Welcome back to “Make it Do Monday”, a Monday meme I would love to see succeed and expand across the internet. As I have explained in previous posts, “Make it Do Monday” is inspired by the slogan of The Greatest Generation
: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Each Monday, you can expect to see a post on one of the four aspects of that slogan. Today, let’s talk about how can we “use up” some of the odds and ends we have remaining around our homes.
: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Each Monday, you can expect to see a post on one of the four aspects of that slogan. Today, let’s talk about how can we “use up” some of the odds and ends we have remaining around our homes. Shampoo and shower gel—what can you do with that last little bit that you can’t squeeze out of the bottle? Just add water! As the Fly Lady tells her “Flybabies” about the daily Swish and Swipe, “soap is soap.” When we have squeezed every last little bit out of a bottle, I add a little water and shake thoroughly. Then I use that soapy mixture to scrub my toilet in my daily “Swish and Swipe”. I think it cleans our toilet just as well as toilet bowl cleaner.
Toothpaste—Did you know that you can use plain white toothpaste for a variety of things? When you get to the end of your toothpaste, stick a q-tip in the end. Use that to fill nail holes in your walls. Use a damp rag or dampen the other end of the q-tip and wipe off the excess around the hole. When it dries, especially if you have white or light-colored walls, you will barely notice the nail hole was ever there! Be sure to check out Wise Bread's article on "Two Dozen Uses for Toothpaste".
Perfume or body spray—When I have used everything I possible can in the bottle, I take the lid off the perfume bottle and put it in my underwear drawer. It makes a nice sachet for your drawer. If you use a body spray that has a screw-on lid, you can unscrew the lid and use that tiny bit of perfume to scent sachets with rice, or pour it on a cotton ball and put that in your drawer.
Hair products—Just take the lid off and stick your finger in the bottle. Wipe your finger around the inside neck of the bottle. Sometimes I can get two or three extra hair stylings out of a tube of gel.
Crayons—Peel the paper from the ends of crayons and then melt them down to make bigger crayons. Have you seen articles about crock pot crayons?
What odds and ends do you use to the very end? What creative ways do you use to stretch items to the max?
I like the perfume idea! I would say that my most frugal idea was to just avoid packaging that makes the dregs hard to reach.
ReplyDeleteDo you know what I mean? I hate skinny necks, or plastic bottles that I can't reuse. It's not a perfect system but I'm learning to buy reusable and go from there.
We are such a wasteful society.