Tea bags

• Used tea leaves make excellent fertiliser for pot plants. – O.R.

• Use used tea leaves to make a window cleaner. Simple pour boiling water on the discarded tea leaves/bags, leave for an hour, then use. – O.R.

• I save my tea bags and use them to clean my eye glasses. The bags do a perfect job, and then they go in the garden. – D.M.

• Tea bags make great fire starters. After brewing your morning cuppa, flatten each tea bag out and leave in the sun to dry (or in the hot water cupboard). When dry, store in an air tight container, add a little kerosene and give it a good shake. Remove from the jar when ready to use. – PB, Hamilton.

Regarding your tip on reusing old tea bags as firefighters do you need to drain off the kero’ after adding to the jar of dried teabags? Very drippy and smelly and it lingers on the fingers for ever! Have used a wooden skewer to fish them out and put the whole thing in the fire. By the way my husband tells me his Dad used to do a similar thing with cut up old Pinex soft board tiles. – MJP, Rotorua.

[In answer to MJP’s question, yes, drain off the kero’ so the now kero’ infused teabag is dry. We use this tip and they work a treat. – Oily Rag Ed’]