A suggestion from vweiss:

What can I do to reuse the little mini-wine bottles? I keep collecting them…hate to throw them even in the recycle bin as they seem practical to use for something?! They are so cute. There must be a creative use for them.

I don’t know whether vweiss means those half-wine bottles (which usually have a screw lid) – if so, that can probably be included with the previous narrow-necked bottles post – or the collectable miniatures, like the ones you get in overpriced mini-bars, but let’s presume the latter.

So any suggestions?

(Photo by wax115)

As I’ve said before, we’re not cleaning obsessives in this house but when we do clean, we’re the cleaning hardcore.

Cleaning sessions usually start with the hunt for a scrubbing brush, then follow with the application of gallons of elbow grease (we bulk-buy, it’s cheaper), then end with an exclamation of “oh! I forgot it was that colour!”

We’ve got a couple of scrubbing brushes lurking under sinks at the moment, all with the bristles somewhat bent out, tired from all the exertion. They’re still quite clean though (since we tended to use a lot of water and soap with the elbow grease) so it seems a shame to through them out but their effectiveness as scrubbing brush seems to have lessened somewhat.

Any suggestions about what we can do with them instead? Or how to bring them back to life?

(Photo by sparkules)

This one is from my mum.

She buys branded washing powder tablets quite regularly and each time gets a little net in the box. The idea is the tablets go in the net and then in the washing machine, and if you don’t use the net, then all hell breaks loose and demons run the earth (or something).

Anyway, as she just told me on IM: “i’ve got quite a lot of those bags,usually stick them under the sink or hang them in tall cupboard for storage” but it seems they just stay in storage.

Any suggestions on what she can do with them?

(If you can’t see the picture clearly, here’s a description of what I mean: they’re little nylon string nets with a drawstring at the top, and the drawstring has a toggle attached so you can close it up, stopping the tablet from falling out during the wash cycle. Because if it did fall out, hell, demons, etc etc.)

I’ve caught wind recently about a company that recycles tetrapak. Since the stuff is getting everywhere, even where it’s not needed, these days, it’s nice to see that someone is recycling it on a large scale.

But what about reuses around the home and garden before sending it off for recycling?

Any suggestions?

(Sorry for the missing post yesterday – our internet connection died. Boo.)

Anyway, orange peel. I know large quantities are bad for compost heaps and wormeries because the worms don’t tend to be fond of it (particularly when it’s fresh) but it’s such a shame to just throw it away.

Any suggestions for it or related peelings?

(Photo by canoncan)