We’ve had an email from Chelsea, who has very nicely been pimping this site to her family:

I told my mom about this site and she asked if there was anything about coffee cans. She saves all the ones she has, and just uses them for storing nails and such. Any better ideas?

In the UK, most coffee tends to come in either jars or bags but we’ve got some old Illy cans knocking around from before John discovered our fab local coffee supplier, the Just Coffee People (if you’re in Leeds, you should really try it – coffee fans tell me it’s great from there and we also heart the tea – and if you read the about page you’ll see it’s a great Social Firm too. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes..). The Illy cans either came with a screw top lid or a rubber cap, depending on the size of the can, so have way more reuses than a standard more-difficult-to-reseal food can.

Like Chelsea’s mum, we use them for nails etc in the cellar, storing other teas & coffees in the kitchen, a pen pot in the office upstairs and I’ve got two in front of me in the living room right now working as money boxes for our spare change. I’ve also used the screw on lids as saucers under plant pots – they’re silver and quite deep so look fun.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Sam, saying:

I have a child’s car seat that has been involved in a minor accident, so can no longer be used as a car seat. I don’t want to put it in landfill. Any suggestions?

If car seats had been around when I was a kid and we’d been in this situation, I’m sure the seat would have been commandeered for bottom-of-the-garden dens – a comfortable seat ripe for imaginative on-a-rocket-into-space games or whatever. We were lucky we had loads of space for that sort of thing and also sorts of junk ended its life down there.

But what if that’s not an option because of space or the child’s too young etc? Any more practical or creative suggestions for the seat as a whole or its foamy/plastic parts?

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

We’ve had an email from Chris, saying:

I searched the archives, but didn’t find any mention of what to do with breadmaker pans. Mine had the teflon coating peeling off, so I got a new one. I am looking into where to find a scrap metal place, but any other suggestions would be appreciated…

As I might have mentioned before, we have rather eager scrap metal collectors around here so if it was us, we’d probably just have to think about getting rid of it and a telepathic scrap metaler would appear on our doorstep a second later. I suspect our local tip (household waste collection site) also has a scrap metal bin.

But we’re all about reuses here so anyone got any other suggestions? Most breadmaker pans I’ve seen have an annoying extrusion on the bottom (where the mechanics click in) and a short stick thing in the middle on the inside (where you put the turning blades) so they don’t automatically lend themselves to the usual plant pot etc options.

Thoughts?

We’ve had another email from our wonderfully suggestive friend [Am]:

Due to a slow day at work on Friday I killed time by tidying out my drawers which seem to be black holes for all sorts for junk. What I discovered were about two dozen biro lids. After saving about nine for the numerous biros I also found in the drawer I was left with a collection of lids.

I don’t want to just throw them out and I know most people don’t even use the lids, once they’re off they never see the pen again.

So, does anyone have any crafty or useful ideas for these or if not, can they be recycled?

I used to use them to accessorise blue-tac desk art or to chew when I was bored. I suspect neither the health and safety people or my dentist would approve of the latter though ;)

Better suggestions then?

(Unlike [Am]’s, my office drawer was surprisingly biro lid free and I couldn’t find a photo of them on my usual stock photo site but hopefully you get the idea ;) )

The other week when I was trying to find a picture to illustrate the cardboard cup sleeve post, all I could find were these beverage holders. Just everywhere.

Then the next day, I went downstairs and there was one on the sofa. I nearly jumped out of my skin: my internet history had become solid!

Thankfully it wasn’t a Twilight Zone episode which would end with me being beaten to death with a giant Google logo – just John had used it to carry some Chai tea home when we had choley & puree for breakfast (mmm).

I could just fling it in the compost but as always, I’d rather reuse than compost/recycle.

So any suggestions?