As I mentioned in passing the other day, we hacked up a very old sofa at the weekend. We wanted to give it away for re-use as a sofa but it was in frankly awful condition – thanks to the cats and just years and years of use – we got it at least third hand after it had been a family sofa then used at some offices.

We stripped it down before getting rid of it though – I covered the sofa foam on Monday, the wooden frame has gone into a scrap/fire wood pile, and we’re going to see if we can use the (flat) springs as some kinda notice board and/or use as a support for french beans in the garden next summer.

We also cut off the leather from the bits that weren’t utterly ruined/torn – mostly the back of the sofa and the backs of cushions. They’re quite a soft leather with nice, clean suede on the other side. But what can we do with it?

I always like practical suggestions but am open to crafty ones too – especially if I don’t need to buy special tools for it.

We’ve had an email from Sam:

I’ve just cut down a tree in my backyard. I’ll compost the leafy bits but the branches would take far too long to rot. What can I do with them? I thought about getting one of those chipper things but they’re expensive so do you have any other suggestions?

You could maybe rent a wood shredder – and see if any friends or anyone else in the neighbourhood has stuff to chop up and would be willing to share the cost – but it might cost more than you’re willing to spend.

If there are some reasonably straight and not too thick branches, you could use them as plant supports in the garden or if they’re quite flexible, make them a trellis for plants to climb up.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by Louchiere)

We’ve got a reasonably large pile of old upholstery/sofa foam – some flat and square, other bits random shaped.

We dismantled a very old (but beloved) sofa at the weekend – some of our collection came from that, with other cushions/padding from other people getting rid of sofas/cushions, or ones that have been used as padding during house moves at one time or another.

We’ve used some of the foam cushions to make a little sheltered bed in our greenhouse for the local stray cat but don’t know what to do with the rest of it.

Any suggestions?

We went through a baking spell a few months ago and bought a block of margarine to use in our cakes.

When the short-lived obsession ended, we still had a chunk of it left but we’re butter people – and not big spread users anyway – so it’s just sat at the back of the fridge. It’s now well beyond it’s use-by date – but still looks ok.

I don’t think we’d like to risk it in any future cake venture but since it’s certainly not rank or doing anyone any harm in there, we’re reluctant to throw it away just for the sake of it.

Are there any non-culinary uses for it? It’s a fat/oil after all so could it be used for any household tasks?

(Photo by bruno-free)

We’ve had another email from Am (who comments as Delusion), this time saying:

My partner is asthmatic and so goes through inhalers. It seems a waste to throw them out, I don’t think there is much to be done with reusing them though I may be wrong.

Does anyone know of anywhere these could be returned for reuse? Even if it is only the plastic outer casing?

My first thought would be to ask the chemist to not include the plastic part with each refill – but if they get the complete inhaler from the pharmaceutical company already packaged up, they probably would end up just throwing them out from the shop. Does anyone know what the situation is with this?

And what about suggestions for reuse? Or recycling the individual bits?

(Photo by Jenny Rollo)