Ironing boards. One of the great monuments to inbuilt obsolescence is the common ironing board. They are designed to break after a few years, because the folding mechanism is made of cheap mild steel and the legs often buckle if someone places a heavy load of washing on them.

No matter, use a bit of fencing wire to lock them in an open position, then use them as light work benches in the studio or garden. Sure they are light, but many tasks do not need a heavy table. If you have a few of them, you have in effect a modular bench system that you can reconfigure with no effort. They are light enough to move with one arm which is very useful if like me, you find yourself in need of a bench when you have one arm full.

I suspect our ironing board will outlive us since we use it that rarely (in fact we were utterly shocked to find we had one – we thought it had gone to the furniture charity shop before we moved house). It feels really flimsy though so I suspect if we used any more than once a year, it would fall apart in a shot.

I like Philip’s mobile workbench idea. With a tablecloth over it, it could also be an emergency table for a party or bbq.

Any other suggestions? What about if it can’t be fixed with garden wire – any uses for the metal pipe legs or the board itself?

One of my tips is to use a clothes peg airer thing if possible – one of these things – it stops the little items taking up space on your main line and is easy to take inside if it starts raining.

Petra liked the idea and decided to make her own out of “some electricity pipe, an old iron coat hanger, some rope and pegs” – and that’s so great that I’m now adamant about reusing and recycling to make my own, once my current flimsy plastic ones break. And it got me thinking about making other line drying/clothes airing stuff too…

Have you made any clothes lines/airers/drying racks yourself, reusing and recycling old materials? What did you use?

Or have you fixed/extended a shop-bought airer to make it more suitable for your needs?

Any tips or advice for anyone else?

(Funnily enough, I was thinking about this a year ago too – I asked how to make a cover for my rotary airer so I could leave clothes out during occasional showers. It must be something about this increasingly moist time of year!)

I read a lot of green/simple living blogs by people in the US and it amazes me, utterly amazes me when people say that their local homeowners association or the like doesn’t let them dry washing outside on washing lines. It seems crazy to me that people aren’t allowed to take advantage of the great solar and wind-powered dryer that is the big blue room.

If you can’t dry outside – because you’re not allowed or because you haven’t got any outside space – what do you do to avoid using an electricity-guzzling tumble dryer?

Do you have any tricks to speed up the drying process (extra spinning? ironing?)? Are retractable washing lines the way forward?

They’re big plastic covers which sit on rotary washing lines, preventing the clothes from getting re-soaked every time there is a sudden but brief downpour — there are some clear ones that can be left on all the time, ideal for the UK where it goes from blistering sunshine to torrential rain and back again constantly throughout the day. I tell you – unduly excited – I can’t believe I lived three decades without knowing about them. It’s like the broccoli stalks revelations all over again.

The basic concept seems simple enough to make myself from scrap materials – I need a sheet of heavy-duty but flexible waterproof material, ideally clear, in the shape of my rotary line, some extra length to be sides (to stop sideways rain) and possible some cane or piping at the edge between the “roof” and the sides to give it some structure. We got a new mattress when we moved in here and I’ve kept the giant plastic bag that came in, which is a good start, and I’m tempted to befriend a local carpet fitter for some more similar stuff, which they get wrapped around the rolls of carpet. An old tent or gazebo covering would probably work too. Any other suggestions?

Has anyone made something similar for non-rotary washing lines? Once my eyes were opened to the concept, I started Googling around and found these Isle of Mull dryers which combine the cover and the hanging space in an inverted V-shape. Any other ideas?

I buy eco friendly washing powder but it always comes in tiny boxes unlike the bigger brands which come in huge boxes. I don’t want to start buying the ‘normal’ brands of washing powder with less packaging but am concerned that I am buying lots of the smaller boxes.

I know that Ecover do larger boxes of washing powder but I tend to buy the supermarket brand of eco friendly washing powder. The boxes do get recycled but I want to try and reduce the number of boxes I buy.

From my experience, big boxes of Ecover are difficult to find – it’s strange they don’t do refill like the do with liquid cleaning products… They can be ordered online though (I’ve seen places offering 10kg sacks) and depending where you get them from, it might be comparable in cost to supermarket brand products – but of course then you have to think about the delivery footprint…

Anyone got any suggestions or ideas?

(On the subject of washing powders, Ethical Consumer have reviewed a range of laundry detergents on the market in terms of their environmental impact – interesting reading.)

I have loads of the washing liquid balls that come with washing liquid such as Persil. It seems a shame to throw them away if I could use them for something useful.

Like with measuring spoons in baby formula and allen keys at Ikea, it’s annoying when manufacturers include stuff by default with every purchase even though, presumably, most of their customers will already have a spoon, key or liquid ball from their last pack. There are products out there that don’t include such waste – EthicalConsumer has a list of the greenest laundry products, taking into account packaging, alongside animal testing and chemical make-up of the product itself.

But what about the balls Alison already has at home?

The washing stuff we use doesn’t come with balls but I’ve got a few very old ones in my laundry cupboard for measuring out the different powders and potions, and transporting them over to the washing machine (I’d probably use way too much if I tipped it directly into the drawer). They’d also be useful as scoops/measures for other cleaning products.

Away from housework, the balls with the flat bottoms could be used as paint caddies during kids’ (or grown-ups’) art sessions or turned into mini-sewing kits/pin cushions: fit it with a cute, cushioned lid for the pin cushion, and pins & other supplies could be kept inside.

Any other suggestions?

How can I reuse laundry detergent and fabric softener bottles?

I have a bunch piling up by my washing machine – the ones you pour, not with a spout on the side.

We’ve bulk bought fabric softener in the past and I’ve decanted it into a old, small bottle to make it easier to use – the giant bulk bottle could be stored out of the way in the cellar and the little bottle just refilled once a month. You can do the same thing with big boxes of powder – with handles, those pouring bottles are far easier to carry and use than a big box. They are also moisture tight so if the bottle is dry when you pour in the powder in the first place, it’s less likely to cake than in a cardboard box.

That’s only two bottles though – so what else can you do with them? Carolien Adriaansche makes them into cute creatures and many of the bottles that I see are nice colours or even pearlised, so you could use the plastic to make things like bold jewellery.

Any other suggestions?

I might be wrong but I believe the sheets are usually synthetic – but whether they are or not, I’d still be dubious about composting them because of the various chemicals they contain to do all the softening and scenting stuff.

But if composting is out, what else can be done with them?

I realise that tumble drying has its own implications for the environment but assuming it’s the only option, there is no point the sheets going to waste too. Beth’s interested in hearing alternatives to sheets too if anyone knows of any.

(For those that don’t know, the sheets are usually made of a thin material, about 20cm (8″) square and coated in chemicals to reduce static cling in the tumble dryer and to “freshen” the clothes.)

(Photo by solobirch)