Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without!

My parents were children during the Great Depression and taught me to be very frugal. I was thinking today about some of the "strange" things we did to conserve, and came up with these: 

1. My mother never threw away any clothing, no matter how tattered. She would cut out the parts that were still intact and serviceable and use these scraps to make rag rugs and quilts; she even made me a "coat of many colors" as in the Dolly Parton song. The buttons and zippers, she removed and saved to put on new clothing that she made herself. Worn-out washcloths became dust rags, shoeshine rags, and stuffing for pillows. Worn-out sheets became shop rags for my dad.

2. We never threw away margarine tubs with lids. We would eat the contents, wash out the tubs, and use them to store left-over food. We also used the larger ones as food bowls for our cats. My dad used the tubs to store nails, screws, and other small items in his workshop.

3. We re-used aluminum foil as long as it would hold into one piece. Then we would crumble it up and put it in holes in the wall or around pipes to keep the mice out of the house, or roll it into a ball for the cats to play with.

4. We kept the plastic bags that we bought loaves of sandwich bread in. These plastic bags were used as receptacles when picking beans, or to store zippers, buttons, and the like. We also kept all plastic grocery bags as well as paper grocery bags; you never knew when you would need a bag for something. Plastic grocery bags were sometimes used to store craft supplies. Paper bags were cut up and used to wrap packages for mailing, and on occasion were even used to wrap Christmas presents (with the addition of some crayoned artwork by me).

5. We never threw away Christmas ribbon, wrapping paper, or bows from any gifts we received. The paper could be used to wrap smaller presents the next year, and the bows and ribbon used as well (secured on with a bit of tape).

6. We never bought bird seed for the birds in the winter, but we did feed them. We would scatter crumbled-up leftover corn bread in the yard for them; they seemed to love it!

7. Any broken appliance such as a toaster was kept. The parts were used by my dad to replace broken parts on newer appliances. Sometimes he would repair the broken appliances and sell them. Often he would go around the neighborhood and ask if anyone had any junk they would give him. He got his riding lawn mower for free that way, put in a few hours work, and it was good as new, though it had been inoperable when he got it.

I can't think of any more, but I'm sure there were. It is a real shame that we live in a "throw it out" society. My parents weren't particularly environmentally conscious, but they saved a lot of things from going to the landfill and put them to good use. If more people would do such things today instead of just throwing away useful items, our landfills would not be overflowing and we would not be wasting so many resources.