Can anyone recall those squarish 20-litre* kerosene tins ? The fuel that we needed in our kerosene stoves came packed in this form, routinely bought from the neighbourhood sundry shops.
Empty tins were usually returned to the shops, but sometimes we would retain one, and cut it diagonally into two halves. After trimming the edges nicely, a wooden pole (could be an ex-broom handle) would be fixed to the back wall, and voila, we got a nice dust pan. In fact, two sets could be made from one can, if one was skillful enough.
Back then, there were no plastic ones. Almost all of the kampong folks used this type of D-I-Y dust pans. There was little waste — we re-used and re-cycled. We practised eco-friendliness and sustainability long before the modern-day “experts” were born.
*note : cannot remember the exact capacity
Punny Memories 