what to do with all your stolen toiletries

i’m always impressed when people can resist grabbing as many soaps, shampoos and sewing kits from their hotel rooms as their luggage can hold. i have yet to develop such willpower and rue my weakness everytime i look at my drawer full of miniature bottles. instead of throwing them away, here are some ideas about what to do with them:

use the showercaps to cover leftovers. it saves saran wrap and is a lot easier to work with.
this one’s obvious - after using up all your shampoo on a trip, clean out the bottle and save it so that you can refill it for your next trip.
building off of that last one, i just started a “waters of the world collection.” fill your empty bottles with water from your destination as a souvenir of your travels.
use the shampoo as dish detergent (or just use it as shampoo!) instead of buying it at the store.
melt all of the soaps down in the microwave and make them into one giant soap. you can buy molds here.
krissy just mentioned something that blew my mind: why don’t hotels just refill those big shampoo/conditioner/soap dispensers that hang on the shower wall instead of giving out individual bottles? it would save money and materials. i’ve stayed at a couple places in europe that do this and i did not even miss the bottles at all! while we’re on the topic, i was excited to see that many hotels are adapting to a system where guests must insert their keycard into a slot in the room for the electricity to work. this way, the tv, ac and other devices do not drain energy when no one is in the room. you can’t leave the lights on either.

shower cap…forgot to take a pic of it in use. kind of defeats the purpose, i suppose.

make your old tank tops into reusable totebags/scarves

this camo tank used to be my favorite, but it’s been a little too tight lately (darn you late night bacon cravings).

rather than end our 11 month relationship, i decided to transform it into something new and useful.
1. first, i turned my tank top inside-out and laid it flat so that the armholes aligned.

2. the next step is to sew the bottom of your tank top (preferably with a sewing machine) closed. i sewed mine twice for good measure.

3. and you’re done! just turn it inside out and you’re ready to carry home bread, eggs, newspapers or other light items.

for a fancier look, just use a glitzier tank.
this:

became this:

they double as scarves too! what a thoughtful way to avoid having to actually carry your extra totebags.

why is this a site?

swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.