My grandparents were masters at reusing everything. My grandma used an empty coffee can as a cookie jar. She never bought ziplock bags because bread bags were perfectly good for storing food. Why buy new clothes when the old ones are fine?
I am making fun of them a little, but I also think we need a little more of my grandparents’ common sense. We really have become a throw-away society, and I’m just as guilty as everyone else. For heaven’s sake, I barely had my washing machine for 11 years when it became more expensive to repair than to just replace it, so that’s what I did. When I was a child in the 70’s, I remember my grandma washing clothes with her old wringer washing machine in her basement. To wring out the wet laundry, she put the clothes between two rollers and turned the handle. She must have had that machine for at least 30 years!
Ed and I try to do our part. At least my new washing machine is a high efficiency machine, so it uses less water and energy than the old machine. While we do buy ziplock bags, we also try to use washable containers for lunches and leftovers. I avoid buying water bottles and instead we fill washable bottles. I take reusable totes to the grocery store, although sometimes I forget to put them back in the car when I’m done unpacking them! We recycle junk mail and cardboard boxes, cans and bottles. On my countertop is a shiny silver container where my kitchen scraps go. Last summer, Ed made me a large compost bin for my garden, and I’m really excited to be able to use compost in my garden this spring!
Aw, my grandparents, especially my grandmother was so like this and could find ways to reuse just about anything. I did sadly make fun of her a bit when I was a kid, but now as I am getting older do see this a bit differently and agree we need more instances like this. So, I try better now more than ever to do my part and thanks for the reminder here today 😉
Janine Huldie recently posted…Ridiculous or Not – Moms, It’s All Worth It
As we get older, we do appreciate our parents and grandparents a lot more, don’t we!
I would like to recycle and compost more. I tried composting when we first moved into our present home in 2006, but my back soon became so bad that I had to give it up. Hubby, even though his father was an avid farmer, never go into composting so he didn’t continue with my project. So now all I can do it think about it and applaud those who do.
Ila East recently posted…We raised an independent child!!!
Our family had a ringer washer too and when I was small my fingers went through the ringers when I was ‘helping’ with laundry. We too recently bought a high efficiency washer and dryer but with only the two of at home it takes us a long time to get a load of laundry together. If we all do our part, recycle, compost and reduce hopefully we can make a difference.
This Busy Life recently posted…In Every Walk With Nature
We had one of the washing machines in our basement too. We also had the normal ones but my grandmother would come and stay with us for a few months in the summer and she loved using the old one. I agree with you, we do need to be more like our grandparents when it comes to reusing things. I was just telling my dad this morning how coke bottles were the original recycling, nothing got tossed to sit in a land fill like today!
Deborah Pucci recently posted…OUR DAY WITH ADAM
I remember the glass milk bottles that went back to the store after use. A few cents back and they would be used again and again and again. And according to family my grandfather was against wasting food so much, that he would scrape off the mould and eat the rest of whatever it was. Mind you, the family was fairly large, so I wonder how often that actually happened.
Mara recently posted…18-45-3
Here’s my secret for remembering to get the bags back in the car: have way too many of them!! I have at least three trips worth of bags. I keep them hooked on a peg in my kitchen. If I don’t remember right away, I have at least a week to remember. Or else I get one of the kids to run them out to the van where they are supposed to be!
Rabia @TheLiebers recently posted…Opportunities Missed
You know, I do have a lot of bags that are in my closet and not my car! I need to have too many of them in the car, too. 🙂