[Tullywood Farm]

We have some great minds on here - and I thought a coffee lounge chat about recycling or re-using things would be a good subject after reading some good ideas on sandy's "stop posting interesting items"....

I am sure you all already do the basics -
Re-use egg boxes, for eggs or seedlings - you can plant them and they dissapear

Screw top wine bottles are great for elderflower champagne and fruit cordials and juicing.

Jam and Mayonnaise Jars to keep buttons, screws, food, more jam, storage of dry stuffs, i.e. coffee, tea, Pasta, flour, baking soda,anything that comes in a box or plastic and not a jar.

Sauce Bottles - especially HP, are great for keeping in flavoured oils, by adding herbs that you have grown or garlic to olive oil or sunflower oil for cooking with in the future and marinades made from herbs, peppers and lemon juice etc.

I keep all the clear plastic punnets that fruit and salads come in, to use in the greenhouse in the future as small seed pots or for my own tomatoes and fruit.

Clothes - the good material gets kept to make Tara things in the future, buttons are snipped off and kept in jars, and zips are kept.

Old bedding and curtains that I do not want I send to the orphanages and hospitals in Africa direct through a container shipping crew for an irish based charity - I know then that it get there.

Old pots and pans that are metal go to africa too, for hospitals to boil water in for medical use etc.

Any more - I am sure you have lots that  we can all use..

Look forward to your additions

Julie

[northfifeduckling]

most of the above 
I haven't made great experiences with egg boxes as seed trays (nor loo rolls), things are not coming on in them, so won't try that again, but I have lots of pots I can reuse 
all jars get re used for chutneys, jams and pesto

I just asked my mum for our old net curtains to cover up future cabbages and carrots,
unfolded large cardboard boxes go underneath the hay in the duck house, it absorbs the liquid poo nicely and I can just take it all out in a oner when cleaning the muck
more when I remember

[Tullywood Farm]

Thanks for the duck house tip - hate scooping it all out - we use sawdust as we always have it around, but its yuck to move - brilliant idea (Need a light bulb icon with light marks!)

Julie

[rustyme]

I have recycled a few bits and bobs. Old rusty bolts make good arrow heads , I converted an old rasp into a small pair of tongs , an old horse shoe made an ok knife . I have also turned scrap aluminium (bits off an old caravan ) into some replacement parts for different things . The ali is melted and recast in a sand mould , the foundry was fueled by charcoal made from branches fallen from trees on the land . Also made some things here and there out of branches that have fallen in winter, a baseball bat for my nephew , some candle holders turned on the pole lathe,and some little spinning tops still got the first one I made .... Made a bee skep out of some barley straw stitched together with split bramble , baskets made from hedge trimmings and a rug made from old jumpers. Then the one most of us do ... recycled veg waste etc into compost for the veggie plot. I think I should have been born a womble or something !!! loads more stuff as well the list would go on and on ....

cheers

Russ

[sandy]

I ust keep and collect things...just in case!

[northfifeduckling]

You're not the only one, Sandy! Our house and garden look like a salvage yard, just because we can't throw stuff away. My OH thinks it's a condition , lol, but I spent a lot of time with my gran, who taught me the value of things. Freecycle helps a bit to pass stuff on, knowing it will most likely be used by someone else.

[sandy]

I have a very large house and nearly everything (except the beds) were either free or very cheap and second hand, I am very proud of that. I even have a freezer with free food in it, fish game, herbs, fruit etc, most of my best clothes were from charity shops and I even have plants from freecycle, strange isn't it that I get greater pleasure from charity or freecycle than going off with a wad of money to buy things.....love it!!

[northfifeduckling]

same here, although I do remember what it was like when I go shopping with my daughters, one usually wanting some particular item SOOO much. At the Big Tent we watched "The Age of Stupid" and it made them both think a bit about shopping...