This video shows us how to create a circular rug made of rags. It’s actually pretty straight forward if a little time consuming.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xdd2Dsr9WxI

Home and garden TV (HGTV.com) has some good tips here on ways to repair clothes with holes or stains on them. Rather then throwing them away there are creative ways to hide the problems which I think parents of young children in particular will appreciate.

If you buy blank CDs or DVDs you’ll know about the spindles the discs are stored on. Once you’ve used the discs and put them in covers you are left with an empty spindle which is often thrown away. They do however have many other possible uses such as this handy headphone hook seen on instructables. You can also use them in the kids’ rooms as simple hooks or to store rubber bands or their jewellery. Recycle.co.uk also has some handy ideas for their use such as cutting the spindle part off and using them as cake boxes. Or why not use them as toilet roll holders. It’s one less thing to have to buy and you’ll be keeping something out of landfill at the same time.

Here’s an idea I came across at Groovygreen, paper you can plant. Once your incredibly romantic message on the paper has been read the card can then be planted, a great way to remember the romance. What seeds you incorporate into the paper is your choice and it sounds like a great (if somewhat late) idea for Valentine’s day. Full instructions can be found here including the paper making instructions.

Curbly the DIY design community has a tutorial on how to fold paper into a CD case rather then having to use plastic CD covers

Instead of paying good cash for cd cases, which eventually break and end up in a landfill, how about creating your own, unique folded-paper cd cases that are biodegradable and take up a fraction of the space?

You can read the tutorial here.

Instructables has a tutorial on how to create your own solar panel (or jellyfish!) out of broken bits of solar cell pieces. Although it’s not exactly for beginners it is definetely do-able and it ends up in a very cool mosaic effect too.

Instructables has a tutorial on how to use glossy brochures as book covers. Brochures are usually nicely decorated and they’re free so they make good covers. This is an easy tutorial that anyone can do.

Jewelry creation usually involves mining which is harmful to the earth. However the wearing of jewelry is a huge part of our culture (particularly for marriage) so this is not something we are likely to stop doing. GreenKarat hopes to offer an alternative for those who are concerned about the effects their jewellery is having on the planet by making their jewelry from recycled gold and other materials.

While gold is valuable enough to provide an incentive to recycle, significant amounts of gold sit idle, while mining continues at a pace of 2,500 tons a year. In fact, there is enough gold above ground (already mined) to satisfy all demands of the jewelry industry for the next 50 years.

GreenKarat via GreenSAHM

Frugal living at about.com has many excellent ideas for getting uses out of things which would otherwise be thrown away such as plastic bags, bottles, shower curtains, cans and more. Don’t want to rush out to buy more plastic containers to organize your closets? Why not use cardboard or other types of recycled containers from around the house (frugal containers). Or perhaps you’re loking for more uses for cardboard tubes? And while you are there don’t for get to take a look at Jim’s Dragon a dragon made out of cat food tins.

Another site worth mentioning in this theme is Reader’s Digest’s “Extraordinary uses of ordinary things” featuring ideas for uses of plastic bags and other things around the house from the book by the same name. Both sites should give you a few new ideas on how to re-use some objects which would otherwise just go to landfill.

Instructables has a tutorial on how to use plastic drink bottles as seed starter green houses. It’s easy to do, free and you won’t need to use grow lights to warm your plants, the bottle and the sun will provide enough warmth for the seedlings.