Archive for the "items" category

How can I reuse or recycle old mobile phones?

Mobile phone

I think this is up there with printer toner and ink cartridges: lots of places – including some charities – take them to reuse or recycle – but does anyone have any particularly noteworthy suggestions?



How can I reuse or recycle … pizza box support things?

Pizza box support thingThis (albeit badly photographed) pizza box support thing has been sat around on our table since we last had take out pizza.

It looks infinitely useful in a misc supportive way but aside from as a patio in a dolls house, we can’t think of anything to do with it.

Any suggestions?

(If you don’t know what I mean by that stunningly vague name I’ve given the entry, it’s about 3cm high and about 2cm in diameter and it is put in the middle of the pizza box to stop the centre of the box caving in when boxes are stacked or stuff, like side orders, are balanced on top of the box. They’re very useful to avoid sticky cheese situations.)


How can I reuse or recycle … cake packaging?

Cake packagingAs previous posts may have indicated, I have rather a sweet tooth and from time to time, treat myself with cake or biscuit related products.

When we buy them, we don’t fool around and usually get full sized cakes or at least loaf-shaped ones but sometimes we get fiddly, little individual ones like this pack of Viennese Swirls. Mmm, swirly.

The Swirls came in a cardboard box then inside that, nestled in a formed plastic nest. The plastic is really thin and flimsy but still… Any suggestions?


How can I reuse or recycle … old ties?

A hideous tieContinuing on from the tidying “rampage” mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve been sorting through our old clothes in the bedroom.

In addition to the clothes we wear regularly, we have a couple of boxes of old clothes on the top of the wardrobe. These are the clothes that we will wear again just as soon as we lose the required weight, height or fashion hindsight that caused them to be banished to the boxes in the first place. Periodically, these boxes get sorted through again and the “nah, I’m not going to be a size 10 again in a hurry” cast-offs get sent to the charity shop.

But there is some stuff that isn’t really suitable for charity shops – because they’re damaged or stained, or hideous travesties against everything that is good and/or pure — like these old ties of John’s.

Aside from sending them to be recycled for their fabric, any reuses?


How can I reuse or recycle … rusty screws, nails and assorted bits?

Nuts and screwsCompletely out of character, I went on a bit of a tidying rampage at the weekend. Well, I sorted out some boxes in the spare room and the storage chest in the living room – that’s a rampage for me.

Amongst the random bits of paper (recycled/composted) and unnecessary household objects like two phones even though we don’t have a landline (charity shopped/Freecycled), I found various nuts, bolts and screws in various states of rusting. I added these to the ice cream tubs of random nuts, bolts, screws, washers, hinges etc that we have in the cellar and it made me wonder if we’d ever get around to using them.

We dip into the boxes whenever we need a fixing but we just don’t need enough of them to make any headway through the tubs and we tend to pick the least rusty ones when we do need something – so what can we do with the rusty rest?

(Photo by fugue, who seems to have a similar collection)