- I’m a big fan of reusing milk bottles for all sorts of things and this idea for using them as stationery organisers is fantastic. If they were for use by little delicate hands, I’d be tempted to sticky-tape the cut edges to make them less sharp.
- Kristin from Craft Leftovers used the offcuts from fitting a bamboo blind to make coordinating twined coasters.
- Jan McNeil, a Sculpture & Photography student from the University of Ulster, emailed to ask if anyone has any old baby dummies/pacifiers lying around – she wants them for an art project. Get in touch if you’ve got some – or have any ideas for where she might be able to get them from – and I’ll pass your details/suggestions along.
- I love the idea of this toothbrush holder made out of old toothpaste tubes. (Although I’d want to make sure it was easy to clean – which, with the lips, I’m not sure it would be in this design).
- This reusable lunch bag how-to uses new shower curtains but it could equally be made from a clean old one. A great way to reuse to reduce.
Someone – a name didn’t make it through so I don’t know who – sent over some photos of a birthday table cloth made from old balloons: “I recycle my birthday ballons by gluing them to a clear plastic sheet, gotten in the fabric dept. They make a cute table cover for the party!”
Categories: art & crafts using recycled stuff, bathroom, packaging
Posted by louisa
on 10 August 2010
We’ve had an email from Julia, who work for the British High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.
She explained “I hate throwing away those clear plastic tops from crisp tubes… so started thinking” – and she came up with some reuses for her regional recycling newsletter:
– Use to cover a glass to prevent insects flying in
– Cover a glass for storage in a fridge
– Find the right sized cup and use as an air-tight top
– Punch holes in it, fit over cup and use as a shaker
– Use as a coaster
– Decorate with coloured markers and hang as sun catches
Great reuse ideas – anyone got any more suggestions? I’ve used them under plant pots before now but the lip is so shallow that they’re more like coasters rather than water-catching saucers.
What can you do with the tubes themselves? Any recycling ideas?
(Btw, I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for four years and not featured Pringles tubes yet!)
Read the rest of this entry »
Categories: food, items, kitchen, packaging
Posted by louisa
on 7 May 2010
We’ve had a message from Amy:
I have a large box of spare buttons, all odd, different colours, different sizes, the ones you get on items of clothes in case you lose one.
Does anyone have any useful suggestions for re-using? Looking forward to your suggestions
Woo! buttons! I love spare buttons! :)
And they’re a hot crafting item at the moment too: I love the idea of button bouquets, but there are also button coasters (perfect for lots of less exciting buttons), collages and using them as embellishments for boring shoes or tops.
My favourite pairs of earrings are made from buttons too: before I trained myself to wear dangly ones, I just glued by favourite buttons onto stud findings but now I’ve got a pair that are simply three colourful buttons on headpins – I wear them all the frickin’ time (even now as I type this ;) ).
Around the home, I’ve seen them used instead of gravel in clear fake-flower vases or on top of the soil in plant pots — and if you can’t think of a reuse for them, put them in a bag on eBay and button-cravers like me will snap them up ;)
Any other suggestions?
(Photo by nkzs)
Categories: clothes and fabric, household, items
Posted by louisa
on 20 April 2009
We’ve had an email from “The Hirst”:
We put wooden floor down and have about two boxes left over. The shop won’t taken them back because we opened all the packs by mistake and it’s not worth ebaying them because it would be enough for a full room or whatever. Can’t burn them because they’re MDF and laminate but I don’t want to just sling them into landfill. Any other options?
Don’t under estimate what people will buy on eBay – and to a greater extent, what people will use if given it on Freecycle. Two packs might be enough for a small bathroom or an narrow hallway.
If it was just a few slats though, and you didn’t want to keep them for spares, I bet you could do some fun things with them.
My father-in-love has mentioned people using it to make wood-effect table tops and I suspect there are loads of other places where you could use it in place of real wood in crafts/woodwork – it would create a strange but fun effect to have a number of different items in the same room (clocks, table-tops, coasters, picture frames, hell, pictures) made from the same pattern of wood.
Also, unless it’s really thick (and most of the laminate I’ve seen isn’t), it would make an awesome hardback cover for a notepad too.
Any other suggestions?
(Photo by Enoch Lai
Categories: household, items
Posted by louisa
on 12 December 2008
