Had an email last week from Kate Spencer. She had lots of good ideas for ways we can develop the sites (thanks Kate!) and a couple of suggestions so here’s the first:

I’m busy tidying up after Christmas, and because I have a 3 year old I have lots of those annoying plastic ties that manufacturers use to fasten toys into the packaging.

She realises there are some obvious reuses – such as bag-ties, “I fastened our Christmas lights onto our balcony with them” and to tie-up plants in the garden – but wanted to know if anyone has any other suggestions.

For anyone not familiar with what she means, it’s little thin strips of wire coated in plastic that can be bent over and the ends twisted together to make a secure (ish) tie. They’re also used in computer components packaging and that sort of thing. The photo is of the lightweight sandwich bag equivalent – because I couldn’t find any others. : )

(Oh, and happy new year everyone!)

So, another year comes to an end this weekend and that’ll mean that a whole load of 2006 diaries and calendars will the heading to the rubbish heap.

If you have calendars with pretty pictures on, I guess you can cut out the picture to keep for future use/enjoyment, but what about other calendars now that you no longer care about the dentist appointment you had last August or your reminder to buy milk in May?

And what about all those used desk diaries and pocket diaries?

And on a bigger scale, what about those year planners hung on the wall of every office?

(Photo by ask)

At this time of year, a lot people end up eating more than their of own body weight in individually wrapped chocolates and as pleasurable as it is to undo all those little tiny chocolately presents, it’s a whole lot of packaging going to waste too.

Around here (and at my mum and dad’s house), said wrappers instantly become cat toys but ones that are only interesting until the point the cat actually catches them (fickle cats that they are).

So what else can we do with them once the cats are bored? I’m thinking particularly those ones that fold out to be squares of transparent plastic or foil because they seem to be the most obviously reusable but any suggestions are welcome, of course.

(Photo by Gastonmag – insert your own “But Ambassador…” joke here)

A whole load of people are going to have whole load of leftover turkey later on today. Turkey meat and bones probably; giblets and flappy neck skin maybe.

Has anyone got any recipes or other suggestions of how the great Christmas leftover turkey mountain can be used up?

(And if you’re interested: we’ve already covered greetings/Christmas cards and wrapping paper elsewhere, if you want suggestions on how to reuse that sort of thing : ) )

(Photo by LuisFico of a very cool tree made from light)

In a completely un-me moment of organised and forward planning, I was looking for a pen the other day to write something on shopping list. I turned to the pot of random pens that I put together in another completely un-me moment of organised and forward planning. Unfortunately given the long time-lapse between those two periods, all the ink in all those pens had completely dried up. I ended up scratching letter-shaped holes in the shopping list instead. Useful.

So what can I do with all those old pens? Can I rescue them? Can I reuse their skins? Most of them are cheap (usually promotional) biros but there are also some felt tip types. Any suggestions?

(Photo by nazreth)