We’ve had another email from Louise, this time on a “reverse this” type thing?

Hello it’s Louise again (ice-cream containers).

I’d like to make a breadbin using recycled material. I’ve thought about decorating an empty, clean paint container, but I’m not sure it would be hygienic. Any ideas?

I also wanted to tell you that I love your site and some of the creative ideas some of your posters come up with are nothing short of genius.

There you are people, you’re geniuses so let’s not let the lady down ;)

I’d steer clear of paint containers because I’d worry about just how clean I could get them for use with food – and particularly for use with ready-to-eat food that isn’t always wrapped perfectly. But I don’t know what I’d use in their place.

Has anyone made one before or got any ideas? What are good materials to think about? Does it need to be airtight or just fairly closed off dark?

And one final question from me and my tiny tiny kitchen, is it possible to make a collapsible one for folding away/shrinking down when it’s not in use or only holding a couple of crumpets instead of a full loaf?

We’ve had an email from Natalie:

I’ve got a few plastic pots that I don’t know what to do with. They had herbs and ground pepper in so they have shaker tops or one side shaker, one side pour. Any ideas?

We use lots of spices so bulk buy them in bags and refill tubs like that for culinary convenience – so that’s one option.

On a slightly bigger scale, we’ve got a (very clearly marked) old table salt bottle filled with bicarbonate of soda – the bicarb comes in cardboard boxes to start with and the pour function makes it easier to, well, pour and the plastic bottle protects it better from moisture.

Any other suggestions?

Some related posts:

• How can I reuse or recycle old spices?
• How can I made spice jars out of shot glasses?

We’ve had an email from Clare which is a kinda reverse this thing and a kinda ‘how can I recycle?’ thing:

My boyfriend has a huge collection of shot glasses in various shapes and sizes (he’s not a great drinker, so I don’t know where they came from!) I thought some of them would make great spice jars — but I need some lids for them.

Wine bottle corks are too small. I thought about begging Champagne corks from a local posh restaurant, soaking them to restore their tubular shape and carving them to fit. But I’m a danger to myself and those around me when using a scalpel.

Does anyone have any other ideas for making lids to fit shot glasses in a variety of shapes?

So … any ideas? I can’t think of anything other than those plastic lids you get for open tin cans – and they’d be too big and too ugly to use here.

Or any other suggestions for what Clare can do with the many shot glasses?

We’ve had an email from Ashleigh, asking:

What can I do with old flat baking trays? They’re a bit rusty so we can’t use them for food anymore. Can they go in my green bin?

I’m not sure about the green bin because everywhere has different rules and it also depends what they’re made out of but the guys that collect scrap metal around here would probably take them.

As for reuses, the rust might come off with one of those metal scrubber things but it’ll obviously rust right up again if it gets wet a lot again – perhaps clean it up and paint it with some rust-preventing paint. If it’s got a lip all the way around the edge, it could then be used as tray under plants or for kids to use during messy craft session (the lip might help stop things spilling/spreading all over the place).

Any other suggestions? What about suggestions for trays that are completely flat or with just one raised edge?

(Photo (and craving for gingerbread caused) by Jenny Rollo)