Have I finally flipped

I don't re-use bags which have held meat or fish, but most other bags get rinsed as I empty them and put over the kitchen tap - or the spaghetti jar.

I have gone back to using block hand soap again as it lasts so much longer but have to admit that I no longer squidge bits of left over soap together (remember the little plastic boxes you could get specifically for that?).

From a hygene point of view reusing bags does concern me. There is so much talk about chicken carrying bacteria even on the outside of its packaging. I do reuse bags but I keep them separate for different things. We probably are all too fussy as I recall the days before plastic bags when we invested in shopping bags or baskets but they were often lined with newspaper.

Florentine DD means dear daughter (or sometimes dratted daughter!) and DS dear son, DH dear husband and so on.

There is a list of abbreviations, which you can find by selecting "Acronyms" from the blue boxes above.

Up until recently, I re-used carrier bags as bin liners and didn't feel guilty about throwing them out when it came to emptying the rubbish.

Now we have to pay for them, I am very prudent with them and on,y occasionally buy one to use as a bin liner. I suppose it has cut down on the waste a bit.

As for washing them out. NO. If it's mucky, throw it away and buy another.

So many memories of using old undies for dusters! My mother did the same and so did I when I was first married. I stopped when my daughter said it would be lovely to open the cupboard for a duster and not have a pair of ragged old knickers fall out! But mum also hoarded bags, brown paper, string and elastic bands and I'm sure it was a wartime mentality of not wasting a thing. I don't like waste either but whether it has passed down to my children now they have their own homes is a questionable matter!

sorry, this is embarrassing, but I've noticed abbreviations like GC (I assume grandchildren) and DD, which baffles me, but I imagine it means daughters (plural, hence the double D?)

Cut old tights and stockings into strips to use instead of string. Good for tying up plants as it is flexible.

My mum used old vests and pants as dusters and floor cloths, I was thrilled to buy yellow dusters- thought they were so posh! What a snob!

I always wash out good plastic bags. They're often to be seen pegged onto the radiator racks, drying. Cereal packet liners are perfect for lining my 'on-sink' compost bin as they are waterproof and relatively smell resistant. I'm a postwar baby but old habits do die hard. Rubber bands go into a tin and string and old shoelaces are kept for use in the veggie growing areas. I have stopped using old clothes for dusters/dishcloths now. They don't seem to do the job as well now they're all synthetic fabrics.

My mother used to wash plastic bags and hang them out to dry, much to her children's embarrassment... She also saved the wrappers from butter and margarine packets for lining cake tins..but she saved them in a drawer (we had no fridge) which was OKish when she baked regularly but when she went back to work full time and no longer baked regularly she still saved them in the drawer. Every so often we had to heave out piles of rancid butter wrappers... (Didn't stop her saving them, though)

I reuse plastic carrier bags whenever possible but if they've had meat or fish in them they go in the bin. OTH, I try very hard not to be given a plastic carrier in the first place. We use bags for life for supermarket shopping and I try to always have a bag in my handbag for unplanned purchases.

I'm still in a state of at the poster who returned an item to M & S because it got creased. Please tell me it wasn't something that could be ironed.

I store my plastic bags in an empty tissue box which I take into the shop with me. I have one in the car all the time.

Now there's a thought for a useful Christmas present - buy a few new bags, decorate a tissue box and there you have it.

Grandma2213 - the name tape thing was brilliant until my DD changed school and ended up sitting next to a girl with the same surname (it really is very very rare!!) None of us could believe it!! I just added her initial in marker pen.

I wish we could post pics, I too have a round sewing box from my DM - I can only sew buttons on. When I got engaged my mil shut me in a room and insisted on teaching me to darn a sock!I can't believe I let her!

i have heard that along with hair off hairbrush, tumble drier fluff can be used by birds when nesting. place it tree, bush or near bird feeder. I just let the wind take my hair loss.

As is very flammable could be used as a quick fire starter for those lucky enough to have an open fire.

Saving things took me back to world war 2 when my mother saved EVERYTHING !! Paper, (no plastic bags then) any old bits of material, and string was a god send. Drawers full of everything. Any old bits of food that was squirrelled away in case there was nothing else to eat because of rationing. How we all survived was a miracle, but we are still here. Life was really tough then, not just physically, but mentally too. We just saved our sanity !!

I used to use my late husbands old vests for dusters etc and he used old shirts for cleaning rags. Years ago we never bought dusters and wipes were unheard of.

Isn't this the whole point of recycling? Wash and use again? It's what people did for years before the throwaway society began. Personally, I would not bother with the very cheap carrier bags but the heavier ones, yes.

For years I washed out plastic bags that I had used to keep food in the freezer until DDH said he was fed up with seeing a line full of plastic bags. So, I started using new ones every time I put stuff in the freezer. Now I'm feeling very guilty and think I'll go back to washing them again.
One big complaint is that I spent over £100 in M&S and they still didn't offer me a free carrier. They then complained when I returned something that was creased because it had been in my little shopping bag!

My mother called all this domestic recycling "Make do and mend". Anyone else turn the frayed collars on male relatives' shirts and use their old undies as dusters? It gives me tremendous satisfaction, just as emptying the hoover contents into the composter does.

I remember plastic bags coming in, in the 50s and early 60s. My mum always rinsed hers out if they got mucky, and I have always done the same (unless they're too badly damaged to reuse). I also rinse and reuse cling film. In fact I try to use it as little as possible, and use crocheted doilies, like the old days. This plastic really is a waste of resources. We have become so dependent on these wasteful things, and so detached and unaware of the consequences of them for the environment. We can set an example for our grandchildren if we do these things. Who cares if they think we're crazy? Isn't that item two on Nana's job description? (Item 1: be embarrassing at all times!)

Rosequartz, there is a page full of beehive wool holder on Ebay www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060778.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC2.A0.H0.Xbeehive+wool+holder.TRS0&_nkw=beehive+wool+holder&_sacat=0

Indinana: my mother used to use the waxy cereal packet linings for rolling out pastry on. They're brilliant for the job, and you can easily turn the pastry into the flan tin or whatever.

you didn't work with me did you?

Funniest story I heard about waxed paper was my husband's aunt using a bread bag to cover her hair as she was bleaching it in the 50's. Her hair turned out blonde with an image of the bread's name imprinted on it!

Katek that made me laugh out loud

Granarchist I kept my DC's old name tapes too and one set came in most useful as oldest DGS was named after his Dad. Not odd at all rosequartz - most things come in useful one day!

Alima I save zips in a different tin along with tape, elastic and lots of ribbon from eg balloons, bunches of flowers given as gifts, chocolate boxes etc.

Shoe boxes are good for storing DVDs which are gradually building in numbers due to DGC. I keep them in cupboards on their sides so the titles can be easily seen.

Plastic ice cream boxes are great for keeping small toys, cards, lego etc as well as for use on picnics as they can be thrown away once the sandwiches etc are eaten (into a recycling bin of course, if available) Then you don't have to carry them around.

However biodegradable bags are not easy to clear up after a year or two when they disintegrate and the static makes the hundreds of bits stick all over you!

My DS's think I am very sad but if ever they need something guess where they come?!

After the thread objecting to having to pay for carriers I started to feel really miserly as I usually take my own and reuse as much as possible. Paying for new ones won't happen often!

I'm relieved to hear I'm not alone in washing out poly bags and good carrier bags. And I only replace the carrier bags used to line waste bins when they're really grotty. And those nice big charity bags make excellent tall pedal bin liners too. And the DGC still love playing with the buttons in the button box (with the Queen and Prince Phils 25th anniversary picture on it).