John made pancakes for breakfast yesterday (mmm pancakes) and while we were digging around in the back of the cupboard for the golden syrup, I found two half bags of brown sugar.

One of them John put to one side when he realised it was just white sugar tinted brown and the other was from the time I obsessively baked ginger cakes. Neither bag had that much inside it but still too much to throw away – and both of them were practically solid lumps.

Is there any way to reclaim it from lump form? And if it’s gone lumpward, does that mean it’s probably past its usefulness? And if it’s beyond culinary use, any other suggestions for reuse?

(photo by hilaryaq)

We tend to buy 1kg or 2kg nets of onions – plastic nets, with 1cmx1cm ish holes – but can’t think what to do with them once we’ve finished the pack. The same goes for the rare occasions when we buy big packs of oranges or lemons.

We use smaller nets – the type that garlic comes in at the supermarket – to make little bird feeders to hang in trees but the nuts and seeds mix we use falls out of the bigger holes in the onion/orange/lemon nets.

Any suggestions how we can use them again?

(Photo by upn)

John and I are breakfast cereal-fanatics at the moment and are munching our way through box after box of pre-sweetened, chocolate-flavour flavoured puffed nonsense (me) and dull, wholewheat goodness (him).

Most of our favourite cereals come in plastic bags within glossy-printed cardboard boxes so we’re left with a lot of rubbish at the end of each pack.

When I was small, cereal boxes were regularly harvested for their card but I don’t do as much cutting and sticking for fun now – and when I do need some non-corrugated card, cat food boxes tend to be sturdier (if slightly smelling of fish and ash).

As with most paper products, they will compost down but some people worry about the full colour printed designs – some inks are toxic and will leech chemicals into the compost.

Any reusing or recycling for the card sides or the boxes as a whole?

(Photo by simbncn)

Sometimes our little box of eggs gets lost at the back of the fridge and we forget it’s there until we fancy omelettes for tea and then we find out that they’ve gone out of date. Sigh.

I know eggs are best used as fresh as possible – and it’s not ideal to keep them hanging around for the weeks and weeks until the “use by” date – but how strict is that “use by” date?

And if we can’t use them for culinary purposes, what else can we do with them when they’ve reached the end of their in-date period?

(Photo by alitaylor)

Some weeks, for example if we’re in the mood for cereal, we use up all the milk pretty much the instant we buy it but other weeks, it sits there, only being used on the rare occasion that someone drinks a cup of black tea then eventually goes off.

So in those wasteful weeks, what can we do with it when it’s on the turn? I mean, in the post-fresh, pre-cheese-ish stage.

Any ideas?