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)

We’ve had an email from Wen Rou (from Chile!):

Hi, I’ve got a box with cans of expired beer, how can I recycle it? The empty cans I’ll take them to the recycling center. I can just throw the beer away, just wondering if anything useful can be made with it.

If you’ve got a snail & slug-infested garden, the most obvious suggestion is to use it for beer traps to catch those slippery suckers. From what I’ve seen, they’re not fussy whether it’s lager, ale, in date, premium or the cheapest nastiest stuff sold in our supermarket for 88p for four cans (John tried the latter and said it tasted like bitter, gone-off water).

Beer is also supposed to be good for hair – mix with water as a final-rinse aid. It apparently leaves it silky and shiny – but I don’t know whether that needs a yeasty ale-type beer or whether a lager will do. (Anyone know?)

Any other suggestions for either this expired beer or other related stuff, like the sediment-y bit at the bottom of bottles/barrels?

(Stock photo by macleod)

We’ve had another email from Lyndall, asking:

i was wondering if you knew what i could do with the foil top of milk bottles?

I remember a Blue Peter fundraising appeal from circa 1985 that involved us collecting them for charity but now charities – like Southampton’s Gift of Sight appeal – seem to collect plastic ones instead.

Since they’re just foil, they can be recycled along with other foil products – we can include it in our doorstep recycling.

But what about reuses?

(Photo by LHMike)

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)

An OMG-how-haven’t-we-featured-that-yet!! post today: tissue paper.

I just came across a giant sheet of it as packaging in a Chinese Chequers box and as I was folding it to put in my craft drawer, I realised we hadn’t used it on the site.

So I can keep it around for future packaging purposes and combining it with a comb might win me a place in a popular music combo – but what else can I do with it?