We’ve had an email from Greg:

I’ve got some of those fold-up chairs for camping but the metal tubing on one of the legs has snapped. I’m going to keep the seat fabric as a spare but what can I do with the rest of the tubing?

I’m sure a scrap metal dealer would take it in a flash – we have them patrolling our street every few minutes, I’d just have to think about taking it into the garden and they’d appear to take it off me – but obviously reuses are more fun :)

As straight lengths, they’d be great for supporting growing stems in the garden and cut into shorter lengths, you could make a wind-chime thing out of them (I wonder if they’re a wide enough diameter for the wind to whistle through them as well as clanging them together).

Depending how flexible they are/how strong you are, you could also bend them into a spiral to use it as a trivet under pans/hot dishes.

Any other ideas?

We’ve had an email from Gayle:

What can I do with a picture frame now that the glass has broken? It would be cheaper to buy a new one than replace the glass but I don’t want to throw it out because it’s nice!

I’d keep it around for use with pictures or other pieces of artwork that stick out a bit too much to fit behind glass – for example, my Cats in Slacks picture (I’ve got Gordon, in dashing mustard slacks) needs a bit of breathing room because of the button, and Lego designs need loads of space.

You can also use them to store/display jewellery or take the old Friends approach, and use it around a spy-hole on a door (or a light switch etc).

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by qute)

The other day on Things To Do Today, I mentioned marbles in passing and it made me think of the stash of marbles we have in our board-games-and-assorted-toys chest. You know, the stash we’ve probably touched once in five years.

They could, obviously, go to a charity shop for another generation to enjoy but since the orbs were so fiercely won in many heated battles over the years and hold fun memories, it would be nice to reuse them from something around our house or the like.

My ideas so far: jewellery (albeit heavy jewellery) with the marbles held in bead cages, on display in a clear glass vase or somehow made into a lightshade.

Any other ideas?

What about the really really bashed up ones that won’t look so nice on show? I imagine they’re handy weights – any good uses for them?

(Photo by asolario)

This is a bit of an anticipatory post since said cone is still currently covered in a few of hundred grammes of yarn but anyway…

Yarn/wool cones. I bought a giant cone of yarn on eBay the other day from someone clearing out their yarn stash. I thought I’d use it for for my next big crafting project, a crocheted blanket but as the yarn is, well, sunshine (read: oh-my-God-so-bright) yellow, I’ll have to get another one in a less retina-straining tone to calm it down a bit – and that means I’ll then have two of these hollow cones.

The one I’ve got at the moment is about 20cm (8″) tall and tapered to around 7cm (3″) in diameter at the base from around 2.5cm (1″) at the top. It’s made of heavy duty cardboard – so recyclable – but you know me*, I prefer to reuse instead of recycle. I’ve also seen a lot of similarly sized plastic cones about which aren’t so easily recyclable.

Since it’s a craft-related item, I’m sure there are loads of crafty reuses – but what about practical things too?

* if you don’t know me, hi, I’m Louisa. I like to reuse and repurpose random things. It’s nice to meet you.

I’m not brand loyal about many things but orange squash has to be Robinsons (full sugar, none of that sugar-free or high juice nonsense), baked beans have to be Heinz and brown sauce has to be HP, or at the very least Daddies.

Every now and then, I try other things because I hate habits, particularly habits that benefit huge corporations and sometimes this works out but other times it leaves me with an almost entire bottle of brown sauce on our condiments shelf and a nasty taste in my mouth. It is not going back in my mouth again – at least not as brown sauce.

I would be tempted to try it in cooking where I need something to add to the flavour but don’t need it to taste exactly like brown sauce but I’m wondering what else it could be used for too.

Now, I know that brown sauce, which Wikipedia informs me is similar to steak sauce in the US, has at least one other use: I used to use it to make coins shiny when I was a kid and evidently had too much time on my hands — so that makes me think it could be used for other cleaning purposes. I suspect it’s mostly the vinegar, combined with a slight abrasiveness from the solid particles in the sauce, that does the cleaning – but the brownness might get in the way of that.

So any suggestions?