We’ve had an email from “trapkuspt” about reusing baby wipe containers:

The kind that have the pop up feature, so the opening is a soft plastic.

They have been great for holding plastic bags I want to reuse, cotton balls, puzzle pieces, etc.

And the thin wipes box for the diaper bag works pretty good for q-tips in the bathroom drawer.

I’ve also found that the hard plastic boxes are useful for filling with tissues in places where a cardboard tissue box would go soggy such as a steamy bathroom or near a splashtastic sink.

Other suggestions?

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

[2] comments

We’ve had an email from Jenni:

I have loads of little plastic SMA baby milk spoons from when my first child was a baby. I have now started making up bottles for my second child and realise the house will be full by the time we move on to cows milk. I can’t bring myself to throw them out. Any ideas?

I’m not exactly an expert with any baby related but I think Jenni means the little measuring scoop things that come inside formula tubs. Like IKEA allen keys, it’s a shame you get a new one with every repeat purchase when one or two is all you’ll ever need (or if you’ve got your own measuring spoon set, you won’t even need that) - but logistically it’s easier for them to include them than having to send them out separately or whatever.

I guess you could keep one around the kitchen for future measuring purposes - but that’s just one and Jenni sounds like she’s got loads. So any other suggestions?

(On a related topic, we covered mixed material baby milk powder containers about a year ago.)

[6] comments

We’ve had an email from Sam, saying:

I have a child’s car seat that has been involved in a minor accident, so can no longer be used as a car seat. I don’t want to put it in landfill. Any suggestions?

If car seats had been around when I was a kid and we’d been in this situation, I’m sure the seat would have been commandeered for bottom-of-the-garden dens - a comfortable seat ripe for imaginative on-a-rocket-into-space games or whatever. We were lucky we had loads of space for that sort of thing and also sorts of junk ended its life down there.

But what if that’s not an option because of space or the child’s too young etc? Any more practical or creative suggestions for the seat as a whole or its foamy/plastic parts?

[5] comments

We featured babies’ dummies last week and it made me realise we hadn’t covered much baby paraphernalia - but there is a sure to be a lot of it out there.

So how about babies’ bottles?

Can they be sterilised sufficiently to be passed on to others? And if not, what other things could they be used for?

(Photo by spekulator)

[6] comments

We’ve had an email from Gary, saying:

I have found a few leftover babies’ dummies and dummy cases whilst doing some tidying in the kitchen.

Rather than throwing them away I wondered if there was any way to reuse or recycle them.

Good suggestion, Gary. There must be millions of those things lying around in households around the country.

The only thing I can think to do with them is to give them to teenagers who want “ironic” jewellery :) But any other suggestions?

DOWNTIME INFO: Just in case anyone noticed, we’ve been down for six hours this afternoon - our entire (huge) hosting service went down because of the floods. Everything looks to be up again now and hopefully they’ve got giant sandbags on standby for next time.

(Photo by xymonau)

[8] comments