Today's tip(s) is to reduce, reuse, & repurpose. It's pretty fun to think of crafty ways to use stuff, and it saves money, too! We are far, FAR too wasteful, and stuff costs money to make, use, and get rid of.
1. Reduce. Seriously. Just stop. buying. so. much. stuff. One of the things I learned when I moved to a city where I didn't have a car was to buy less stuff. In the olden days of multiple Targets and a large car trunk, if a store didn't have something I wanted, I'd just go to another store. If I'm bussing or hoofing it, that process seems far more labor-intensive, and since I can only carry home what I can well, carry home, more likely than not I just go without. And it's amazing how much you don't need when you don't have it. Just pick something non-completely necessary (I'm totally not advocating giving up toilet paper or anything) and see how you do without it. This step gives you the added bonus of your home being less cluttered. Which means less dusting. Which means a happier Jamie. Since the advent of everything is streaming on some platform or another, I stopped buying so many DVDs. For books you can also do bookswap, or use the library! Remember the library?
The second arm of reducing is using things up. I can get at least a week's worth of toothpaste of a tube that most people would throw away. I have been using a hair product I hate for almost 3 months now because I spent good money on it and I'm not throwing it out. Add a little water to your shampoo bottle and shake it around. Use the last dregs of dijon to make homemade salad dressing. In fact, I could do a whole post on not wasting food!
2. Reuse. I reuse everything. The plastic produce bags from the store (if I use them at all. if it's apples or onions, they just go right in my reusable cloth grocery bag) double as trash bags. I keep yogurt and take-out containers to send leftovers home with friends, thus alleviating the need to chase after my tupperware (or ahem, just buy more tupperware). I've even been known to rip cotton balls in half so they last longer. I just started carrying my headphones around in an old Rosebud Salve tin-- and I now spend far less time untangling my headphones!
3. Repurpose. There are thousand of ideas on the internet how to repurpose things. Use large vegetable cans to plant herbs in. You could make a lampshade out of old photograph slides. Make flower vases out of wire and old lightbulbs. Keep bobby pins in a sardine can. Use old spice tins as magnets. I made the top of a vintage-looking anchovy can into a jewelry tray!
Really, the world is your oyster and the possibilities are endless. I'm not a super creative type, so I just use other people's ideas. It's OK. They wouldn't put them on the internet if they didn't want people to use them.
There ya go: Stop buying so much stuff. When you do, make it last. And then use it for something else.
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