We’ve already covered old duvets before really but we’ve had an email from Gill:

I have 6-8 used but still serviceable quilts and pillows and no-one seems to want them. The local homeless shelter says they don’t take donations and I’ve contacted several charities who I thought might use them (rather than selling them for recycling) but no-one is interested as they are not ‘good as new’. Even the local PDSA won’t take them for animal bedding.

Any suggestions as I’d rather they were put to good use as quilts rather than scrap.

I’m surprised that shelters for both humans and animals won’t take them, especially if they’re machine washable. Perhaps offer them on your Freecycle/Freegle group – someone on there might be happier to receive them than charities obeying “no used stuff” policies.

On our local Freegle group, people frequently as for “anything for a new home” so they might want them. There also might be people who want them to use for other things – not for their original purpose but not for fabric reclamation/recycling either – for example, using the quilts for making insulating blinds or to make mattress/pillow protectors.

Pillows can also be upcycled – they can be “squared-off” to make cushions, used for animal bedding (nesting building dogs love having a selection of pillows to dig around in), made into draught excluders/draft dodgers or bolsters, or the stuffing reclaimed for all sorts of craft projects.

Does anyone else have any other suggestions where might take USED quilts and pillows? Or have any more recycling ideas for pillows?

Shelagh emailed to ask:

How can I reuse a Cillit Bang spray? It seems impossible to remove the nozzle to fill with a product.

I’ve never used it so I don’t know what the bottle is like – but I’m going out to the shops in a few minutes so I’ll have a good look at one (that’s guaranteed to get me some weird looks in the cleaning aisle ;) ). I’ll also check what type of plastic it is for recycling purposes (my guess would be HDPE, plastic number 2, which is widely recycled, but I’ll check).

We’ve covered pump action spray bottles before – people reuse them as plant spritzers or personal misters, or refill them with vinegar or homemade cleaning solutions to make their own cleaning sprays — but all of those reuses require getting into the bottle again. Anyone got any helpful hints on how to remove the nozzle section from a Cillit Bang bottle without breaking it?

Any other reuse ideas for if the nozzle section is stuck on?

Since it’s coming up to Valentine’s Day, I thought it might be nice to have a round up of fun recycling/upcycling Valentine’s Day crafts – for inspiration or purchase!

• Andrea Cook has been making cute Valentine’s Day cards out of recycled handmade paper and fabric scraps. Coupled-up kitties!
• Sarah from Wrapped up with String has also been making pretty recycled paper cards.
• And Alison Bailey Smith told us: “I pulped up lots of paper, in different colours & add hearts using plastic from advent calendars to make cards” – cute idea.
• The Spotted Sparrow has come up with some fun print-and-make ideas: a book of love coupons or an old fashioned library card. I like the idea of reusing the latter each year but that’s possibly because I’m cheap ;)
• Not strictly Valentine’s-y but I love this notebook made from recycled materials – an old shirt, beer mats and reclaimed tissue paper have been used to make it. It would make a fab diary.
• We saw the equivalent at Christmas but I still love the idea of magazines being upcycled into garlands – using a heart-shaped punch and a sewing machine, this Valentine’s Day garland is made in next to no time. (A flower seed catalogue would work well too – pretty coloured flowers a-go-go – and they’re very common at this time of year.)
• Another way to make a heart garland is to curve strips into hearts – and hearts within hearts. Lots of pretty examples made from maps, old books, music scores and other vintage papers…
• If your loved one is, like mine, not exactly the most punctual person in the world – how about a heart shaped clock made from an old vinyl record?
• Personally John and I aren’t big Valentine’s people but have been known to bestow the occasional love token upon each other at other times of the year. A couple of years ago, we bought something in a paper bag with red hearts on it – when John was out, I cut out all the hearts and left them in his closed laptop – when he opened it, they flew everywhere – a shower of hearts. :)

Will you be upcycling or recycling anything for your loved one(s) for Valentine’s Day? If so, tell us your plans – if it won’t ruin the surprise ;)

(Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions via Twitter!)

Carole sent an email asking about storage heater bricks:

does anyone know what to do with old storage heater bricks? Just had 4 old heaters taken out and I suspect the plumbers will just take the lot to the dump so want to see if I can save them and reuse them or find somewhere that can recycle them.

In one of my past lives, I was a labourer, helping renovate student houses during a summer holiday, and we had to remove some storage heaters once and let me tell you, those boys are HEAVY.

As a minimum, I’d offer them on Freecycle/Freegle in case someone can use them … for something. The only thing I can think of on this delightful Monday morning is infill for landscaping but I’m sure there are more useful reuses for them than that…

Any ideas? What about recycling options?

We’ve had an email from Lauren:

I’m a knitter but I can’t throw away the ends of yarn, not matter how small! I’ve got a carrier bag full of ball ends, some a couple of yards long, most less than a foot. Any ideas?

The longer pieces could be used for the inner rings of granny squares if you crochet too or mini-crafts both knitted or crocheted – if you’re on Ravelry, on the advanced search you can specify projects by yardage — I just did a search for projects using 5yards or less, and got over 400 results (including, I kid you not, a penis shaped chapstick holder!). The shorter pieces could be used for the odd few stitches of decoration such as eyes & noses on soft toys or tapestry/embroidery work. If you had lots and lots of shorter pieces, they could be used as stuffing for small toys.

Away from sewing & crafts, I used pretty yarn instead of string for tying up parcels etc and for clothes repair/enhancement – a little colour-clash darning, sewing on chunky buttons or used for adding hanging loops onto scarves/light jackets that come without them.

Any other suggestions? If you knit/crochet, what do you do with your scraps?