There were four 30cm by 50cm frameless mirror tiles on the bathroom wall when I moved in but given there was no storage, I quickly (read: three years) replaced them with a cabinet instead.

Since then, the tiles have been floating around the bathroom/bedroom/hallway storage locations, waiting for us to reaffix them somewhere or get rid of them (neither of which has happened). We have enough mirrors around the place for when you’re as fugly as us and they’re not in great condition (bits of the mirrored backing having come off in various spots, particularly near the edges) anyway so we haven’t got around to re-using them as mirrors.

But what else can their reflective properties be used for instead? They’re essentially sheets of glass with a mirrored backing by the look of it – reasonably sturdy but not invincible. Any suggestions?

Every couple of weeks, John shaves his head, resulting in hair clippings and a clump of fuzz in the bathroom sink. Given it makes me want to gip* every time I see it (I start imagining the stray little hairs in my throat and ick), John just usually scoops it up quickly and flings it in the bin.

I believe it can be composted – right? – but are there any better uses for the unwanted spawn of his follicles?

* according to Urban Dictionary, this is a Yorkshire term for ‘wretch’. Despite my upbringing on the other side of the Pennines, I use this word regularly without thinking of it as being a Yorkshire-ism. I am clearly perfectly assimilated in the culture now: bring on my flat cap and whippet on a piece of string.

EmJ has been in touch to ask how she can reuse or recycle dead light bulbs.

She didn’t say whether she meant energy efficient ones or the old type that died in a nanosecond so feel free to make suggestions about both.

Does anyone know if they can be recycled as glass or do the metal/plastic bits get in the way?

(Photo by beate, c/o sxc.hu)

One of my projects for the summer is to redecorate the attic room – partly because we’ll need an office up there soon but mostly because I’ve been intending to decorate it for the best part of six years now and it’s getting beyond a joke.

Given the “yeah, I’ll do it this year” attitude to decorating it for the past two-thirds of a decade, we’ve not been that careful on the carpet up there – it’s covered in soot (from trips under the eaves), paint (from when I knocked over some tester pots when I was thinking of painting it a couple of years ago) and blobs of plaster (from the proposed decorating moment before that). And it’s a impractically pale colour that was put in at least a few years before I moved into the house.

So… a bit of future recycling planning because we haven’t the room to store it – what can I do with an old, slightly manky carpet?
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Friday is usually dilemma-day but anyway…

A suggestion from my dad:

Daughter,

So then?

Garden uses would probably be best but I’m sure he’ll consider anything. And he’s promised to take photos of anything he does with them : )