So, what else do you wash and re-use since you discovered washable nappies?

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Wipes
muslins take the place of kitchen roll
Burp cloths now do where cotton wool used to for make up removal and cleaner wiping
Sanitary pads for me (sorry can't do mooncups for all you converts!)

Thats all I can remember at the mo, anyone else got the washables bug?

Jars and plastic containers.

I have never ever purchased a single roll of kitchen roll, and I find it difficult if I am offered some at someone elses house( strange bugbear of mine as you can tell)

dds old vests which are too grey for charity shop I am using as dusters/floor cloths (my kitchen floor is so small its quicker to get on hands and knees than get mop out)
we are still using the cloth baby wipes as flannels.

Forgot the hankies, and also that I used hankies for breastpads with ds2.

I never use paper plates or any sort of disposable cutlery or drinking ware.

I cut up and hem old muslins to use for washing my face, bathing the girls, as hankies.

I've even tie-died some and cut and hemmed them to use as hair ties. Can just dye them, too.

I've made buntings out of old receiving blankets.

We rarely use kitchen roll - just use microfibre cloths from Lidl (buy some extras, they make terrific liners for your disposable nappies!) and use them with homemade surface cleanser (I use an Ecloth for glass and stainless steel or liquid soapnuts and a squeegee for big windows).

Flibberty - I shiver when dd is given a tissue from a box at nursery, when I have provided a supply of washed and pressed hankies.

well i never thought id even consider washable sanpro but i now have some. i also have the mooncup which seems so bloody obvious i cant quite believe it hasnt been thought of before...

i do tend to use small towels, muslins and tea towels for spills etc rather than kitchen roll, but we do still have it around.

hankies are farkin gross tho. why would you put all those germs back in your pocket and wipe em on you all over agin for next use? [shudder]

oh, i use jars for LOTS.

i came up with a great idea when my father came across and went and grabbed one of my jam jars and filled it with water and started drinking from it, to my horror.

'Papa, that's not a drinking glass!'

he said, 'well, sure it is, we used to drink out of Mason jars as kids. why not use it after you've eaten the prserves?'

yes, why not!?

so i let DD1 paint her own glass!

she loves it.

for her birthday party, everyone gets to paint a jar and take it home with them to use as a drinking vessel. i have tons!

Boys - if your nose is running you have caught the germs which will go away in there own time, now out in the fresh air with you

I re-use jars for my home made jam alpha mummy points there I think?

i have a huge supply of bandanas and am never without one.

i also re-use all manner of tins.

for food storage - of baked goods and oatcakes to take as snacks.

spray paint them and use them around the house.

even as a campf bucket for carrying water - an old coal bucket also works for this.

a friend of mine - who composts her kitchen roll!! gave me some eggs from her hens, the eggs went to show and tell at nursery as they looked so different to shop eggs. We ate the eggs, returned the carton, and are growing cress heads in the shells.

I can't make jam though!

ive always kept jars tho.
and i find it really quite difficult to bin anything much tbh. i am a born thrifty hoarder, thrust into a life of luxury and enforced wasteage
oh well, might not last for long

ah glucose - i grew up in a place wehre 'fresh air' was an oxymoron

;course, now i have no excuse whatsoever [hangs head]

two good uses for egg cartons, folks!

one, use them for your seedlings and forced bulbs.

then you just put them straight into the ground where the carton rots away.

all you backwoods campers out there!

save up fluff and lint from tumble dryers if you use them or ask a friend who uses one to save it up.

all those unused candle stubs, after the wick burned out, save those.

take a rainy day or evening and fill each cup in teh carton with fluff.

melt down those candle stubs and pour the hot wax into each cup over the fluff.

cut them up.

put one or two in your rucksack.

stick one under the kindling of your fire and torch it.

i guarantee your fire will start even if your sticks are wet.

oh, and the kitcjen roll i do use to mop up great pools of piss (hey, i have boys, 3 of em, all under 5) , i compost on the basis the compost needs paper and urine is a great accelerant

and {shines halo} i have my own chickens arriving v soon. [takes seat on high horse and preperes to look down ]

ooh expat, your survival knowledge is v sexy, y' know that?

i learned from a very tough old style climber who was, in his own way, incredibly sexy.

like my dad always said, 'a man who can build a good fire is a keeper.'

and this man could build a fire like NO OTHER.

he was known in many circles for this skill.

he could also tell what type of wood was burning from the smell of the fire.

oh thats v sexy, yes. did he also have facial hair in a strangely sexy manner?

I have often wondered 'what could this be used for' as I defluffed tumble dryer, now I know. Very inconsistant and shameful to use tumbledryer I know, but it will keep raining.

no, no facial hair, and you wouldn't find him sexy . . . at first.

he had a very dry sense of humour, too.

he know the entire state of Colorado and most of Wyoming like the back of his hand, and when you went camping with him, you had to have a 4x4, because all the 'sites' he knew involved 4 wheel driving.

he seemed very shy.

until one eventful campout during 'Indian Summer' in October in Colorado, when several in the party brought along 3 cases of homebrewed beer and 6 bottles of homemade mead and stuck them in the creek all day to cool.

well, matt had never tasted this 'meade stuff' and he took to drinking it.

a whole bottle!

finally got up the gumption to chase Daniella, a woman he had his eye on, round the fire.

they are married and live in a cabin in the Indian Peaks Wilderness .

this site is invaluable for ideas on recycling stuff:

recylethis

oh, its the ones you dont think are sexy on sight that i go for.
always think the obvious cuties are gonna be vain as hell and v hard work.

expat I love your jars as drinking glasses idea, think that might turn into one of our birthday party ideas soon. .

I have a pile of old t-shirts and grubby teatowels that are used for cleaning, wiping the blackboard or whatever. I put them in a bag yesterday and was a bit shocked at how many I had put aside. May have to shred some for the compost as I'm sure we will produce more before I get through them all! I also hate using dishcloths that get thrown away. All my cloths are washable ones, but dp still buys kitchen roll .

Used kitchen roll and tissues go on the compost heap.

Does this mean that I'm not the only one to have taken a shine to Ray Mears who would not be an obviously sexy sort of chap?

I use washable wipes. I wash j cloths as well, as DH says that using the E Cloths (which do look grubby after a wash, although I still use them), is like wiping your ar*e and then wiping down the table etc and he refuses to use them!