As well as finding a myriad of broken belts while tidying our bedroom the other week, I found an assortment of old spectacle cases dotted around the room too.

Most of the glasses have gone bye-bye – either lost or, in the case of my beloved plastic frames last month, snapped in half – but the cases still linger. I use one case for my spare pair and have another for my sunglasses, but that still leaves me with four empties – hard ones from the opticians, from when I got the glasses in the first place. I obviously will try not to accept any more in the future but what can I do with the ones I’ve got now?

While there are a lot of charities that collect old spectacles for redistribution overseas, those that filter them onto Vision Aid Overseas won’t take the cases – because presumably they use their own branded cases or the like during the redistribution process.

So does anyone know of any charities that specifically ask for old cases? Or have any other suggestions of things to do with them?

(Photo by ppreacher)

(Well, snapped is too harsh of a word for it but I can’t think of a better one ;) )

John and I had a major tidy/clean of our bedroom at the weekend and as well as collecting three bags of stuff for the charity shop, a giant bag of unwanted plastic coathangers and organising my crafting fabric stash, I found five old belts dating back over the last few years.

Two are woven straps that fastened with D-loops or those annoying slider buckles that come loose really easily. Both are quite fun designs so I’m thinking maybe casual bag strap?

The other three I got after I realised how much I hated D-loops/slider fasteners and are the more convention stick-and-holes style. The top six inches of those have pretty much fallen off – not surviving the repeated bending over the buckle and through the loops. I could trim the end neatly but would have to lose a bit of weight in order for the shortened belt to fit. And by “a bit of weight”, I mean my pelvis.

So what can I do with them instead? From end to end, they’re about 60cm (24″) and about 3cm (1.5″) wide. They’re pleather – which is, I suspect, why they’ve broken – with metal decorations. One of them (the black one with square studs on it) might work as a wrist cuff or as a “I’m well ‘ard” decoration on a bag ;)

Any other suggestions though?

We’ve had an email from Jess:

Is there anything I can do with onion skins instead of just throwing them in the compost? I remember reading about using them to dye eggs at one point but I don’t want to dye eggs! Any other ideas?

Ours always go straight in the compost – usually because I’m getting into a panic about making the rest of the onion-based meal (burning! where’s the stock!? argh, we’re out of cheese! etc etc) – but I like the idea of doing something more with them too.

Apparently you can use them for dyeing other wool or cotton based things and not just eggs, but cotton stuff doesn’t tend to be very colour-fast so maybe use it for artwork or hardly-washed soft furnishings instead of your new favourite tshirt.

Is there anything else that can be done with them? Other practical or crafty suggestions? Or culinary ones (I have half a memory of them being good for reducing the taste of burnt stews…?)?

(Photo by grafbea)

I always thought wooden transport pallets were one of those things that were reused ad infinitum – or at least until they fall apart – because of those “pallets wanted” signs around industrial-type estates near motorway or, say, the docks in Liverpool (somewhere we frequent more than most people because ooh! cool industrial stuff!). But lately, I’ve started to see them dumped around various places, suggesting it’s not worth people’s bother to take them to one of those “wanted” place.

(Tsk, people, eh? The worst is the dozen or so I saw dumped down the road from us last night – one road down from a household waste site. I guess they either didn’t want to wait for it to open, didn’t want to have to pay to leave them there or didn’t want to find somewhere to take them for reuse even though they clearly had a truck to get them there in the first place. Grr.)

Anyway, reusing them. John’s dad reclaimed the wood from a couple of old pallets to make a fence for his brother’s garden. I’ve also heard about cleaner, nicer ones being spruced up a bit (sanded to remove the roughest bits and varnished) to make a futon base.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by Gastonmag)

It’s Guy Fawkes Night in the UK today and so all over the country people will be eating toffee apples, warming their hands on the glow of a bonfire and making things go BOOM.

I’m not a great fan of Bonfire Night – I don’t like apples, I have a (what I consider to be healthy) fear of fire and we’ve had fireworks going off on our estate for the last month (mostly in daylight… I … don’t understand) so the novelty has somewhat worn off – but most people seem to dig it so come tomorrow morning there will be lots of left over ashes in gardens up and down the land.

So what can you do with them?

If you’re reasonably sure the wood (etc) burned in the fire was untreated/unpainted then the ashes can be composted – but too many will turn the heap too alkaline. It can also be used as a fertiliser – but with the same precaution.

Any other ideas?

(Photo by ma_makki)