Archive for the "items" category

How can I reuse or recycle … ice lolly sticks?

Ice lolly sticksCor, it’s a bit on the warm side, isn’t it?

Aside from an excellent storm last night, it’s been silly-hot (for the UK at least) and sticky. I have very much enjoyed hiding in the house and only venturing out in the evening when it’s all a bit more civilised. My house-bound activities have been:

  • peeling myself off the leather sofa (ick)
  • cursing my overheating laptop
  • and eating ice lollies.

Therefore I now have:

  • a rug over the sofa
  • a pad between my knee and the laptop
  • and a big pile of ice lolly sticks.

My first thought for the sticks was keeping them for labelling up next year’s veg plot but since I have already have a stack of the plastic ones to use up, any other suggestions would be great!


How can I reuse or recycle … contact lens containers?

Contact lens packagingA suggestion from Jo:

My husband and I are both on a monthly contact lens package. We are accumulating vast numbers of lenses cases which I do not have the heart to just chuck in the bin! There must be something you can do with them other than make salt & pepper containers for when you go camping!

I await inspiration!

I’m a glasses gal so I haven’t faced this problem – but I’d love to hear if other people have used them for anything or if anyone’s got any suggestions : )

(Photo by jocan)


How can I reuse or recycle … pizza boxes?

Pizza in a box
It’s Friday and it’s been a busy week at Recycle This Mansions so we are, I very much suspect, going to be dialling in for food tonight.

We’re lucky that we’ve got a few good pizza places in the vicinity so will be on cheese-highs by bedtime (weee, cheese dreams!) but we’ll wake up remorseful tomorrow, after our binge tonight, because we won’t know what to do with the cardboard pizza boxes that will be covering the living room floor.

We usually just fling them in the cardboard-recycling bin but any other suggestions?


How can I reuse or recycle … mascara wands?

Mascara brush

Little brushes on sticks.

Oh you look so useful with your littleness and your brushiness.

But how? How? How can I use you again?

(Photo by Vixs)


How can I reuse or recycle … old mouse mats?

A mouse on a mousematThey seem to be one of those things that we used to absentmindedly collect, back in the day when everyone thought it was a great idea to give away promotional mousemats or that it was *the* cheap and cheerful present to buy anyone who ever admitted to using a computer.

Given our hoarding nature, we still have a number around the house and as useful as a 2002 Dell-sponsored calendar would be to me on a day to day basis (“hmm, my birthday was a Saturday that year, how interesting”), I have a trackpad mouse now so the mats as a whole are pretty much pointless.

(On the rare occasion when I use a plug-in mouse, it’s an optical one and I use a curled up cat as a mousemat, just for the irony.)

So, we’ve got a few plastic ones and a couple of fuzzy, fabric ones to reuse. Any suggestions?

(Original photo by Vixs)