Travis left a comment on the ‘Suggest An Item‘ page asking:

What can I do with baby food jars?

We’ve featured bigger jars and littler jars in the past but not specifically baby food jars.

Any reuse suggestions then? In particular, any suggestions that will use them en masse (since some families could be getting through a few a day) or baby-related reuses?

Some ideas to get us started: baby food jar candles; very cute baby food jar pincushion-topped sewing kits; and this month’s craft craze, terrariums in jars (mine, when I get around to making it, will star some little dinosaurs).

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

We’ve had an email from “trapkuspt” about reusing baby wipe containers:

The kind that have the pop up feature, so the opening is a soft plastic.

They have been great for holding plastic bags I want to reuse, cotton balls, puzzle pieces, etc.

And the thin wipes box for the diaper bag works pretty good for q-tips in the bathroom drawer.

I’ve also found that the hard plastic boxes are useful for filling with tissues in places where a cardboard tissue box would go soggy such as a steamy bathroom or near a splashtastic sink.

Other suggestions?

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

We’ve had an email from Jenni:

I have loads of little plastic SMA baby milk spoons from when my first child was a baby. I have now started making up bottles for my second child and realise the house will be full by the time we move on to cows milk. I can’t bring myself to throw them out. Any ideas?

I’m not exactly an expert with any baby related but I think Jenni means the little measuring scoop things that come inside formula tubs. Like IKEA allen keys, it’s a shame you get a new one with every repeat purchase when one or two is all you’ll ever need (or if you’ve got your own measuring spoon set, you won’t even need that) – but logistically it’s easier for them to include them than having to send them out separately or whatever.

I guess you could keep one around the kitchen for future measuring purposes – but that’s just one and Jenni sounds like she’s got loads. So any other suggestions?

(On a related topic, we covered mixed material baby milk powder containers about a year ago.)

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

We’ve had an email from Sam, saying:

I have a child’s car seat that has been involved in a minor accident, so can no longer be used as a car seat. I don’t want to put it in landfill. Any suggestions?

If car seats had been around when I was a kid and we’d been in this situation, I’m sure the seat would have been commandeered for bottom-of-the-garden dens – a comfortable seat ripe for imaginative on-a-rocket-into-space games or whatever. We were lucky we had loads of space for that sort of thing and also sorts of junk ended its life down there.

But what if that’s not an option because of space or the child’s too young etc? Any more practical or creative suggestions for the seat as a whole or its foamy/plastic parts?

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

Obviously the greener option is to use reuseable nappies but Katie emailed to say:

Did you know that the new disposable nappies are full of ‘swell gel’, it’s the same stuff you get from the garden centre to add to compost to retain moisture and costs around £5 a box.

I have started to re-use my grandson’s nappies, just the wet ones! Rinse them in the shower until all the ‘yellow’ has gone and they don’t smell.

Rip one end and squeeze them into your compost and hey presto, compost that doesn’t dry out. Ideal if you live in an area that has hose pipe bans every summer.

To be honest, I’d be worried about throwing all those petrochemicals into my compost heap because my compost heap is used pretty much entirely for my veg bed but I like the idea – but I could imagine using them at the bottom of flowers tubs in the garden.

Any other suggestions for re-uses? I suspect there will be some overlap with the sanitary towel suggestions but I think the size/shape might lead to some new ideas too.

(Photo by pascal79)