shot glasses can also help. Big shot glass collections are perfect if you have many smaller candles.
You should be careful, though, and only use thicker shot glasses so the glass wouldn’t break from the heat.
Colored shot glasses are especially great when used as candle holders because all those colors will create a wonderful atmosphere in your room. You can also use longer glasses for bigger candles.
Also, if you’re a fan of making your own candles, you can still use them. Just ensure you warm the glasses slightly before pouring melted wax into them.
7. Use Your Shot Glasses For Storing Smaller Items
We all have those small annoying items that just keep popping out of nowhere, with no suitable place to store them. These items might include various tiny cables, chargers, pins, and change. Shot glasses are perfect for storing these smaller items and keeping our life just a little bit more organized.
Longer shot glasses are also great for various pens and pencils, so when you put them in a shot glass, they’ll be in one place all the time.
8. Shot Glasses Would Make for a Great Gift
Lastly, if you have some shot glasses from your collection that you know somebody would like, they would make a beautiful gift for any special occasion. You can find some glasses that resemble somebody’s personality. Maybe they like bright colors, so you can gift them a colorful shot glass accompanied by a lovely card.
