Archive for the "items" category

How can I reuse or recycle old tights/stockings?

TightsI used to wear skirts quite a lot so, given I live in the chilly north of England, I bulk bought tights (or stockings, but mostly tights) whenever I had a bargainacious opportunity. Still, with the help of nail varnish for emergency repairs, I managed to keep them going until they were grey, shapeless, snagged nylon sacks. Attractive imagery, I know.

Now those many, many sexy garments are taking up valuable space in my underwear drawer but I can’t bring myself to throw them away, no matter how unlikely it is that I’ll ever wear them again. I’m sure there are hundreds of things to do with them but am really at a loss to think exactly what. So, any suggestions?
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How can I reuse or recycle spent coffee grounds?

Coffee grounds on a blue plateA suggestion from SaraR:

Hi guys. I’ve got one for you. We drink filter coffee every day at work – a couple of pots a day – and if I remember, I bag up the leftover grounds and throw them on my compost heap at home. But are there any other ways I can reuse or recycle them instead of just dumping them in there? I get such funny looks on the bus on the way home so it would be great if there was some way use them at work too!

Thanks!!
-SaraR

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How can I reuse or recycle old carpet?

Old carpetOne of my projects for the summer is to redecorate the attic room – partly because we’ll need an office up there soon but mostly because I’ve been intending to decorate it for the best part of six years now and it’s getting beyond a joke.

Given the “yeah, I’ll do it this year” attitude to decorating it for the past two-thirds of a decade, we’ve not been that careful on the carpet up there – it’s covered in soot (from trips under the eaves), paint (from when I knocked over some tester pots when I was thinking of painting it a couple of years ago) and blobs of plaster (from the proposed decorating moment before that). And it’s a impractically pale colour that was put in at least a few years before I moved into the house.

So… a bit of future recycling planning because we haven’t the room to store it – what can I do with an old, slightly manky carpet?
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How can I use up stale bread?

Slices of brown, multigrain breadSome weeks, we get through a loaf of bread in about a minute and a half and other times, we have a couple of slices of toast the day we get the loaf and the rest just sits there forlornly as we fill up with other carbohydrates instead. This week is somewhere inbetween and we’ve got about half a loaf left.

But what, oh what, can I do with it?

I suspect throwing it all out to the birds would a) be overkill since they can’t eat that much and b) literally overkill, because of the cats (or at least overpounce-and-miss because our cats are tubby and generally inept when it comes to that sort of thing) but it seems such a waste to just throw it in the bin.

Any suggestions?
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How can I reuse or recycle anti-perspirant bottles?

Anti-perspirant roll-on bottlesWe flipped to roll-on ones from aerosol anti-perspirants for environment reasons – both big, out-there environment (the aerosol bit) and little, in-here environment (the spray quickly made the bathroom unpleasant as it deodorised your lungs) – but now we’re left with lots of roll-on bottles instead.

I suspect the bottle and the ball are different types of plastic so am wary to throw them in the recycling bin – anyone know if they can be recycled? Does it help if you pop the ball out first?

But better than that, are there any reuses for them? Either complete or in parts.

And what about stick deodorant containers (the narrower, ball-less ones)?
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