6 Clever Ways To Organize Your Shot Glass Collection

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For some, collecting shot glasses can be a veritable passion. Maybe you grab one every time you visit a new state or attend a concert or conference. Or maybe you've somehow amassed a hefty collection almost accidentally by accepting various swag bags over the years, or because your friends thought it would be funny to give you shot glasses every year on your birthday. Whatever the case, you've ended up with a sizable collection, and you don't know where to put them all.

Sure, you can repurpose some as flower pots or as a creative way to serve Ina Garten's panna cotta recipe, but if you're a shot glass purist and want to continue to use them as they were always meant to be used, we have a few ideas for how you can store them in your home without creating a mess. While you can certainly shove them into a cupboard in your kitchen, there are more efficient ways to handle shot glasses, all of which will save space in your home and possibly even double as decor.

If you happen to have a game room or even just a living room with a fancy chessboard, you might want to consider storing some or all of your shot glasses in plain sight on top of that board. Simply pretend that your shot glasses are chess pieces and lay them out on the board as if they were actual pawns. This may require finding another place to store your actual chess pieces, but if your chessboard has a built-in storage drawer for them, as many do, then you should be all set.

As a bonus, you can even use those shot glasses to play chess, as long as you assign each one a value, such as queen, rook, knight, and so on. And if you want to get really creative, you could fill those shot glasses up with Jell-O or vodka at your next party and turn your game of chess into a drinking game — a responsible drinking game, of course. If this idea intrigues you but your shot glass collection isn't quite there yet and you need more to actually play a game of chess, Amazon sells chess game sets with shot glasses instead of actual pieces. 

If you've spent any amount of time during your vacation picking out a new shot glass to bring home and add to your collection, it makes sense that you would want to find the best way to organize that shot glass in your home, along with all the others you've painstakingly chosen over the years. Those shot glasses are precious souvenirs representing fond memories of a place you've visited, so storing them properly is important.

One such method is to use an old ornament storage box. Perhaps most of those glass bulbs have broken or been lost over the years, but that's no reason to throw out the box that contained them. Instead, repurpose it and store your shot glasses in it. But beware: We're not talking about those flimsy cardboard dividers that your ornaments may have come in. We're talking about something sturdier, like a solid plastic ornament box with an attached lid or the polyester kind with several levels and drawers that can be pulled out. You may even have an attractive wooden storage divider box that you can mount on your wall and use as a display case.

If you like your storage solutions to be direct, no-frills affairs, then perhaps the best place for you to store your shot glasses is right where you're going to need them the most: attached to the bottles of liquor you plan to pour into them. In this scenario, you would simply take your shot glasses, flip them upside down, and dangle them on the top of the liquor bottles you keep in your liquor cabinet. And if you don't have enough bottles to accommodate each shot glass in your collection, then you're just going to have to buy more bottles.

Once you've secured the bottles, you can have fun devising a system. Perhaps it makes sense to use the shot glass you bought in Jamaica with your favorite rum. Or the shot glass your college roommate got you with that tequila you haven't been able to drink since college (and your roommate knows why). Whatever the case, the next time you're in the mood for a tipple, your liquor cabinet will be all set up.

Spice racks are great organizers that come in all shapes and sizes. While most will lend themselves well to accommodating a collection of shot glasses, there is one type that you might find even more useful for shot glasses than for spices: the display shelf version with several tiers of risers. Truth be told, you could put just about anything on these, as long as it fits, but it's an especially nice solution for storing your shot glasses.

First of all, the levels are far enough apart that you'll be able to see the front of each shot glass, which may be especially enticing if you want to highlight a certain aspect of your collection, such as owning a shot glass from each state. At the same time, since the shot glasses are just sitting there, you'll easily be able to pick out any you want whenever the need arises.

There was a time when people used to collect spoons from each state as a way to show (or brag about) their extensive travels. Nowadays, you're just as likely to encounter a collection of shot glasses associated with each state — or each country if you're ambitious. This means that a collector might own at least 50 different shot glasses, all of which need to be stored somewhere.

If you have a large space on your wall, we suggest hanging a map of the U.S. or the world and placing each shot glass near where you purchased it. You can do this in a number of ways. For instance, Amazon sells a map of the world with built-in little shelves to fit your shot glasses, or you can get creative and find a full map made of wood, like this one from Amazon, and build tiny, individual shelves next to each state or country where you found your shot glass.

One of the best things about the advent of Christmas is that you get to eat a chocolate every day in the lead up to the big day. Whether you have one of those tacky cardboard advent calendars from your local pharmacy or a whimsical wooden one to which you can add your favorite holiday chocolates, the countdown is on.

But who said you have to count down with chocolate? Wouldn't Christmas be just as exciting if you used any other treat you enjoy, like, say, a shot of tequila? One might argue that Christmas would definitely be more fun. Now, we're not suggesting you fill all your shot glasses and stick them all in those advent calendar cubby holes at the start of the month. That could get a little messy. Instead, consider storing the shot glasses in the advent calendar and simply filling a different glass with a different liquor each day until Christmas. Make sure one of them contains homemade eggnog because 'tis the season.