I just did something that prompted me to wonder about the rest of you. I just saved the end of the stick that you run through the bottom of a window shade to keep it from curling and other things. If you have any experience with the adjust it yourself window shades that are available now, you will know what I am talking about. We put up new shades in the bedroom and had an 8 inch length of that stick (there's a name for it, but I can't recall it now). It is plastic and shaped like a flat tube. Looked like a good sleeve for a sharp knife to me, so I just put it in the tableware drawer to save until I find a knife that needs it.
So what do you save?????
I hate to part with the mesh bags that veggies and fruit come in. I always think I will make some sort of bird feeder from them. Actually they work quite well for suet and such.
We save the plastic bags that we get from the grocery stores and other places, and we use them to line our waste paper baskets. I think probably most people do that? There is legislation now (maybe only in California) to start charging a "tax" on plastic bags, so people will start bringing in their own bags and "save the planet," probably.
I "save/recycle" typing paper that's only been printed on one side, and print off my e-mails for Bob to read on the unused side. (Doesn't everybody do that?)
We save way too much "stuff," then have to go through and get rid of it, eventually!
I save coffee "cans" (not cans anymore, I guess) They are just so handy for so many things. Found a new use yesterday. A 3 pounder holds the right amount of water for my bird bath. Put fertilizer in one in the winter time for ice melting - have 2 or 3 full of odds and ends of bolts, one with brass fittings, you name it, you can probably get it in a coffee "can". AND have empty ones in the basement ready for whatever use they can be. I save my plastic bags also, till the dispenser gets full then afraid I'm a bad girl and toss 'em.
When I use to do my own repair work and the like I always saved the used nails and screws and hardware that we salvaged
from all of our projects.
Now, I don't have projects, but I did save a can or two of them when I came to the Longton Housing.
Now I keep wishing someone would ask me, "Do you have a nail or screw that I could use?" I hate to just through them
out........someday I may have a need for that doo-hicky.
Now, as to the mesh bags that come around fruit and veggies...they make nice scouring thingys........and when done or dingy,
just give a toss.
I also save all the twist ties out of plastic bags through them into my junk drawer.
Do any of you have at least one drawer full of stuff that we never seem to use, but save for some strange reason????
Judy, my "junk drawer" isn't as junky as it used to be, as I did get some dividers to sort out all of that good stuff. We save the twist ties, also. And, we have several cans with "nails, screws and - whatever" in them, stored "somewhere" out in the garage. So, yes, we safe stuff we sure don't use!
the only time we'll ever need those doo-hickey's is RIGHT AFTER YOU THROW THEM AWAY. I don't have A junk drawer, I have TWO junk draws and they hold absolutely everything, EXCEPT WHAT I NEED AT THE TIME. :-\
Flo,
that is the truth as we see it..............I do have more than one, but was embarrassed to say
how many.
I have a drawer with tool-thingys and I have a drawer for utensils that I never use but save incase
I might want to use them to cook with again. (What do we do with old pancake turners and the like) I just can't pitch them. YET
I also have a drawer in my bedroom for extra cards, either ones I am saving from the family or the ones I plan on sending one day,
but for some reason none of them fit, so I go buy another one.
The joy's of a homemaker........now as to the tools I kept thinking I would do something with them here.......I have a little of everything, except power tools...OH I do still have my drimel tool set on a shelf....I guess I want someone to ask me if I have a certain tool.
Oh well.........one day my daughter will have to dispose of it......I won't worry any more..
OMG, Judy, got to save those old pancake turners. Never know when you might go on an over-night camping trip and THEN you will need one. ;D
I save balin twine, it actually makes pretty sturdy clothes line! tie down tarps, tie gates shut, tie tomatoes up, its almost as good as duck tape:P
Yes, plastic bags are very handy to save. Boot covers for hubby's muddy boots when he runs in the house for something and doesn't want to shed his boots. Trash can liners. And also for packing "peanuts"; got that idea from my sister. She packs sacks around anything she is mailing in a box (good way to pass them on?).
I also agree about the coffee plastic cans. I use them to pick garden in the summer. Water plants in the house. Fill pots with dirt. Etc, etc. And the good thing, is that when you get too many (I drink a lot of coffee) or have one that's too grungy... they are recycle #2!
I also save yogurt, cool whip, sour cream, and cottage cheese containers. Yogurt containers are perfect size for Lemon Freeze recipe in during the summer. Sour cream is good size for dog food/cat food scoops. And all containers are good for leftovers. And again, they will recycle when you get too many.
We also save water bottles (good kind) and gatorade bottles for hubby to use to take tea in his lunch. Those sometimes don't make it back home, so we rarely get overstocked on those.
Quote from: Tobina on April 17, 2008, 09:47:56 AM
Yes, plastic bags are very handy to save. Boot covers for hubby's muddy boots when he runs in the house for something and doesn't want to shed his boots.
Wow!! I thought Billy was the only person who did this!! We have a no shoe rule in our house. And he knows how agitated I get if he doesn't remove his boots in the mud room. But if he just has to come in for a second, he slips on some plastic bags. We also save coffee cans out in the shed, for nails and screws and bolts and such. Also save the big jugs that hydraulic fluid comes in for the tractors. We have an ever growing stash of 5-gallon buckets also. Billy saves baling wire also. He uses it for EVERYTHING!! He once replaced his shoe strings with the string used in his hay baler. He said they were very sturdy and strong and would last forever... ::) I told him he looked like a nut.
In the house, I save boxes that things came in...Our DVD player box, the box the scanner was in, the box for the digital camera, and the car DVD player box....they're handy for storing different years bills for the farm, and one box holds all the manuals and instructions for some of the electronics in the house. I save some shoe boxes, depending on size. One box holds Lane's crayons, one holds scrapbooking supplies...I also save EVERY single scrap of fabric. Never know when I might need it.... ;)
hey balin wire has got me on the road again more than once! :laugh: :laugh:
I think that our old feed truck would be in pieces right now if it weren't for balin' wire. More than once I've come home and something was close to falling off, or even had...And it was strung back up with baling wire....
LOL yep
I forgot maybe the most useful thing that I save. Cardboard. The cardboard from the back of calendars and such. Such nice straight edges and perfect corners. I just used a piece from the back of the desk calendar that I buy every year. I have 6 or 7 of them now and they make good signs for our yard sale items. But what I used it for this time was to back the schedules for the pro basketball playoffs. I now have it all on one sheet that I will be able to find when I want it.
How come no one has said that they save money?
With gas topping $3.59 a gallon? You must be kidding!! :o :o
I've cut back some since I'm not growing a garden for 3 families any more, but I sometimes save plastic gallon milk jugs. cut off the bottom and they make nice hot caps for young plants, or cut a piece out of the side, throw in a big ball of twine, thread it through the top and you have a nice garden twine dispenser. Cut the bottom off handled liquid detergent bottles and you have a nice scoop for bird seed or whatever. Egg cartons and yogurt cups are great for starting little plants. I use twist ties for all kinds of things. I keep a few bread wrappers for pulling up poison ivy... put it over my hand, pull up the little ivy plant, turn the bag inside out and toss.
Smart idea, Diane, using the bread wrapper to pull up the poison ivy. I save almost everything also but I thing I do save is the panty hose after they get a hole in them. They are great for tying up tomato plants, rose bushes that need to be trained or tamed. Won't hurt the tender plants and will last a whole season before rotting.
I just found myself putting away another cardboard tube that comes in the center of paper towels. I use them for storing extension cords. Fold the cord, stick it through the tube and never again a tangled cord. Also, it can now be hung on a hook instead of stuck on a shelf somewhere where you can't see it.
I went back up a few and found the "pantyhose" uses. I used them for drying onions when I had a garden. Cut off the foot, tie a knot, put in an onion, tie a knot, put in another onion, tie a knot and you get the picture. Hang them from the nail and they are not touching each other so lot less "rot" - When you need an onion just take the scissors and whack off the bottom of the pantyhose holder. worked for me, it did. ::)
If you ever have a chance, the books called the Tightwad Gazette have a lot of good information like this in them...the info was gleaned from a number of years of the magazine by the same name. There are three total books...between the three of them, there's tons of good ideas for using up and re-purposing things. :-)
Flo, I did that one year; an awesome way to keep onions. I don't think I lost a single one, however my house smelled of onion for some weeks till they started drying out!
Quote from: flo on July 01, 2008, 11:57:33 AM
I went back up a few and found the "pantyhose" uses. I used them for drying onions when I had a garden. Cut off the foot, tie a knot, put in an onion, tie a knot, put in another onion, tie a knot and you get the picture. Hang them from the nail and they are not touching each other so lot less "rot" - When you need an onion just take the scissors and whack off the bottom of the pantyhose holder. worked for me, it did. ::)
::) :-[ I bet that's right. I hung mine in the garage.