Here’s one for the obsessively tight amongst us. If the thought of recycling a tin before you’ve wrung every single bit of useful life out of it sends you into a spin, here’s ten ways to make use of one of Britain’s most prevalent bits of junk, the humble baked beans tin:

  1. buy some of those special plastic lids and use old tins to store anything and everything from elastic bands to drawing pins, nails and screws, nuts and raisins, small toys, craft stuff…
  2. decorate them with the kids one rainy afternoon and turn them into desk tidies for pencil and pens
  3. get some string and two tins, make a hole in the bottom of each tin, thread the string through and secure with a a knot and you’ve got a rudimentary telephone. Simple but excellent fun. When we were kids we made enormous long-stringed ‘phones that reached right across the back alleys from house to house. It kept us quiet for hours – and awake late at night as we telephoned one another out of our back bedroom windows!
  4. use one to show the kids how to make a Ray Mears-style military stove safely. Bury a bean tin in the ground, fill it 3/4 full with petrol and you can cook on the top. A great way for them to learn how to treat fire and fuel with respect and caution
  5. if you can’t be bothered cleaning your paintbrushes right now, bung them in a tin of water and it’ll stop them drying out for a few days, even if you’ve been using a gloss or another oil based paint
  6. cut shapes out of it, punch holes, paint it with water based eggshell paint and voila, a funky candle holder for the home or garden. There’s some fantastic sludgy French olive greens, mucky blue/greens and brown paints available that’re the last word in style and it’s amazing how good the tins look – like something out of one of those posh shops that sells expensive shabby-chic frippery
  7. leave the label on a tin and use it to hide precious jewellery and cash, stashing it in your cupboard with your other cans
  8. use a tin as a mould for making your own candles from the leftover stubs of old candles
  9. pack fragile items in cotton wool, add bubble wrap and poke your package into a tin. It might cost a bit more to post than an ordinary package that size, but there’s no way the item inside will get damaged in transit
  10. use them as targets and have a water pistol sharp-shooting contest in the garden, whatever the weather. Little kids love playing with water and when you’re well wrapped up it’s hilarious fun even when it’s freezing outside. That’ll get your blood pumping!