We’ve had a clever idea email from Victoria about making an oven/slow cooker out of polystyrene. We’ve covered moulded polystyrene in the past but I liked this idea so much that I thought I’d feature it again:

i have made an oven from recycled polystyrene when my next door neighbour got her new washing machine she had just the thing i needed to make my energy free oven. keep with me!

on www.selfsufficientish.com, they explain how to make an oven and it works.

i had an old storage unit one that goes out side that you can store all your veg in. i moved and had lots of storage in my new kitchen so no longer needed it. i put the polystyrene in and insulated my storage box. i also added balls in pillow cases around.

i put my stew on the hob for 5 mins popped it in my “oven” and 10 hours later hot stew cooked!

i was so amazed i want to make another for my friend but can not get my hands on the polystyrene.

i know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea but for me, its a great way to recycle.

It is indeed. Anyone else done this as well? Or made other cool things out of polystyrene?

We’ve had an email from Karen, asking:

What can I do with old tissue boxes? The ones I get have a plastic layer on the inside of the top so make it easier to pull single tissues out. I realise that if I tear that out I can just recycle them with my card but is there anything I can do with it otherwise?

The greenest solution is usually to use hankies or equivalent re-usable clothes instead of tissues but that’s not always possible.

I buy big boxes of tissues and decant them into old smaller boxes for different rooms around the house so if the plastic-ked ones are quite small, you could do that.

Any other suggestions? What about for the box in general?

(Photo by scol22)

A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a panic about the situation with my personal paperwork. For our business, I’m pretty good – everything even remotely related to anything goes in a folder, which goes in the filing cabinet, and promptly gets forgotten about until it’s next needed. My personal stuff – bank statements, utility bills and all that jazz – though, who knows? There was a box in the living room, a box file in the bedroom and about five separate stashes of papers in the spare room-cum-study-cum-store-room.

So a few weeks ago, as I said, I had a bit of a panic and sorted everything out. Everything is all neatly filed now and if I need the July 2003 credit card statement (balance: £00.00, charges: £00.00) from a card I never used, I know exactly where it will be. Hurrah!

But, during my sorting, as well as finding we had kept a metric ton of waste paper stored up there, I found three cheque book and credit card wallet sets. They were included in the opening-account packs of “freebies” in my bank-hopping days at university.

The cheque book one is, by the feel of it, cardboard covered in vinyl and the cheque-book shaped, while the credit card one is vinyl with semi-opaque card sized pockets.

I thought about writing recipes on the back of old business cards and using the card one as a mini cookbook in the kitchen but since the pockets are not transparent, I’d have to take the cards out to read them – which kinda defeats the point of protecting them.

So any suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Greg Charles:

I replace the windscreen wipers on my car quite regularly and hate having to just throw them away. I considered making a house window squeegy out of them but don’t know where to start.

I wouldn’t know where to start either (other than just lashing them to a pole and giving it a go) or if they would be angled right – I thought wiper blades usually had a small curve to them but could very easily be wrong.

Any advice or other suggestions?

(Photo by loyalrogue)

We’ve had an email from Arlyn:

I have two feather and down duvets which are a smaller size than the normal single, which I have had for years but not used much. I have moved house and even brought them with me but have to get rid of them. Surely there is some use for the feathers and down. It feels still in good condition inside.

Using it as stuffing for other things – craft projects or adding more bulk to cushions or pillows – is the first idea that springs to mind. Anyone go any other suggestions?

Also, anyone got any thoughts on how they would compost? They’re organic in origin, obviously, so would probably break down quite easily – but I suspect they are treated with nasty, undesirable chemicals before being used as stuffing – anyone know for sure?

(Photo by zumbari)