Nick Vassilev

"Mend and make do to save buying new." This old jingle from World War 2 and Depression days is worth dusting off and remembering these days when the world is facing the prospect of global recession once again and concerns about over-use of non-renewable resources and the rubbish problem are high.

There you are in your new flat. It's time to have a trial run before the flat-warming party. You've got the stereo on full bore, the lava lamp (make that several lava lamps) are plugged into the four-pin plug, and another double plug feeds off the same power socket to the TV, the video, the popcorn machine and the heater.

Many parents find that doing the weekly grocery shop is an absolute nightmare when small children are involved. Tantrums at the checkout are all too common. It doesn't seem to help that supermarkets seem designed to bring out the worst in your child.

So you've seen a mouse skittering through the house and it's not an escaped pet. Now what are you going to do? Well, the first thing is to get off that chair – it's more afraid of you than you are of it, and you don't have to worry, like a Victorian lady, that it's going to climb up your crinoline and get lost in your petticoats.

Many of us keep our first aid kits and medicine bottles in the pantry (if we don't keep them in the bathroom cupboard). However, don't forget to look at some of the other items in the pantry – and the refrigerator and the garden – as a way of treating common ills instead of reaching for the latest artificial lab-concocted wonder drug in a bottle. Here's a quick list of natural home remedies.

Sometimes, in spite of using natural weed control methods such as mulching and feeding the "good" plants you want so they become strong and vigorous (and thus able to crowd out the weedy competition), weeds still grow. You might have some other "weapons" left in your natural weed control arsenal such as digging them all out by hand, pouring boiling water onto them or (in a large patch with no "good" plants in them) lighting a bonfire on top and burning off the weeds.

The good news for anyone with an ecological conscience is that most traditional Christmas decorations are made from natural materials rather from plastics. Using natural materials not only means that you aren't using up something that is sourced from a non-renewable resource (fossil fuels) but also that when you dispose of your decorations (if they get tatty or you don't want to save them for next year), they will break down naturally.

The kitchen staff in the type of household Mrs Beeton wrote for in her classic Book of Household Management comprised the cook, the kitchen maids and the scullery maids. And yes, there is a difference between these.

In Mrs Beeton's hefty tome on household management – which contains more than just a huge selection of recipes for nearly everything imaginable and several things that you haven't imagined – the section headed "Recipes for the Valet" does not begin very promisingly: "We need hardly dwell on the boot cleaning process."

This writer feels a little bit of a hypocrite writing this article, as I spend a good chunk of my day in front of a computer and – at least according to my ISP – have to use Wi-Fi internet, as through-the-wires broadband isn't suitable for my location.