Loads of people will be wigging out tonight in honour of Halloween but by the end of the evening, their wigs will be somewhat worse for wear.

Cheap novelty wigs aren’t really made to be used again and again, and have a tendency to shed all over the place when brushed or washed.

But what else could be done with them?

Curly ones would probably lend themselves better to used as stuffing – since they’re bouncier – so that’s one thing. What else?

Other Halloween-related posts:

• How can I reuse or recycle things to a make a Halloween costume?
• How can I reuse or recycle post-Jack-o’-lantern pumpkins?
• Not a post but just a FYI: we scooped out our pumpkin last night, made pumpkin & ginger soup with the innards and are drying the seeds. John’s going to carve a spooky masterpiece into the shell this afternoon then once we’re done being all together ooky, I’m going to use it to make a couple of bird feeders. Hurrah for Halloween!

(Photo by andybahn)

A question from my mum – something she mentioned on instant messenger a few weeks ago but I forgot until now ;)

The night we were chatting about it, she had just found a collection of them in a drawer during a clearout. The bottles she has are brown glass, about 6cm (2.5inches) tall but pretty narrow, with a plastic cap and a plastic thing at the top to make drips happen. Other, equally small bottles, come with a pipette instead of the drip thing.

So basically we’ve got some very small bottles that will be tricky to clean out – any suggestions?

Mum thought kids could use them for playing shop – since they’re more kid-size than adult-size – but couldn’t think of anything else. Ideas?

If you thought my fingernail question was icky a few weeks ago, you might want to look away now.

We’ve had an email from Anne, who says “my suggestion is dog poop!”:

I don’t have a fenced yard, so I walk my dog, so I have lots of little bags of dog poop. I’m told it’s not ok to use in a vegetable garden–maybe a flower garden? any other ideas?

The vegetable thing (or compost heap for use of vegetable garden thing) is because poop from carnivores or omnivores can contain harmful organisms that aren’t destroyed during the standard composting process. (Some hot composting systems claim to be able to do it but I’m not 100% convinced.)

To be on the safe side, I probably wouldn’t want to include it in compost to be used anywhere – because the neighbourhood kids go through phases of digging in our garden and they’re not opposed to eating while doing so, and also I’m not organised enough to keep track of what’s a poo-bed and what isn’t, so would probably end up planting carrots in poo-central or something.

But that does beg the question: can anything be done with it instead of just winging it into the landfill? Any suggestions to minimise the landfill impact (biodegradable bags?)?

(Photo by Minita – I went with a picture of a cute (albeit sad) dog instead of its poo. I thought most people would prefer that. Plus, John and I just played a caption contest thing with it: “you mean I have to stop pooping until someone comes up with an answer?” etc :) )

We’ve had an email from Bonnie:

I hate throwing things away but just found I have SIX redundant lampshades/ceiling light shades in my attic! I need to do something with them but what? Most of them are plastic and fabric but there is a glass dome one too.

Presumably they’ve been dumped in the attic because they’ve been replaced/don’t fit with the decor any more – but how about trying to recover or modify them so you can use them next time you fancy a change? There were lots of lightshade-modification suggests when we featured photo negatives on the site last year – any other suggestions on how they could be revamped?

What about other reuses?

Depending on the shape/opacity of the glass one, it could be used as a mini-greenhouse or made into a quirky ornament with random things (whatever takes your fancy) inside. Other suggestions?

(Stock photo by L_Avi)

Ok, this may be another one that will make some people squirm and go “ick! ick! just throw them away!!” but it’s Friday and I’m in a silly mood so hear me out:

We each have things that make us that bit different from the next person (not necessarily unique but a bit different) and one of those things for me is that I can … scratch my bum/thighs REALLY loudly. I don’t know why. I like to think of it as some genetic gift: some people are great artists or gymnasts, I’m good at scratching REALLY loudly. I suspect I just hold my hand in a certain way that amplifies the sound but my second special thing might contribute to it too: my fingernails grow pretty fast – I’m not a freak, just my nails seem to grow about 3mm a week, compared to the average 1-2mm. Loud scratching AND slightly faster than average nail growth! I’m like a super hero!

ANYWAY, what this means is that each week, I have a pile of nail clippings. Since I keep my fingernails polish-free, they can be composted (they take a while to breakdown though) but I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions.

I suspect, if I harvested enough of them, I could use them as slug protection, like eggs shells around precious plants. Any other ideas? Silly, sensible, practical or creative – any ideas are welcome :)

(By the way, in case you were wondering, the “grow them 1cm/1inch long and sell them for money” idea that’s been floating around for years has been debunked as an urban myth. Shame.)

(Photo by Eastop)