Don't junk it ... use it From coat-hanger to portable toilet-paper holder

Where would we be without dry-cleaners? Here's another thing to do with a wire coat-hanger, a pair of pliers, a piece of dowelling left over from last week's soap dish and two paper-clips.

You start by squeezing the coat-hanger, as illustrated in the picture above. The measurements given on the left of the diagram are merely a guide, to be modified according to the width of your toilet roll and length of your spindle. The right of the picture illustrates the shape you're trying to make on both sides.

Now bend the hooked ends forward, so that they can support the piece of dowelling. A split ring or paper-clip may be wrapped tightly around each end of the dowelling to prevent it from slipping sideways.

The toilet-paper roll may now be threaded on to its spindle, leaving the free end of the paper trailing vulgarly from underneath, if you are male, and modestly from the top, if you are female.

The whole contraption is an essential vade-mecum for the traveller in eastern Europe and other exotic locations whose conveniences are inconvenienced by paper shortages .