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

farmergerry

Do some of these, a lot more before we moved to a house with no garden, from a house on a farm

Main ones I do now are using newspapers to line the guinea pig cage, and then covering with the contents from the shredder. Then roll up to empty, keeps everything cleaner.

When I make batter, I make far more than needed and pour the remains into an empty milk bottle and store in the fridge for upto 4 days.

Also use the water from the tumble dryer condensor to use in the iron, with a drop of lavender essential oil - far cheaper than usual ironing water LOL

Cheers

LittleVoice

Genmod55 wrote: »

Quote:
Originally Posted by cestlavie
all envelopes sent with credit card statements that are paid online are similarly reused with the use of a new address label to pay completely different bills.


I have often thought of doing this until someone told me it was illegal, not sure if they were just trying to frighten me or if it is true?

The envelopes sent with credit card statements usually require a stamp to be affixed. (They are not BRS envelopes where the recipient pays when the item is received.) Thus it is fine to use the envelopes with a label over the original address because you still have to pay postage.

If you try to use a BRS envelope by putting another address over the original one, the new recipient will not be the original company which agreed to pay the postage (according to the BRS licence number). Therefore, while not "illegal", doesn't actually mean that the postage is covered. Of course companies do often refer to these BRS envelopes as "pre-paid". They aren't pre-paid but will be postage paid if they are actually used to send things back to them.

What is illegal is to take stamps off an envelopes which have not been franked (but the envelope has been delivered by Royal Mail) and then to try to use them to pay postage for another item. That is because the value of the stamp has been used in the first transit. There is no value actually left in the token (stamp) and to suggest that there is and that postage has been paid for the second journey is fraudulent.

mrs_smurf

I reused baby food jars to make and hold Jelly for my other childs school packed lunch. About 1-2 cubes was just right (if i remember correctly). Worked out at just a few pence each. They also made nice tea light holders too.

Also thinking about re-using the baby clothes and making owl cushions for the living room... (dont kow if u have seen them on ebay etc .. but they are quite expensive but look lovely .... hope i can have a go and make them myself.

All cardboard goes to 2 happy gerbils.

carrier bags get used as rubbish bags / nappy bags etc.

I always have use for boxes/tins etc...hate throwing anything away.

edwink

I keep all my Christmas and birthday cards (the bit without the writing on) and use them for making notes and shopping lists. If you need to remind yourself about something they stand up on a kitchen worktop leaning againt the wall, never forget things that way.

When running water to fill the sink for washing up you always run quite a bit of cold water down the sink first until you get the hot water. I always collect mine in 2 ltr milk cartons and use it to water the indoor plants. Saves money if you are on a water meter. You can even use it to flush the downstairs loo, 2 ltrs is ample for this.

Edwink x

elsien

Back to the gardening theme, I use the clear plastic meat trays from the supermarkets for sowing seeds. The smaller ones as the seed trays and the larger ones for the cover as a sort of home made propogator.
And I make copper rings to keep the slugs off by putting copper tape round rings cut out of pop bottles. I'm also told that you can use copper wire from old leads in the same way.

bluebiro

I reuse plates and make cake and muffin stands. Got a bit carried away though and now most of the family have them but saved me a fortune in birthday presents.

Eenymeeny

I always pick up a free newspaper when travelling on the bus.
They come in handy for so many things that have been mentioned already on here.
I use them to wrap vegetable peelings before going into the compost which helps to dry up soggy compost.I also use them when firing up my log burner and lining my recycle cardboard box to soak up drips from washed bottles and tins. The box eventually gets added to recycling or compost and a 'new' old box is reused.
(A bus driver friend tells me that any papers left at the end of the day all go into landfill, so win win!)

happy_miser

I agree with fizzzlebottom about reducing the amount of washing powder in your machine.

I only ever use the dryer to part-dry my towels so they are fluffier, everything else I hang up straight away. I had a problem with the towels taking forever to even part-dry and they were stiffish, so I assumed the dryer was broken. I was already reducing the powder quantity from the recommended dose, but when the Miele service engineer told me I was still using four times more powder than I needed to (with soft water), I was amazed. He said the powder wasn't being rinsed out properly and that was causing my problem - there was nothing wrong with the machine. He was quite correct, when I dramatically reduced the powder, the towels were still clean, they dried in a quarter of the time and I saved electricity and powder.

We've had the Miele for over 15 years and it's still going strong - fingers crossed!

BigMummaF

I always look at something with a critical eye before letting it escape to the municipal recycling/landfill bins.

A metal shelving unit (like you'd put in a garage m'be) had a role in the hall, tucked up close to the coat hooks to hold school bags, trainers & shoes. When we 'remodelled' it then became a hi-rise garden to provide some prevention from the slugs & other less-favoured wildlife.


I've seen some lovely peg & duster bags, & pouches for keeping hankies or hosiery safe made from babies' dresses especially. Scarves & tea towels make cushion covers & I cut the (bottom of) legs from their dad's jeans. 'Embroidered' whichever's Offspring's name in brightly coloured thread then sewed a circle of denim (cut from higher up the leg of said jeans) in the cut end before making a hole in the hemmed end & threaded thru a sturdy cord to make a 'dolly bag' for p.e. shoes etc.

Dolly_Mixture

I save all the plastic "envelopes" that magazines come in and use them instead of plastic bags in the kitchen. When I buy sausages or bacon, I put 2 slices of bacon or 2 sausages in to these plastic bags and freeze them. When I defrost the meat, the bags can go straight in the bin. I also re-use as many plastic sandwich bags as possible by washing them out (unless they have had meat in them). Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I haven't had time to read through the whole thread.