Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without

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This is the second of our family's 2011 New Years Resolutions. This saying, "Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without" first came a commercial saying during the era of WWII (as noted above from the WWII advertisement). Even though I am sure that it was something that people had been saying for hundreds of years before it became a WWII poster.

So, what is out family's criteria for trying to meet this resolution for the year?

Use it up
-We are going to use up meal leftovers. By saving for another meal (example: lunch the next day) or combine several leftovers to make a new dish, casserole or soup. Hopefully this will help accomplish one of our other goals, which is to Waste Less. Items that we just won't eat or use up will be either composted or fed to the animals.
-We are going to use up household supplies and items that we currently have on hand (i.e. cleaners, toiletries, colognes, make-up, etc.), then we can make our own (which I prefer) or purchase (if making is not a good option). I will share recipes for cleaners and toiletry items i.e. shampoo, face scrubs, etc.

Wear it out
-We will be using items to their fullest in order to get the most for our dollars spent. This will include things like: furniture, clothing, bedding, towels, wash clothes, dishes, kitchen appliances, etc.
*Note: My Knight and I are going back on our diet (the one we did this last fall) starting this week, if we lose the same amount of weight as we did before, there will be a need for "smaller" clothing. We will be first shopping from home and seeing if we can "take-up" the clothing. Then we will shop from Thrift Stores, Consignment Shops and Yard Sales. Last resort will be buying new.


Make it do
-We will be making do with the items we currently have, which is way too much STUFF. We will be finding unique and creative ways to re-create uses and items out of the things/items/stuff we currently posses. This will help us accomplish another goal on our list, which is to recycle and reuse what we have. And it will help us to save more money.
*Note: One thing my sister, Amy, is doing is to not buy any wrapping paper or wrapping supplies for the year. Thus, she will be finding creative alternatives to wrapping gifts or recycling wrapping supplies she already has or receives during the year.

Do without
-This can be a tricky one....but our goal here is to find alternate ways to make do, trade, barter, share, borrow, recycle or recreate items that will get us the final product we would like or need. Now, I won't go as far as to say that we are going to go the whole year and not spend on anything....I don't think any of us (I am thinking one family member in particular - you know who you are) could totally commit to that. But, what I would like to see us as a family do is to begin to STOP and THINK about our purchases before giving into them.

Asking ourselves the questions:
Is there something that we currently have that will work or be just as compatible?
Can I barter, trade, or borrow for the item in need or want?
Do I really need it?
Can I make do without it?

All in the concept of really Simplifying our home and purchases.

Do you have any other ideas or concepts for each of these?
 

Live Simply - Simply Live

One of our families 2011 New Year's resolutions is to Live more Simply.

How does one go about doing this in our "over indulgent, tremendously complex, excessively electronic, got to have it now, compounded multitasking, keep up with the Jones', work more for less" society? Honestly, I don't have the answer to that question.

For my family to start living a simpler life style within the confines of our small area of the universe, I have began a list of things that we here at Rose Bud Cottage can do to begin this process:

  

Get Home Better Organized - a place for everything, everything in its place

Follow the Budget - we have one, but get lax at times with it

Declutter ALL Areas - home & storage

Have TAG Sale  - of items gathered in decluttering

Donate - remaining "decluttered" items to Charity

Waste Less - time, food, water, electricity, etc.

Recycle More - compost more, find unique ways to reuse, etc.

Use Cloth grocery bags - keep in car & not forget to use

Watch less TV, Movies, Games, etc. - limit time for all areas

Buy Local - Buy Better - Buy Less - better bang for our buck

Use Low Cost/No Cost Resources more wisely - Library's, Thrift stores, etc.

This is the start of my list...Hope to add more to it as we progress and accomplish some of the items. Do you have any ideas on how to live simply, so that we can simply live? Share, please?

 

Organizing Larder (Pantry) & Giveaway

Over the course of the last two weeks, I have canned about 50 jars of items which left my long kitchen counter cover with jars and no place to put them. Today I was on a mission to find more space to house the jars. With that in mind, My Knight and I tackled the pantry closet and wall.

We took nearly everything out of the pantry. Made sure all jars had labels (food item & year canned). Moved newer jars to the back and older jars to the front. We organized by type of food (i.e. Vegetables, Fruits, Meat, Soups, Juices, Tomato products, Jelly's and Jam's, etc.).

I usually tackle this kind of project a couple times of year. Even though it starts out like this, with 4 cooks in the house it never stays like this more than four to six months. If I don't do this then I would never know what I had or the older items would not get used timely and possibly ruin.

After organizing the Pantry Closet, we (I) moved over to the Pantry Wall. My Knight puttered out and moved on to other things. I took everything off the shelves and dusty them and the jars. Then as I put back the items I put them together with like items, making sure that all jars were labeled. This can be time consuming, but in the end it looks great. Anybody can find what they need. And I get a feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.

While we were putting items into place in both the Pantry Closet and Wall, I would write down how many quarts, pints, half-pints or quarter-pints I had of each item. From that list I updated a spreadsheet that I have created for each pantry area. Listing all items in each area with the appropriate amounts for each jars by size using a right slash mark. Then as I use an item, I make a left slash mark making an X in the box. There are also extra boxes for me to add items.

This is a very simple type of inventory control, but it works for me. Plus, the kids & my Knight can follow it well. I do print out the inventory sheets and attach them to the fridge for easy access and up keep. By organizing and setting up an inventory sheet, I am able to count how many jars that I still had available for use of any item listed. This makes life so much easier than searching through a ton of jars each time I need to know it I have something left or not.

Here is the Giveaway part. To the person who guesses the "closest" to the number of home canned items I have in my pantry, I will give them a jar of Banana Split Preserves. This stuff is delish!

You have from now until Friday, December 17, 2010 at mid-night to make a guess by leaving your entry in the comments section of this post. Good Luck!