Household clutter: it lurks in cupboards, lofts and garages. From jigsaw puzzles with a piece missing to piles of perfectly sound underwear the kids have grown out of, the buildup can be overwhelming.
Taking things that still work, or are repairable, to the tip seems wrong when you might be able to fix or find a new home for them. And yet we keep throwing out what might be reused. Not-for-profit group Material Focus says half a billion small electrical items ended up in landfill in the UK in 2022.
So how do you get rid of excess stuff without adding to landfill? We take a look at how to fix, recycle, donate or find a new home for the things you no longer use but can’t bear to throw out. And suggest some ideas for how to replace them with something new – and as sustainable as possible – when you need to.
Prescription glasses
New prescription glasses often mean relegating an old pair to spares. You can sell frames on sites such as Vinted and eBay, or donate them to opticians such as Peep Eyewear, which takes old specs in return for a £10 voucher. The family-run business sells pre-loved frames, and does repairs. It can also turn your old glasses into sunglasses. Peep sends frames it can’t reuse to the Lion’s Club, which sorts and restores glasses for charity Unite for Sight, or dismantles and recycles them.
Buy: DbyD glasses made from recycled materials, £99
Vintage Tommy Hilfiger aviator sunglasses, £80
Rugs
A worse-for-wear rug is a bulky thing to get rid of, and often difficult to recycle due to mixed fibres. Some local authorities do tackle them; Recycle Now has a tool that lets you check. You could also try giving it away on Freecycle or Facebook Marketplace (making the defects clear to potential takers, of course). A rug or an old carpet can make a good liner for a pond or animal bed, for example.
Buy: Recycled PET colour block rug, £160
Gooseberry provence rug, handmade from recycled plastic bottles, from £55 weavergreen.com
Old trainers
The idea that trainers should be changed every 500 miles is a myth, says Michael Hill, director of Preloved Sports. “We recommend changing your trainers when your running becomes uncomfortable, as this discomfort can lead to injuries,” he says. Uppers and soles can be repaired, while Trainer Armour sells heel- and toe-hole preventer kits.
If you do need to get rid of old trainers, you can send up to 15kg of them (in any condition) to the Jog On campaign, through its partnership with delivery service Evri, for £2, or put them in a collection bin. Jog On gives usable shoes to schools, charities and other organisations, and was launched by campaigner Tony Piedade after he read (in a Guardian article) that trainers take 1,000 years to break down in landfill. “Trainers that can’t be reused go through a certified process to keep them out of landfill, and are incinerated to create electricity,” says Piedade. “By the end of the year, we will be shredding them for recycling.”
Buy: Veja trainers, made in Brazil from recycled materials, £125
soletrader.co.uk or office.co.uk
Broken picture frames
A broken frame can be fixed with wood glue and a bit of patience; Screwfix sells a range of clamps to hold the frame in place while the glue dries. If the glass has broken, Jeni Deards, who runs an independent picture framing and gilding workshop in the East Neuk of Fife, says: “You can contact your local glazier, who will cut glass to the right size for your frame.”
Buy: FSC-certified chunky wooden frame by Habitat, £8
sainsburys.co.uk
Stained or torn clothes
A simple way to bring (almost) eternal life to old, stained or torn clothing is to cut garments up and use them as cleaning rags. (You can sew them in the Japanese Zokin style, if you can be bothered.)
Non-refillable pens
You can’t throw plastic ballpoint pens into your standard recycling bin, but there are hundreds of dedicated stationery collection points around the country – in Ryman stationers, schools and other places – through Bic’s Consumer Champion partnership with TerraCycle. Ballpoint pens, highlighters, Tipp-Ex dispensers, felt tips and markers are all accepted.
Buy: Refillable Pilot BeGreen V7 cartridge pen with 3 refills, £3
ryman.co.uk
Jigsaw puzzles with a piece missing
Given the frustration that comes from almost finishing a jigsaw then discovering a piece is missing, it’s not surprising some charities refuse to accept puzzles. But rather magically – if at a price – you can replace missing pieces: the Jigsaw Doctor charges from £17.99 per piece (up to 4cm across) and more for larger pieces, for laser cutting and matching your original puzzle image. If they are not worth saving, puzzles can usually be recycled, but check with your tip, as small pieces can be harder to process.
Buy: The World of Bridgerton 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, £18.99
waterstones.com
Outgrown kids’ underwear
Charity shops generally do not want used pants, even if they have been laundered to perfection, so take washed undies to textile points to be recycled. If you have new (packaged, labelled and never worn) pants to donate, send them to Scottish charity Smalls for All, which will get them to people who need them.
Buy: Flower Fairies girls’ knickers, £9.50/7pk
marksandspencer.com
Broken vase
To turn a broken vase into something even more beautiful, try the Japanese art of kintsugi, a centuries-old practice originally used to restore tea sets. But beware: if you use the traditional urushi (lacquer), it won’t be watertight. “Urushi softens and peels off when exposed to water for extended periods,” says ceramicist and kintsugi repairer, Mizuyo Yamashita. So use vases repaired this way for dry flowers.
You can create an approximate, easier version of kintsugi using epoxy to join the pieces and finishing with synthetic gold paint, or epoxy mixed with fake gold powder, says Yamashita.
But if you don’t have the time or patience for kintsugi, you may need to bid the vase farewell. Recycling ceramics is not usually possible (though you can check with your local tip); you will need to wrap the pieces carefully and dispose of them with general waste.
Buy: Habitat hand-painted striped pink vase, £14
sainsburys.co.uk
Small electricals
Not all charities will take electrical objects, such as toasters or kettles, but you can donate some items in working order to the British Heart Foundation or Emmaus and Sue Ryder. Call your local branch to organise collection; if you can transport items there yourself, call before you go, as different sites accept different things.
If your items no longer work, Sue Ryder is trialling a partnership with Recycle Your Electricals in 10 of its London branches, where you can bring them for recycling. If you don’t live near one of these stores, Recycle Your Electricals can help you find out where and how you can dispose of objects responsibly.
Buy: Philips eco-conscious toaster, £49.99
currys.co.uk
Matching kettle, £49.99
johnlewis.com
Duvets, pillows and towels
You might keep a few spares for guests, but you can only store so many old duvets and pillows. Household textiles can be useful to animal charities for bedding; Battersea Dogs & Cats Home will make use of old duvets (only without feathers) and towels. Some PDSA pet hospitals can accept duvets, pillows, towels and old rugs, too, but all the hospitals have different facilities, so check with your local PDSA Pet Hospital to see if it accepts donations.
Failing that, check Recycle Now to see if it accepts these items at local collection points.
Buy: EarthKind duvet made from recycled materials, £55 (for a double)
• This article was amended on 14 August 2024 to remove a reference to Oxfam and Marks & Spencer running a postal donation for torn or stained clothes; this was a trial scheme that has now ended. Also, owing to an error during editing, an earlier version misattributed the source of the figure for small electrical items sent to landfill; it was from research by Materials Focus, not the Waste and Resources Action Programme as an earlier version said.
