A suggestion from Heather:

I’m so bad. Every day, I buy those prepacked sandwiches rather than making my own. Sometimes I go to Pret and buy cardboard and cellophane wrapped ones, and sometimes I go to the yummy bakery up the road and get them just wrapped in cellophone but most of the time, sigh, I have to get those standard pre-packaged sandwiches in the triangular plastic wastefulness. I do feel bad while I eat them and not just because the sandwiches are bland and tasteless yet just cost me £2. What can I do with the packaging when I’m done with it?

(Photo by Asterisco, c/o sxc.hu)

Wire coat hangers? Easy peasy of course; I often find myself craving wire coat hangers just so I can reuse them – perfect stiff but malleable wire for all sorts of household and garden uses, as well as craft stuff.

But plastic ones from shops? With those, I’m at a loose end. The vast majority of clothes I buy are super casual t-shirts & tops but the shops always try to insist I take the hangers too even though the t-shirts have “I will live in a drawer” stamped all over them (well, not literally. Except on that one shirt).

Knickers too. Who on earth hangs knickers up apart from shops? Those hangers are the worse because they’re so flimsy you can’t even reuse them as hangers around the home.

I always say ‘no, thanks’ when asked about hangers – and try to mention it if they don’t ask – but I don’t always get a chance and so we have a surplus around the house. I’m also rather sceptical about what happens to, particularly the flimsy ones, when left in the shop: am I just leaving it from them to throw away instead of me?

Sigh. So any ideas? Anyone know of any recycling companies collecting clothes hangers? Any reuses or upcycling ideas?

(Photo by Capgros)

For some reason, all our towels have decided to go threadbare at exactly the same time. Well, when I say “ALL our towels”, I mean the top two bathsheets and hand towels that are in the endless use/wash/cupboard/use/wash… cycle – the ones underneath those in the stack are, presumably, fine since we’ve not used them for years (we’re not thoughtful enough to rotate stuff like that).

So anyway, we have a holey bathsheet and two holey handtowels – both gone in pretty much the centre and in patches elsewhere – so my initial idea of chopping them down into flannels/smaller towels has been somewhat eliminated.

Any suggestions about how they can be reborn? Any crafts/upcycling ideas?

(Photo by jellofishy, c/o sxc.hu)

Oh, I hate trying to photograph transparent things but oh how I love muffins. Sweet, sweet muffins with your sugar and your chocolate and your ability to crumble all over my clean white t-shirts (thanks muffin, thaaaaanks).

How I love the way you’re there for me in the morning when I want a snack and how well you coordinate with both tea and orange juice (although not both beverages at the same time, bleugh).

But how I hate your packaging: its formed plastic and its inability to photograph well. Boo! Boo!

If only there were some other uses for your packaging so I could enjoy your goodness without feeling green guilty at the same time…

(Today’s post brought to you c/o a muffin-induced sugar rush)

Another suggestion from SaraR:

Hi guys. Thanks for the great ideas for what to do with the leftover coffee – I told one of my colleagues and now she’s taking it home to use on her garden.

Anyway, I have another one for you based on another of my naughty addictions – red wine. We have a number of cork-corks and plastic-corks lying around the house and add to the number regularly, but I don’t know what to do with them. Do you have any ideas?

We’re not wine drinkers so we don’t have much call to reuse or recycle wine corks or the plastic synthetic equivalents so any suggestions for SaraR would be very useful indeed.

I know there are a number of popular wine cork crafts – most commonly noticeboards or trivets – anyone got any specific favourites?
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