The Great 'Are you a re-user - what items do you reuse for max value?' Hunt

edwink

We have hens a ducks and like to give them treats like potato peelings and brocolli and cauliflower. We do not always have veg for our supper. So I have asked some of the neighbours if I could have their veg trimmings instead of them putting them in their council composting bins. Now my neighbours when passing my front garden tie a carrier bag with the vegs bits in to my garden gate and I just go out the front from time to time and collect them. My hens and ducks now have extra bits to eat for free. My neighbours were so willing to do this for us as they think it is great that we recycle so much and want to support us and our feathered friends. We have actually been left whole cabbages and lettuces and big lumps of sweetcorn. It is amazing what people actually throw out, as long as it is not mouldy it is great for the hens and ducks.

Edwink

annelouise_2

I am currently making a small herb garden using 3/4 buried upside down wine bottles as the border.
Didn't want to pay for any items from the garden /hardware store and came across this on a forum.
Looks great,my friends and neighbours are " helping " me get enough wine bottles and I will add top soil and compost when complete and plant away.

Secondly I have a thing about cutting the hanging ribbons from the inside of clothes to reuse as decorative ribbons on HM gifts of relish,lemon butter,dukka,pasta sauce.

I use an old metal " trash can " lidded container for my neighbours chicken scraps.Lid keeps pests away and it is easily transportable to the bottom of the garden to feed the chooks.

Any plastic food,mainly bakery or fruit trays I keep to display hamper style gifts.Only keep a few of each or we'd be drowning in stuff.




annelouise

Horasio

My OH bought some knickers which came in a poppered plastic bag. I use this bag to protect my passport and driving licence. Causes some amusement on my travels as well:D

Firemunchkin

annelouise wrote: »

I am currently making a small herb garden using 3/4 buried upside down wine bottles as the border.
Didn't want to pay for any items from the garden /hardware store and came across this on a forum.

How are you doing this please?

Firemunchkin

My work has beautiful flowers in the main reception - and they get THROWN AWAY every week and replaced with new ones. I found last week's in the bin on Monday this week, I was enraged!

So today I took them home myself! I did get some funny looks on the train, but with a bit of careful trimming here and there I have two beautiful bunches in my lounge. I've also kept the very handy green ties that I didn't need when rearranging them.

For the sake of not wasting - I've also kept a glass bottle which had thai sweet chilli sauce in it. The sauce is over two years old so was being thrown away (neither of us were willing to risk it) but this forum has made me think twice about just chucking the glass bottle away. Cleaned up it's a nice looking bottle, and we can put our own home made sweet chilli sauce into it!

Those teeny pots you get with your takeaway curry which contain the chutneys are great for putting 1/2 juice of a lemon in and then freezing. We had a surplus of lemons which needed to get used up so we have 10 little pots in the freezer ready for cooking/baking, plus another couple of pots with the grated zest!

:beer:

Firemunchkin

And I've just noticed that I have an old Douwe Egberts coffee jar reused to keep my rooibus teabags in, and another screw lid jar for the herbal teas. Plus, a reused tapas dish for putting the teabags in after making a cup of tea. Means they go into the compost dry and not wet.

Also have started bringing home the napkins you get when you buy your work lunch - they always give 2 or 3 but you only need 1. I don't buy lunch at work very often but when I do those napkins are just as useful at home.

This week, I cut the side off an empty box which had cans of diet coke in. It's the perfect size to go in my tupperware drawer to keep things organised.

hummingbird

I had a bunch of flowers that had lasted a good 2 weeks, and I was about to throw them out - then decided to shorten the stems, take off the wilting foliage etc, refresh the water and they looked lovely for another week!:j

hummingbird

I've also re-used an old Cointreau bottle (that had taken me several years to empty - I'd originally bought it to add a splash to a recipe). It's looking lovely as a container/money box.;)

tenuissent

I enjoyed the message about rescuing flowers from work.

I'm not sure if I should admit this, but walking round Highgate Cemetery with family some years ago, I noticed piles of absolutely fresh looking tulips and other flowers on a rubbish/compost heap, and piled the best of them under the current baby's pushchair. I suppose (having been to a funeral recently) that this is what happens to the lovely flowers people buy to show respect and regret - they get chucked on the compost heap as soon as the burial is over?

mishmogs

I was using an old plastic measuring cup as my washing powder scoop but the handle broke, now I use the ice cream scoop and if the washing is mucky then I too add some washing soda.

For some reason, when the young uns walk home past my house after a night out, they sometimes leave beer glasses which are obviously cleaned and reused.

I have some self set fennel is my garden and they have grown 7'+ and when I cull them for the winter period I keep the long straight stems and reuse them as plant/net supports.

When on holiday last year, I bought a lovely wooden planter with plants in and I have reused that planter twice now, its sat on my sitting room window sill with six hydranga bulbs in.

will post more when I remember them!