We’ve had a “clever reuse” email from Terri:

I’ve been using old washing powder boxes instead of box files. I get the big flip top lid boxes and they’re really sturdy and stackable. Much better than recycling the cardboard and buying new boxes!

Great idea, Terri.

Some powders are very perfumed or smell strongly of chemicals so you’d probably have to be careful about storing certain things in there but they’ll be perfect for things .. you won’t be licking ;)

We’ve asked about reducing the amount of washing powder packaging used but anyone got any other ideas for reusing the boxes?

We helped a friend of ours move out of his house at the weekend. He’s going away to India for a few months and needed to get out of his rented house before heading off. Because he’d left everything to the last minute, he told us on Friday that he was just going to “bin everything” he wasn’t keeping, prompting my green nerve to twitch violently and me to volunteer our services to take it all to a local charity shop instead. (If I didn’t know better, I would swear he did it on purpose…)

We ended up taking four full carloads of furniture, clothes, books and bits & bobs to the charity shop and wombled another two bulging carloads for ourselves – including a nearly new bike which we gave to our neighbour and a big box of random food items from his kitchen cupboard. We’ll use most of it in time (there were 27 cans of baked beans, 16 cans of tuna and 5 jars of horseradish sauce – it’ll take quite some time!) but it made me realise that while the charity shop we were visiting took nearly everything, they didn’t take food – so what could be done with them if we didn’t want them?

I know that sometimes schools, churches or community groups have canned food drives at certain times of the year – often around this time of the year, as harvest festivals – but what about when they’re not collecting? I suspect shelters would welcome food stuffs but probably more along the lines of those 27 cans of baked beans rather than the single cans of lots of different diverse foods (including, almost other things, a can of reindeer meat) – things that lead themselves to mass catering.

There is so much food wasted at the moment – in-date food that people have bought on a buy one, get one frees but then not liked the first one – that there must be better ways to collect and redistribute it.

Do any charity shops collect it? Are there any organisations that oversee collection and redistribution, leaving collection bins in public places (like some animal shelters have bins for pet food donations supermarkets)? Do you have any other recommendations for how to pass it on?

(The photo is of the 27 cans of baked beans and the single can of reindeer meat. I wasn’t joking.)

Last week’s post about super thick rope made me think about climbing ropes.

For safety reasons, they have to be replaced regularly – I read someone suggest they are replaced when the outer layer gets to a level of fuzziness comparable to a wool blanket or if they’ve sustained a fall – but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be used for other non-life-risking purposes.

Because they’re a thin but strong, lightweight rope, they’ll be great for a huge number of practical purposes around the home and garden – supporting tree branches, tying down roof racks, generally tying, um, things to other things…

But can they actually be recycled? They’re usually polyamide/nylon but are there any particular places that collect them for recycling?

And has anyone made any fun things with them? I wonder if they could be coiled up to make a fun basket or something… Any ideas?

We’ve had an email from Kacy, asking:

What can I do with a gazebo tent? The ones you put over barbecues in the garden.

Pop-up gazebos have been very popular in the UK over the last few years because they’re a quick and easy way to provide shade from the blazing hot sun (or, more likely, from the endless drizzle) – but because they’re so popular, they’re often cheaply made and not that stable or long lasting. They’re usually a polyester (or the like) cover over a steel tube frame, some with sides to make a full tent and some with guy ropes for extra stability.

The steel poles can be used instead of canes around the garden. I suspect most probably wouldn’t be strong enough to use as a frame for a pergola – the weight of the plants might be too much for it.

The fabric cover could probably be used in a lot of same reuses as other tents – suggestions include using it to make bags & kites, using it as a pond liner or to make small shades for kids/people fishing.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Carolyn asking what she can do with some plastic buckets that have “split at the bottom”.

The first ideas that spring to mind take advantage of the fact it’s now not water tight – use it as a garden planter or an upside down planter next summer. You might even have to add more holes to it to allow adequate drainage or for more shoots to poke through.

You can also very easily use it as a caddy too – but patch the split/hole with something like duct tape so stop the split spreading any further and to stop little things falling out. You could use it for holding brushes/tools while you’re up a ladder, for fruit/veg collection or for dumping weeds in while working around the garden (saving multiple trips to the compost bin).

I’m sure there are lots of other uses around the garden too – what do you do with them?