Thrifting and repurposing are perennially popular ways to score rare and designer finds while saving money, but a creative user on Reddit's r/upcycling emphasized a lesser known upside while giving new life to an old crate.

Their thread was unassumingly titled "Shot glass soda crate," but it thoroughly demonstrated the innate flexibility of upcycling and shopping secondhand.

Decorative storage options for shot glasses are extremely limited, and a boring black retail version sells for around $77. At the same time, household items designed to mimic well-loved, vintage objects remain both trendy and pricey in large chain stores around the country.

Upcycling and thrift shopping are great ways to scratch a shopping itch without contributing to overconsumption via fast fashion, and every purchase prevents goods from heading to landfills before their times.

Moreover, buying new typically only directs money away from the consumer and toward corporations, often while exacerbating the nuisance of household clutter.

At the same time, secondhand markets are thriving everywhere — Facebook Marketplace is bustling, as are peer-to-peer platforms such as Poshmark and Depop — and thrifty shoppers can also make money by decluttering everything from clothing to electronics and home goods.

The original poster didn't elaborate about the source of their crate, but the image was instructive — and it served as a subtle endorsement of the benefits of participating in a circular economy.

Instead of a plain wood or particleboard storage unit, the poster mounted an extremely cool vintage Seven-Up crate on their kitchen wall. It wasn't a retro reproduction — the naturally distressed crate bore an old-fashioned logo, and it wouldn't look amiss amid an Anthropologie tableau.

Commenters were unanimously impressed by the clever hack. "That looks really cool," one remarked. Another praised the original poster's ingenuity, adding that seeing other people's ideas sparked their imagination for repurposing.

"I love this! I love finding and seeing unique ways people display their collections," the user started before waxing lyrical about magical, one-of-a-kind purchases and clever storage solutions.

"I also have a small obsession with compartmentalized boxes/shelves like these. I wish they were more common. Usually you have to be lucky and find the small display cases in thrift stores or junk shops," they said.

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