Q – I have just moved into my new home and managed to get an Ikea Klippan sofa for nothing from the Freecycle website. However, the cover needs to be replaced. Do Ikea still sell replacements or do you have any other ideas on how I could make it as good as new?

Stephen Lam, Woking, Surrey

ZENA SAYS: Lucky you! And you’ll be pleased to hear you can still get a replacement from Ikea. Covers cost from £24.99 and they have some funky designs as well as plain colours. If you want something completely different, take a look at www.bemz.com where you can buy covers for all Ikea furniture. Klippan covers start at £95. Alternatively, if it’s not too badly worn you could dye your existing cover or hide it with a throw and cushions.

Read more

Source any equipment you need for free through Freecycle (freecycle.org), a community website on which people can recycle unwanted items, or the freebie section of listings sites such as Gumtree (gumtree.com) and Craigslist (craigslist.co.uk). Right now, for example, someone is offering a free office table in London and free catering equipment in Edgbaston.

Read more

TIP When discarding old cutlery (or anything for that matter) consider “FreeCycle” (look it up on the internet).

Read more

I thought there would be no harm in posting a couple of items we no longer needed on eBay and, given our thrifty peasant nature, it made sense to sign up with the local Freecycle group to sniff around for items being given away in our area. There might be something useful to help us in our bid for greater self-sufficiency, so it all seemed very practical.

Read more