Many of us have too much stuff taking up room around our homes and this could be a great way to declutter as well as save money. Think about those half used tubes of lipstick in the back of the bathroom cabinet.. Or maybe you've still got the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner from a holiday 5 years ago. Now is the time to use them up.
Do you have pieces of timber behind a shed that could be made into a tool box or outdoor furniture ? Does your freezer have too many mystery packages ? Writing a menu plan could be a wonderful way to make room in your freezer.
Is your craft or material stash getting out of hand ? Could you make a start on this year's presents and reduce the stash ?
For the month of March, lets make a big effort to use things up before we throw them out.
My goals for March are -
* Make room in my freezer.
* Pour the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner into our bigger bottles in the shower.
* Making more items to sell by using crafts and supplies I already have on hand.
* Using up the last of a couple of lipsticks.
* Decluttering my pantry and making an effort to use some items we forget to use.
What are your ' Use It Up ' goals ? At the end of the month we'll post our results
Great idea Wendy, count me in.
ReplyDeleteYAY !!!
DeleteWhat a great idea!!!
ReplyDeleteFor March I’d like to:
1. Use up the bricks we’ve accumulated into a brick walkway and, if we have enough, a brick patio by our BBQ.
2. Choosing recipes to Use up foods in my freezer and pantry before buying any ingredients for meals.
3. Continue my “no buy” policy for fabrics and continue to make quilts/gifts/reuseable household products from my stash to use in our home, give as gifts or sell.
If I can work on those 3 goals it will make a great step forward for us!
Good luck to everyone who takes on this challenge and let’s get this started!!!!!
Your quilts are beautiful.
DeleteI use the small shampoos, soaps and conditioners that I have collected when I have a shower at the gym. It makes me feel special after a workout to use these little luxuries. It’s like a treat and now all part of the experience of working out and feeling good.
ReplyDeleteI'm like that with sample shower gels. I usually use my handmade soap so shower gel feels like a luxury.
DeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteThings I plan to use up are:
Makeup/skincare (have been doing this for a while)
Toothpaste(kids put back in cabinet with some still in it)
Vitamins/Medicine cabinet
Groceries in pantry
Craft supplies
Seed packets
Pens
and DVD's , I can't use these up but at least watch them and keep or declutter.
Thanks for your post,
Maureen
A great well rounded list Maureen. I need to go through my seed packets too.
DeleteMy pens died and rather than buy a pack I went on a mission going thru drawers and bags. I found enough that I don't need to buy any for a while and also found dozens of clothes line pegs that I was running very short on. Amazing how many dead pens I was keeping.
DeleteHi Wendy
ReplyDeleteI’m all for this, our freezer is pretty organised due to restocking after an accidental defrosting at the end of January but there is a lot in the pantry that needs using.
I now have a craft room and don’t have supplies scattered throughout the house and garage anymore, seeing everything in one place has prompted a useit up/finish it off reaction. It will be interesting to see what I can achieve over the next couple of months.
Susan
Susan, I have a craft room of sorts too after having bits and pieces all around the house.
DeleteHere's my first Use it up quilt- Summer Camp block by MSQ but instead of buying a jelly roll of coordinating fabrics, I just pulled out my shoebox of 2-1/2" strips that I cut from leftover scraps from previous projects.
ReplyDeleteHere's. what I have so far!
https://pin.it/5oggevvpxpat3e
And here are the leftover trimmings that I will throw away (gasp!!����)
https://pin.it/v4zc3mkjprwsst
It will end up twin size!
gardenpat, you quilt is lovely what a great way to use scraps love this type of quilting
DeleteI'm in. My husband and I are going away for a long weekend for our 25th anniversary. It is a time share. There is a full kitchen so I am packing all of the little packets like mayo, jelly, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper to bring. I'm bringing travel bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and bubble bath that I was given free. Just yesterday I cleaned out the bottom of 3 Chapsticks and put it in an almost empty one. I'm currently using a small toothpaste and floss from the dentist.
ReplyDeleteIt all adds up Marybeth.
DeleteMust be something passing through the wavelengths as I did something similar this past weekend: toners into one bottle, lined all the "short" lipsticks up near the outside door so I would be compelled to use them, cooked up several "little packets from the freezer to make a meal, etc. My budget these days dictates doing such things; and I get a lot of satisfaction from using what I spend my hard earned money on.
ReplyDeleteSandy, I did the exact same thing with my lipsticks. There's so much in the bottom of those tubes.
DeleteI seem to always be on a "use it up" challenge! But, sometimes, I focus more than others. This week, I've been really hitting odds and ends of foods. I only spent $21 last weekend, for things like milk and celery, and a few other things I needed. I got 2 cases of water for $1.50 each, and grabbed my free items from the store Monopoly game. Someone gave us a large bag of onions, so those have been put in the bucket in the garage, or frozen. Otherwise, I've been cleaning out the fridge, grabbing frozen packages from the freezers, and items from the pantry shelves. Today, I took a really old banana and made little muffins. I also took a few wrinkly apples and made some apple sauce. It's not a big batch, but the sad apples are gone now. I will have to shop a bit this weekend, mostly for produce, I think, and the super sales items from a couple of stores that are having a price war--I always buy when prices are ridiculously low and save the items for later.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I find that when I challenge myself to cook with what's on hand, the meals are more interesting than my usual same old, same old, because it forces me to be creative.
Becky, you can also make apple cobbler or apple crumble with old apples. No one notices that the fruit was old.
DeleteWendy, That sounds like a wonderful plan. I'm re stocking my pantry after the remodel of the laundry room and finding things that need to be used up and I can shop for gifts from my pantry too.
ReplyDeleteGifts from the pantry sounds interesting. What gifts do you have ? Jams etc ??
DeleteJams and all kinds of things I have canned. Applesauce, pickles, pickled red onion. The list goes on...
DeleteI had a large stash of hotel toiletries so I used them up last year. I emptied all my bags and suitcases putting all my tea coffee sugars into the kitchen and have starting using up all those pamper freebies I got over the year. All my toothpaste samples are being used up as well as the hotel tubes. I have put all my deodorants in the one drawer to use. I'm using up all the small condiment bottles and satchets of stuff from the motels. I' banking my loose change every month as my account pays monthly interest. My sister told me she feels sick when she looks at all the scraps in my freezer well sorry its how I survive. I have an over the bath shower so I use all of the water after showering to flush the toilet. I don't have lights on and yes most of my gifts up to May are confectionary I bought after Christmas for 75% off. I am thankful for my garden, my cat Swan, I am strong and I will survive.
ReplyDeleteYou sure will survive Leanne and it sounds like you really know the value of a dollar. Good on you for using things up.
DeleteOur bath is separate so when we use it the water gets bucketed into the washing machine. As for gifts, with our money being tight this year I'm giving lots of jam, handmade soaps, baking and bargains I found last year.
You should be very proud of what you achieve.
I have a lot of little soaps and shampoos from hotels that we could use up here. I also gathered all my bath products together and piled them into an embarrassingly large container. No more buying bath items until I've used them up. I'm corralling all my lip balms etc together. I can never seem to find one when I need it so I buy another one, but I don't think I've ever actually used one up in my life. I have some sad fruit that I need to find a use for rather than throwing it away. Lots of craft items to be used up as well. And I don't think I need to buy perfume again for years. No more saving my "good" items... What exactly am I saving them for? My life is not exciting enough to be filled with special occasions every weekend so I am going to treat myself to some everyday luxury and use this stuff up! Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and...yes...I agree with Bek...let's treat ourselves to some everyday luxury!!! Yesss!!!
ReplyDeleteI started Autumn Cleaning and am on a bit of an organising challenge... so using things up is happening here! I hope to keep my grocery spend low all month by using up things that really need rotating from the pantry and freezer. I will join in and list the things I used up week by week.xxx
ReplyDeleteYou can buy cheap icy pole molds when I use tin pineapple I reserve the juice and make icy poles. My sad fruit would get chopped up and added to the icy poles its even nice if you have leftover flat lemonade to make them. Have you ever tried to make fruit salad jam which is basically any selection of fruit to 2 lemons and 750 grams sugar to each kilo of fruit. If your making the icy poles put some fruit into the mold then freeze then add the liquid otherwise all the fruit floats to the top. Hope that idea helps with your sad fruit.
ReplyDeleteWe have been having fun with our use it up challenge. Have finished off most of the mystery meat in the freezer and had some creative meals. This week I will be making jam and muffins with the frozen fruit in the freezer. It feels wonderful to not be spending very much on groceries and still eating yummy things. We have started going thru fabric to find something we like to recover outdoor furniture cushions. I went thru my closet and found some clothes I had long forgotten about. So fun to shop my own closet. We have been working on cleaning up the craft room and wow the treasure we have found.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Patti