I was potting up the many, many children of my spider plant the other day and I needed more containers to use as plant pots. I went into the cellar and found a couple of old paint tins – gloss paint so actually tins rather than the standard plastic tub used for emulsion these days.

They were just the right size for my plants so have been commandeered for that this time but it made me wonder what else I could use them for – especially since they have (admittedly difficult to remove) airtight lids.

Any suggestions?

Had an email from Russ Beebe asking:

How can I recycle … Coleman, JetBoil, and other nonrefillable fuel canisters? Thanks!

I had no idea what they were but thanks to Google, I now think he means camping gas/fuel canisters (is that right, Russ? if not, please correct me!)

I have a feeling this will be a recycle rather than reuse item but any suggestions for either are welcome.

(Photo by 2sogar)

We’ve got a couple of sieves that I’ve had for years. If I remember rightly, I bought a pack of three of them at the 50p shop in Liverpool before inflation hit and the 50p shop turned into a Poundland-esque effort.

Needless to say, they weren’t the finest quality sieves to start with and after years of use, they’re not going to be winning any “best sieve in the world” contests.

They’re flimsy plastic and the edges of the sieve seem to be permanently gacked up with flour/water glue as well as tea stains from being used as a tea strainer so they’re not really suitable for culinary uses any more.

But what can we do with them instead? They’re a bit fine for using in the garden for getting the stones out of soil but I’m sure there must be other possibilities. Any suggestions?