Last time A. went camping with the kids, he bought a sleeve of those big red Solo cups for the gallons of milk and lemonade he kept in the cooler. When he got home, I collected all of those and washed them to use again.
I used one of them on the Fourth of July to give the son home with me a very patriotic-looking watermelon slushie. After he finished his slushie, he started to throw the Solo cup away. I stopped him and told him I would wash it to use again. He was incredulous.
"Mom. Seriously? I have never heard of anyone re-using a Solo cup."
Really? I mean, is that really that strange? They're thick plastic! They're easy to wash! Why wouldn't you re-use it?
He was also shocked that I wash out Ziploc bags. And empty sour cream containers. The tray with top that A. brought home from a McDonald's breakfast. Pretty much any glass jars. And I sometimes save sheets of aluminum foil if they haven't gotten dirty, although I don't go so far as to wash those.
I even wash and re-use birthday candles.
I don't know if it's strange, but I do those things too. I also wash and save any styrofoam trays I get from packages of meat. They're good for sending leftovers home with guests.
ReplyDeleteI re-wash plastic straws and spoons from ice cream treats that we occasionally buy- I just reorganized my stash yesterday. I lost a few spoons when my kids took them in their lunchboxes for school, so I now keep any "disposable" ones we get. . It's funny, the boys remember to bring home the plastic spoons regularly, where my good spoons would disappear.
ReplyDeleteI do keep some glass jars, some plastic bags, ziplocs if they held dry stuff , and a few other things. Yogurt containers are good for small paint jobs. I don't wash out as much as I used to, but I think it's a smart move.
Hold it, people throw away birthday candles?!? It's not like they're used for long- I get multiple birthdays out of each candle. Frosting washes right off.
DeleteI do wash my solo cups. I found if i put two of them together, they last much longer and it insulates my ice. I keep extra ketchup packets, napkins and plastic wear from takeouts. All these are frugal habits but my adult children call me a hoarder hippie!! It saves me pennies that turn into dollars. I live below the poverty level and enjoy making do. You've got me beat on your food stretching though.
ReplyDeleteOur mothers and grandmothers washed and saved things like this and so do I. It hurts me to think of things ending up in the landfill if they can be reused. (The ziplock bags eventually spring holes, the plastic forks break and the foil gets too wrinkled to reuse, but at least by washing them I can delay them being tossed.)
ReplyDeleteYep! Although we do have recycling, so anything that go in the recycling goes there. I also keep a stash of paper napkins I get when out and about plus plastic utensils. I don’t do straws. My mom did straws (she lived below the poverty line). After she died, I put the straws in my drawer and was struck by grief when I pulled one out to find her lipstick on the end.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely a re-user. I put those red solo cups and the corresponding plates and plastic ware in the dishwasher over and over again. I reuse baggies, glass jars, etc. and I keep plastic containers to send home leftovers with people that I know would never return my good tupperware :). I don't wash and reuse plastic straws. I also keep any extra paper napkins that we collect at restaurants and either keep them in the car to use as kleenex or bring them in the house to use as napkins.
ReplyDeleteWhen my mother in law passed away you would not believe the collection of Wendy's plastic ware that she had. Best stuff out there!
I reuse a lot, too, similar to others here. Something I just discovered is rinsing out acquired paper cups to use later for bacon or sausage grease (which I don't save, I know you make delicious work of it, though). I keep the empty paper cups in the freezer until use since it's hard to truly clean a paper cup. I also keep plastic wrap that vegetables come in in the freezer to reuse.
ReplyDeleteDuring Jimmy Carter's funeral a couple younger family members mentioned with amusement how Jimmy and Rosalynn washed out plastic bags and hung them to dry. My thought was: Who doesn't??
ReplyDeleteIt's a season of life thing for me. When I was young and carefree (aka before kids lol), I reused a lot. Now that I have kids ages 6, 3, and 1, and both adults work full time, something has to give. And washing every presumably disposable item is one of them. I do try to use the real stuff mostly though. I keep a picnic set in our van.
ReplyDeleteI've read too much about microplastics to reuse plastic if it has been exposed to heat. If I buy takeout coffee, I try to discard the plastic lid. I did sort of wish I'd bought solo cups when all the kids were here, but at least every blessed glass in the cupboard got washed multiple times, even the ones in the back row. Mil
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