By Rebecca English
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'I hate throwing things away. I am always trying to find ways of re-using things," Prince Charles says
He has, over the years, developed a reputation for fastidiousness and a liking for the finer things in life.
But Prince Charles has insisted that in reality he is a member of the ‘make do and mend’ generation â€" and revealed that he recently had his old bathroom curtains turned into cushions.
Admittedly it wasn’t the prince himself who did the transforming.
That task was, of course, handed down to one of his staff instead.
But in a candid interview the future king insists it is the principle of recycling and re-using household items that otherwise would be thrown away that matters.
‘I hate throwing things away. I am always trying to find ways of re-using things.
There are bits of this, bits of that everywhere,’ he said.
‘We’ve had to take curtains down in my bathroom and I was seeing how we could make cushions out of them.’
He added: ‘It’s a waste because you throw things away and they languish so mewhere, then you regret the fact that someone is making a vast amount of money out of all the things you’ve chucked out.
‘It is one of the things that has driven me mad all my life. I’ve often stopped people throwing things away â€" all those wonderful Victorian lavatories, for example.’
Charles was speaking to television presenter Kirstie Allsopp, an ambassador for the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, for Good Housekeeping magazine.
Miss Allsopp, who has presented the crafts series Kirstie’s Homemade Home, interviewed the prince at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire mansion.
Prince Charles and Camilla, Durchess of Cornwall, accept a gift of Harris Tweed cushions on the Scottish Isle of Harris last year
The green methods the Prince uses at home include pouring his bath water on the garden in summer, and using sheep’s wool as home insulation. ‘It is such a fantastic insulator and has all these fire-retardant properties,’ he said.
He also referred to his habit of keeping the central heating down and insisting his guests wear more warm clothes â€" a trait also employed by the Queen.
‘I don’t mind keeping the heating down as long as I can have a hot bath,’ he said. ‘I am one of those people who have a strange circulation.
I think I have inherited it from Queen Victoria who also liked sitting in a draught.’ But he insisted that he was not opposed to all modern development and that he had installed WiFi internet at Highgrove and other royal residences.
‘I’m not saying you’ve got to go back to medieval days,’ he said.
‘[It is just that] people tend to go berserk over the latest things but before long the novelty wears off.
‘How sad if you were to chuck away all the books, only to find that eventually it comes round again, because I’m sure people will rediscover the joy of a real book.
‘Rare breeds, rare plants and the same thing with crafts.
There are lots of people who still want to do all these things.’
And the prince insists he still has a lot to offer even though critics accuse him of being behind the times.
‘I’m like a stopped clock. I am only “with it†once every 25 years. It all comes around again,’ he said.
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