I hate seeing good things wasted ... unless they're crappy things and I say "Throw them out".
That's why I wasn't so upset when my doona-cover of 10 years tore ... right across the top ... so as a doona cover it's useless ...
It's there under the Law notes I should be reading. I now see it as metres of fabric which will make Child 4 some more bloomers, or skirts or something.
And I recently received a book, which gives you tips on how to recycle your old towels. All our towels have simultaneously, in one big fluffy mutiny, begun fraying along the edges, so they look terrible ... all 20 of them ...
But when I've done my exams (God help me!), I'm going to convert the 20-odd towels into bathmats .... you can never have enough bath mats ... and then I'll spend about $500 on new towels.
I also have an obsessive compulsive habit of collecting rubbishy things for kindy craft ...
Here's the latest batch to go ... it's full of bottle top lids, papertowel rolls, bubble wrap, yoghurt containers. We wash everything within an inch of its life ....
... and we pack it off nicely.
But by crikey if any of the crap comes home disguised as a train or a space helmet!
I'm with you. Unfortunately this kind of junk is boomerang junk and always comes back to bite you. And you know that you have to display it until it is curling at the edges. Argh!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness I'm not the only one who collects bottle caps and toilet rolls and that kind of thing. I think my partner thought I had gone nesting-bonkers - I can just point him to this post, or remind him of the awesome tree Little T made recently out of a paper-towel roll. (And he's reading over my shoulder right now saying "But you did go crazy; you started collecting them a year before you needed them". Ah no, my dear, that's me _planning ahead_. Silly man.
ReplyDeleteWe have lots of ... er ... 'sculptures' that come back home to us too.
ReplyDeleteFunny, but I was also born in the 70's and have a healthy dose of frugality - I was just thinking the other day that all our towels need replaced.
Thanks sooo much for your kind words on my blog. Thinking about the Santa thing has made me a lot clearer in how I will approach my answers. Michelle
Oh dear, that looks like the underneath of my sink cupboard. I collect all that crap for kiddie craft too and I don't even have any kids!
ReplyDeleteI just can't bear to throw it all away.
Frugal is the new eco chic. I wish I could sew! xx
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're so thrifty with your fabric and towels. I'm still throwing out crafty space helmets and the like when I come across them. I think they mutated and multiplied over the years. Get rid of them now before this happens to you!
ReplyDeleteWe knew a wonderful old man next door who was of the WW2 frugality era. It was he that told us of eating bush turkey eggs to control their numbers. He would throw little food parcels of cherries and yoghurts over the fence in recycled Chem-mart bags for the kids. When we eventually helped clean out his immaculately tidy mid-century home, we discovered neat little stacks of notepads that he had constructed from envelopes, chemist bags, you name it. His 40 yr old son said he had never known his Dad to buy a note pad and we are still using them here 5 years later. I love their handmade quality and think of that lovely man every time I jot groceries. How many trees did he save in his life time?
ReplyDeleteI always get a bit of feelgood when stashing a particularly shapely carton thinking of the pleasure it will bring some 5 yr old architect that week. Prep teachers positively salivate for big sheets of Ikea flat pack card board, to my husband's relief as he suffers from profound cardboard phobia. ( the result of living with 5 kids and an art teacher!)
You are the Queen of Recycle! I buy things at thrift stores and then take them back to other thrift stores a month later when I can't find a place to put them. Does that count? I confess though, toilet paper rolls get tossed. I have no kinders to make cool trains out of them. How lucky you are to have them come back to you over and over!
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