Save It

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I am a pack rat. Most frugal people will say the same thing and with good reason. Before I throw anything out, I think about what else I could possibly use it for.

Glass jars are the ultimate for me. They're good for so many things. If you get four or five together, you can fill them with virtually anything and they will look spectacular. Grouping like items together is a quick way to give any simple item style. Pens on desks, flowers, candy. In the bathroom, line them up and put in cotton balls, hair ties and makeup brushes. The possibilities are endless. Not to mention how awesome glass jars are for bulk items like beans and rice. A while ago, I read an article on one of my favorite sites that suggested screwing the lid of a jar to the underside of a cabinet, creating out of the way storage for things.

Recently, I've been re-thinking other items as well. For example, my husband and I started several plants from seeds this year. Little did we know that we actually had green thumbs. All of the little seedlings popped up, green and optimistic. Only... you're supposed to kill off the weakest ones. I'm much to egalitarian to kill off the little guys so I let them grow, hoping I could find things to plant them in. Old vases, old milk jugs... anything.

Plastic bags are good saves too. I'm not just talking about grocery store bags (though you should think about canvas ones). I'm talking about bread bags, produce bags, and re-using plastic baggies. So far, I haven't found many uses for the bread bags. My husband already has a lunch bag... and would probably scorn taking a lunch in a hot-dog-roll bag anyway. I don't need them to store anything... I hate to throw them away. They're perfectly good.

Egg containers are also wonderful little inventions. We buy our eggs by the eighteen. When empty, the bottom serves as a jewelry organizer, scrapbook embellishment organizer, and general stuff-holder.

I'm very proud to say that the "save it" mentality has infected my husband. He still eyes my collection of glass jars, but he won't be throwing them out. I can't tell you how many times when we were dating or in college that he would ask me, "do you want this?" I would say, "are you going to throw it out?" He would say, "yes." And I would say, "in that case, I do want it." For example, sophmore year of college, he had an index card holder. The front clasp was broken, but it held shut nonetheless. It was full of index cards. He told me he was going to throw it away. I saved it and kept it. Flash forward three years. Four weeks ago, my husband asks me, "do you have anything I could store my flashcards in?" I smiled and went right to storage, pulled out the index card box and handed it to him. "Did this used to be mine?" He asked.

Tonight, we were down to the dregs of our tortilla chips. They were stale and crumbly. My husband opened the trash, held them over and then said, "is there anything else we can do with these?"

Yes, yes indeed. Tortilla soup anyone?

1 comments:

Kate said...

I'm loving the blog so far, and I've tagged you in a meme: http://paycheck-chronicles.military.com/2009/03/a-little-personal.html#more . Don't be scared - it's fun.

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