Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
That was the mantra of my grandmother's generation. My parents live by those words pretty well, too, but I, unfortunately, have more trouble with it. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to end up with more stuff than I need, want, or can even find room to store. I'm not a clothes horse (more like a fashion victim, truth be told), and I don't collect, well, collectibles. But I'm magnetically attracted to bookshops, and office supplies, and toys for my kids. Nothing big, mind you, but even the little things add up. Perhaps if I only got big things, I'd get 3, then my house would be full and I'd stop...
In any case, here I am, almost done with yet another military tour, facing another move and somehow I've got more stuff again. We'll be moving by the end of the year, so now is the time to downsize our stuff. I officially notified my family last week. No. More. Stuff. Let's start by "using it up".
I don't just mean "Don't buy more stuff," I also mean "Use the stuff we already have and no one bothers to look for before buying more stuff". For example, my dear husband, who is an intelligent man, is incapable of buying hair conditioner. If it's on my shopping list, he will invariably come back with shampoo. In fact, he's told me he read the bottle 47 times and duct-taped his hand to the correct one, only to find it's shampoo, not conditioner, when he gets home. Anyone with long hair knows that you go though buckets more conditioner than shampoo, so long story short, we have gallons of shampoo. Of course, movers won't move liquids, so the shampoo has got to go. No one in this house is to buy another drop of shampoo until every last bottle of the stuff is gone. Period.
I'm also trying the use it up approach in the kitchen. I'm not sure how much Worcestershire sauce I can go through a few tablespoons at a time, but I'll use up that bottle before I buy any more seasonings even close to it, gosh darn it! That jar of capers? My new favorite garnish. Jello molds every Sunday until Christmas. Maybe I can even find a use for that Cheese soup... ok, maybe not. Sorry - I love cheese, REAL cheese. I just can't handle cheese soup in a can. But the rest of it, I'm using. My family is in for some interesting meals in the next few months. Sometimes I even make a game of seeing how long I can put off grocery shopping, but that's another story...
