The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy!
I had used up the last of a bottle of shampoo the other day and was about to reach for a brand new bottle, when I took notice all the half-full shampoos that line my bathroom storage. Bottles that weren’t my favorite scent, bottles left by house guests, and all the mystery bottles that somehow snuck into my home.
These multiple items not only waste our money, but clutter our homes.
When I write “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” at the end of my blogs, I really mean it. This catchy little phrase is the decision making that I want my brain to automatically go through before I buy something new or throw something away.
Use it Up:
- Have I used up every last bit of this item? (Lotion, shampoo, catsup, bread crust, etc.)
- Is there someone in my circle who could still get some use out of it? (Hand me downs, magazines, etc.)
- Can this household item be repaired?
- Am I eating my leftovers?
Wear it Out:
- Can I squeeze any more use out of this item? (Stained T-shirts can be worn under sweaters, etc.)
- Clothing and even shoes can be repaired.
Make it Do:
- Can I continue to use something even if it’s not perfect? (clothes, sheets and towels can be mended; missing recipe ingredients can be substituted or even omitted, etc.)
Or Do Without:
- Instead of getting a great bargain on that cute new outfit, stuffed animal or knick-knack, can it simply not get purchased?
Which brings me to:
The Non-Consumer Advocate Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without Challenge.
Don’t start a new shampoo until all the half-empty bottles get used. Lather up with all those small soaps brought home from hotels. Don’t throw away things that can get fixed or mended. Eat your leftovers. Fix what you can, pass along what’s still good and pass up unecessary tempting purchases.
In short, don’t be wasteful. Value your possessions, whether they be a refrigerator full of food or all the clothing and toiletries you could ever possibly use.
Don’t buy anything you already have enough of.
Are you up for a challenge?
Add your name to the comments section below to be in on the game, and we’ll all play together. Tell us about your proudest use it up moments!
Make sure to check out Jonathan Bloom’s wastedfood.com site for lots of great inspiration.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }
I would be honoured to participate! I do a lot of this, but temptations to cut corners abound. I will keep track of when I can overcome the least bits of laziness and do more!
I am looking forward to participating! Also, it’s wonderful to see other people who share the desire to do this as well!
I finally got around to cleaning out my bathroom shelves at my old place where the bathroom had 6 full time bathers and a number of transients coming through for a soak from time to time as well.
I put all the shampoos in one bottle, put all the conditioners in another and added some left over citrus essential oils to both to make them smell good. Though they started out a variety of colors, scents and styles, they ended up being really nice, and just having them consolidated in one nice looking bottle and displayed on a clean shelf made a world of difference.
I once made the commitment to use up all my partially used shampoo and conditioner bottles to declutter and save some money that it took me 2.5 years to use up all the shampoo and 3.5 years to use up all the conditioner!! Since then, I have never not finished a single bottle of shampoo or conditioner before opening a new one ever again.
I am in! This is my resolution as a whole, be more green, buy less, use up items I have before succumbing to the urge to buy buy buy.
Im in!
I have a rule about any type of toiletry, I can have the one I’m using and a spare, that way I can always pick it up on sale sometime before I run out and I don’t have to worry about someone using up the very last and forgetting to mention it, but I never have more than a small basket of toiletries in the bathroom closet.
I’m transforming all of my worn out wool and thick cotton sweaters that have become too shabby for wearing into a rag rug. I’m collecting last years calendars and left over bits of holiday wrapping paper, ribbon, cardboard tubes, large plastic containers with lids, and other such leftovers for my art classes. They work great for all sorts of projects.
How timely! That is my new years resolution – to get organized and use up all the stuff I have before I go out to buy anything new. It’s going to be a process, because most of all I need to get organized and plan a little better so I’m not needing things at the last minute.
I’m in. In fact, I ran out of shampoo and decided to try the no “poo” method. My hair looks great, but my scalp is going nuts. I’ve read it takes awhile to adjust. It’s been about a week. I’m having to “wash” my hair every other day. I’m used to twice a week. We’ll see how long this lasts. So, I’m trying to “do without.”
Good luck toughing it out, it is worth it! I had to try it a couple different ways before I found what worked for me.
I for one have naturally oily hair and use only baking soda, and do so each day mostly on the scalp. Some people add a vinegar rinse also (did not work for me, even after a month of trying) and others use only vinegar. For dry hair, leaving olive oil on the hair periodically for an hour or two has worked wonders for friends.
I’ve been mostly no poo since last summer. My scalp sometimes gets sensitive to the baking soda, so if I feel it coming on, I mix a shampoo day in. If nothing else, I’m extended the life of the bottled shampoo, right?
I have been no poo for almost three years and my hair and scalp have never been better. I use to wash my hair every second day but are now down to once a week. I am using baking soda and sometimes I add some vinegar. Really recommend no poo.
Can I send all my half used bottles to you? We’ve tried various things for Hannah’s mop of curls, many just make it worse. Plus, there are actually very few products that don’t make me wheeze. I have probably had the same bottle of Aveda conditioner in my shower for 4 years. I only use it for showers where I have run out of my trusty brand. I was talking to a friend recently and we were contemplating a Toiletry Exchange Party, nothing gross, just bottles of shampoo, lotion, conditioner, etc that were perfectly good but needed to go.
Yes, count me in! I’m so inspired by your blog!
I love the Toiletry Exchange Party idea.
I’m in. One of my resolutions this year is to not make any new cosmetics / personal care purchases until I’m completely out. The hardest part is going to be walking past the clearance and damages bins at grocery and drug stores.
I’m also playing around with long cutting strips of old t-shirts and creating knitting projects with t-shirt yarn. Even though stained t-shirts can be worn under sweaters, I have enough non-stained ones.
My frugal ways may be going to far with this one, but I buy Ivory soap for washing skin and making laundry soap. I am collecting the bits of soap that are left behind in the shower and saving them for laundry soap instead of grating a fresh bar. I hope my husband doesn’t catch on to me.
And for doing without, I am reserving the first week of every month as a “no spend week” other than absolute necessities like prescriptions. I was jonesing for a glass of wine, after work today, but I’m not allowed to buy anything until Sunday.
This is already something I have been consciously doing for the last 6 months or so and will continue to do. It’s amazing how empty my cupboards have become as I realize what I really need, what I don’t, and just make do with what is there.
Mr. Foxypants and I are trying to eat through our pantry this month. After the holidays, we always have too much food and not enough cabinet space. In addition to making ensuring that we’re rotating our dry goods, we’re also forced to try all those recipes and are cluttering up the bookcase in the kitchen!
Yes! I’m in! Shampoos, lotions and more all seem to multiple in our bathroom. I have “more” disease. Slowly recovering, room by room. Bathroom closet and under the sink counters will be conquered next!
I’m in too! Stockpiling is my January ‘habit to break.’ Tonight I recycled all of the batteries that are dead and I’m switching to rechargeables.
But part of getting rid of our stockpiling habit is to not buy more once we’re rid almost all of that kind of item!
I must be obsessed with being sick though. I found enough half-used tissue packets to make a tissue packet bouquet in one of my vases! And hand sanitizer. I must have 20 mini bottles of the stuff!
After I get through the toiletries, I think the hardest thing will be the condiments in my fridge. I think we have three kinds of mustard open and too many bottles of barbeque sauce. Good luck to everyone!
I love this challenge! I’ve been using unwanted shampoo for toilet scrubbing per FlyLady for many years. Unwanted lotions are used as foot cream. Hotel soaps are always welcome at my house so I don’t have to purchase soap. I still struggle with leftovers on occasion but since I have dedicated one area of a shelf to leftovers they do get eaten more frequently (mostly by me though 😐 ), but we are making more of an effort to clean out that overstocked pantry and freezer.
I miss the days when I lived with 4 other girls post college before I got married. We would have a bin under the sink, and anytime we had lotion, shampoo, etc we were bored with, we would put it in there as a “free for anyone” to use. We all did it and it was a great way to try new stuff and get rid of your last bit in the bottom of the bottle.
I do this continually for a lot of things. I forget to adopt the habit in others. This will be a great reminder for me.
Count me in! I appreciate the encouragement to get aggressive about using up what we’ve got around here before buying more. I realized we had several tubes of clear lip gloss about 3 years ago and we’ve been working on that stash ever since. Why did we have so much??? Hubby travels for work so we have a never ending supply of soap, shampoo and lotion that I share with my granddaughters who think they are cool and their mom appreciates the “emergency stash.” Now I’m going to use the shampoo to clean my toilet – thanks for the tip! Cleaning supplies also seem to clone themselves around here – the last time I gathered everything in the same spot instead of having a little in each bath, in the kitchen, etc., we didn’t have to buy cleaning supplies for a year!
I’m in too–I need to use up a bunch of toiletries and if it turns out I can’t stand some of this B&B stuff, maybe I can find it a new home. Already working on the pantry and the freezer Always tend to think of decluttering as getting rid of stuff, but need to embrace decluttering the consumables also! Much of mine is stuff I’ve stocked up on when dirt cheap with a sale plus a coupon, but really how much of this can one couple use? On the other hand, I have passed on to others in need out of my stash when the opportunity came up, and if we had a sudden change of income, I could spend very little for quite a while!
I like having a stash of certain items and food…just in case. I think I identify with those of the depression era. Use it up, do without, repurpose it but if you can get it free or very cheap…stock up. I still have that mentality of “you never know when you may need it or someone loses their job”.
I’ve lost my job several times in the past, and I probably will lose my job sometime during this year, so I’m stockpiling like crazy. When it happens, it will be huge relief having supplies on hand.
Happy to participate! Just today I cut off the top two thirds of my lotion bottle with a utility knife as the pump was no longer able to “pump”. Surprising how much is left in the bottom. Trying to avoid buying another plastic bottle. Does anyone have any body lotion recipes?
Renee, I recently started using coconut oil on my body instead of lotion, and I love it! It’s really gentle. A large jar cost me $15. I had put off buying it forever because of the price, but it has easily lasted me 3x as long as a $5 bottle of body lotion. It smells great, is organic (heck, it’s edible, and delicious in oatmeal and coffee), comes in a glass jar (which I reuse), and I buy it at a local store and feel good about supporting them and using a schmancy extra-virgin cold-pressed natural thingamajig on myself. I even use it on my face; it’s saved my skin this winter.
One thing that helps me is to put my grocery receipt on my refrigerator so that I can see what I’ve bought recently and not let it go to waste.
As for shampoo, I use baking soda, and I also recommend The Particular Man for those who want to stick with shampoo but have trouble with fragrances.
Should be interesting! I hate wasting anything and think about the people of my grandparent’s generation (the Great Depression and WWII) who didn’t waste a single thing. They were awesome mentors.
I am so in! Thanks to crappy insurance and a two year rash of medical emergencies, my family has used up all of our emergency fund. We also had to finance our out of pocket expenses for two major surgeries (less than three weeks apart). My goal for 2012 is to pay off all of that debt, rebuild our emergency fund, and stash away money to buy a new car (both of ours are 15 years old). It’s a back to the basics only budget at our house, and this challenge will keep me focused!
P.S. My sweet Great Grandma was always quoting , “Use it up, wear it out,…..”. For years I thought I would go to Hell, if I wasted toilet paper, or threw away the wax paper liner in cereal boxes. Nobody wanted to get the “pig eye” from Grandma! She even rewashed the plastic silver ware and cups after the family reunions. I swear, there was plastic silver ware older than I was in that old coffee can she stored it all in! I really miss her.
I’m in! Have been doing quite well with food waste since joining The Frugal Girl’s Food Waste Friday. But I have accumulated a bunch of toiletries from travel and houseguest leftovers that need to be used up. And we need to eat down our pantry and freezer. Think I will try menu planning based on those and see if I can stretch my grocery shops to two weeks apart for a while.
This is how we do things in our house! I did find that adding the more expensive shampoos from samples and hotels to the cheapy bottle of Equate baby shampoo made it lather much better. I’m so committed to using up what I have that we practically throw a party when we have an empty container! Another thing I do is to mutilate the packaging to make sure I get all the product. If it doesn’t screw off, I break the plastic top on my make up and either up end it into a small jar or use a long handled small brush to dab it out. After I’ve squeezed all the lotion out of a tube and it only huffs at me, I cut the end of the tube and reach down in. Even if the product dries out before it’s finished, I’ve still got more out than if I’d just thrown it away. With base make up costing what it does these days, I’m sure I save in the double digits each year on this.
We had friends move away and give us their almost-empty shampoos and conditioners. That was almost four years ago- haven’t bought any since then. It is a great feeling.
I’m in!
I have my best friend trained to give me the shampoo scents she doesn’t like. Since she doesn’t want to use them up, at least she has an outlet for them. I never have to buy shampoo, and if there’s something I don’t like, I use it as hand soap.
With toothpaste, you can cut open the tube and get many, many more uses out of it, even if you flatten it thoroughly before cutting it open. My friend also gives me unloved toothpaste.
I have a tube of nasty Trader Joe’s toothpaste that I use as silver polish. Works great, and smells a whole lot better than commercial silver polish.
Katy
“unloved toothpaste” – heehee.
My library has a table in the front for magazine give aways.
Now that the chocolate has been dumped, I think I’ll join the challenge.
I’m in! This is just the kind of accountability I need. I’m planning a rare warm-weather vacation this spring, and the planning is very pleasurable. I’m tempted to buy new clothing, but I know I’m better off using my old reliable summer clothes. Because I enjoy the planning and anticipation aspects of “acquiring” stuff, I’m replacing that by taking my summer clothes out of storage NOW, cleaning and mending them, figuring out new outfit combinations, and trotting out all the accessories I never wear to bring along. Frankly, I’m finding it just as enjoyable as buying new, and it will prevent me from inevitably scrambling and shoving whatever I can find into a bag the night before we leave, then being unhappy with my clothing.
This is how we do things in our house too! FYI to make using old bits of soap easier, I drop them all into a small handled tupperware container in my shower. I then use a scrubbie to lather them, and get tons more use out of all of those slivers. For anything else that we need to or need to give away, we always check the “free table” at work first!
Yep, I’m in. I just committed to doing the Compact this year, and your challenge goes right along.
Your shampoo example is exactly the thought I had the other day. I knew I had more conditioner left in my bottle but it wouldn’t come out on it’s own. So I added water, shook it up, and had several more uses out of it. Now the bottle is extra clean when it gets reused or recycled.
Okay…I’m in too. Cause I’m still feeling guilty about the pump bottle of lotion I tossed a few weeks back because it was too empty to pump anything but I was too lazy to keep unscrewing the top and jack hammering the bottle every which way but loose to try and get what was left at the bottom.
So I will openly make the commitment to change my ways. There have been some really creative ideas posted for all those leftover what-nots and armed with that information I’m off to do good 🙂
I’m in!
What a great idea. I’m in. I have a ton of various toiletries. I am a product junkie. I like Sara Wolk’s idea of just mixing all shampoos together and might actually try that.
I’m in too! A few weeks ago I decided to use up all the mini shampoo bottles before buying new even though the shampoo is not sodium lauryl sulfate free. I will use it all up and save 2 empty bottles for taking on the plane. I want to remember to cut open my lotion bottles and tubes as well. When they are all gone, I’m switching to coconut oil. I’m saving one body butter container to experiment with the coconut oil mixed with lavender essential oil.
I have started using shampoo only every OTHER day– my done-at-home hair color lasts longer! I just rinse in the shower, no shampoo on the off days. I Was a stockpiler.. pretty much getting over that now. Also.. I know it may be TMI, but we never wore underwear in the 60’s and 70’s..I only wear a bra if I absolutely HAVE TO (going out and no top layer to cover the jiggle) and panties,well. under jeans, why bother?
Am using the odd half filled jars of EVERYTHING here in the house.. including stuff in refrig (the cilantro dressing, the ginger dressing, the frozen edamame, the tahini,etc.)
Other things we did NOT spend money on in the 60’s and 70’s:
cell phones/smart phones.Gonna ditch my smart phone and have 1 basic phone for the two of us, we don’t have a landline.
Printer cartridges: Am printing VERY LITTLE these days.
Internet fees:It’s possible I could live at home without internet as we have it in our office (we own the business so can browse when we want to!)– maybe get rid of????
Makeup: I wore NO makeup then. Then I started buying Lancome etc. so I could get the “free gift” DAH!! No more makeup unless its a going out on a date night.Only the eye brow pencil or I look like a zombie.
There are so many ways to cut back.I am in simplify mode this year big time.
Love the blog..
Maddie
Katy,
I am doing the Compact this year and so far it’s going great 🙂
I love to do simple embroidery and have salvaged one shirt with a weird grease stain by covering it with stitches of two birds on a branch.
Just this afternoon I SOMEHOW(?!?!?!) got my toilet bowl cleaner on a different shirt and now have 5 bleach spots (and a little hole from wear) that need to be stitched over with some clever design. :))
Just after Christmas, I finally took all my saved soap slivers (my guess is that it is a 10+ year supply) and made 3 ‘bars’ (actually muffin-shapes) of soap. It took me about 10 minutes.
We only use leftover soap from travel but traveled less this year so our supply was dwindling, thus the need to make up new bars. Unfortunately, once these bars are gone, I may have to buy soap unless the travel picks up again.
As for shampoo, bubble bath, etc., like a previous poster, I use the stuff I don’t want to use on my body to clean the toilet. I’m almost all through the leftovers from my dad’s place (he died 8 years ago.)
I’m on board to do this. In fact, I started with the toiletries a couple months ago. I do not understand why I would keep but not finish the last half inch of something in a container. Just not rational. I have so far emptied two tubes of exfoliating cleanser and mixed four sample size shampoos into the bottle in use. A tube of lotion that DH did not like the scent of has been finished off as foot cream, a second is almost done. I have a container in the bathroom vanity to hold the soap slivers to make into laundry soap/hand soap. This time all those silly gift soaps are going in. I am keeping a couple simple containers as I plan on doing a homemade lip balm and a hard lotion experiment as a bonus for finishing off some of the other stuff.
I don’t have a lot of kitchen related items to use up, most of that is under control, but there are a couple oddball things in the fridge door. Pimentos? Really?
My biggie is going to be the fabric stash my mother decided she is never going to use. I hang all my laundry, so my dryer is stuffed with bags of fabric. Some is scraps so plan some small quilts for evenings reading without turning up the heat, some potholders that will also use up some of the uglier, thicker fabrics as padding. There are larger pieces that will be combined to make pj’s for kids and possibly a skirt or two for me.
I have already used some upholstery fabric, a scrap of webbing strap and the stuffing from an unfluffy pillow to make draft stoppers for two doors. And I have about 4 feet of a braid to finish lacing to a braided wool rug downstairs in the family room that has been in progress for quite a few years now. I cut an old table pad with some tears into discs to protect the inside of some nonstick ceramic lined pans and to put under things that might scratch furniture and finally replaced some zippers and elastic in a pair of fleece outdoor gear pants for DH. I have cut a pair of too short pj pants into pj shorts and am going to combine the cut off legs with a bit of t shirt fabric for a summer pj top.
I think I had better get started instead of sitting here thinking about it!
I am in!
Over the past year I have tried to reduce and save in all areas. Admittedly, beauty products are hard to manage because the temptation to buy some new pretty bottle of lovely smelling lotion/potion is so strong!
But I am definitely up for the challenge in 2012!
I have a pair of small scissors that I keep in my bathroom (they came in a Christmas cracker!) that I use to cut open my face washes when they are no longer squeezable. I get at least a few more days out of them!
I’m in and have been for a while, but there is always room for improvement and reminders and encouragement needed! I am cutting open a lot of bottled stuff to get to the last drops – it is amazing what is left in their that can’t be squeezed out. I will now do this with the toothpaste tube too. You have inspired me to repair some holey socks and repurpose some other clothing that I was lazily thinking of making into rags. I love being frugal, but also consuming less of our prescious resources (N. Americans can be so wasteful)!
I am definitely in! My husband and I started a pantry challenge late last year, but the past month we’ve been slacking on it. This is great motivation to keep at it!
This is my New Year’s Resolution! Not doing too well at it so far thanks to after Christmas sales….it’s turning into a mid-January resolution.
Oh, I’m so up for this. I just linked to your challenge in a post called Scraps of Love (linked above). I’m using up tiny bits of yarn from a charity project that I oversee (we make blankets for kids with cancer). I couldn’t throw away the scrap yarn … so I upcycled! Loving your posts, by the way.
Katy, you have inspired me to participate. I blogged about my efforts with our old insulated lunchbox: http://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2012/01/use-it-up-wear-it-out-lunchbox-edition.html
Because shampoos are concentrates and I usually get more in my hand or on my hair than I need, after there is space in the bottle, I add some water to make it go farther. I do the same thing with dish detergent and I buy in bulk and re-use the smaller bottle I have.
I’m in, especially the pantry challenge part. I already do the water in the shampoo/conditioner/dishsoap/etc bottles, cut open tubes, wash and reuse ziploc bags that have contained carrto sticks, chips, or others “dryish” items, use plasticware to pack lunch stuff when possible, to save on plastic bags and wrap, shop at Goodwill and garage sales. We used to have 4 kids at home, now only have one, who’s seldom here for meals, so my new challenge is to cook for two. Good luck, y’all! (Funny to run across this blog, since I just today wrote a post on mine about “make it do….” – at http://beadsofwisdom.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/upcycling-4/)
I’m in. I’ve started on my yarn stash. Making baby hats and booties and donating them to the maternity ward of the hospital. Also making a scrappy granny square afghan to get rid of the bits of yarn too small to really make anything else out of. I’m now down to one bin on yarn. Next . . . the fabric stash!
I was searching for a quote for my mirror project and decided on this one. Searching the quote brought me to your post. Take a look at my mirror project which is 90% reclaimed materials.
I’m in – working on pantry reserves, cleaning supplies (WHY do I have so much??), crafting supplies (especially all the stuff I inherited from Mom), and leftovers. I love to play the “what’s for dinner” game – let’s see, there’s 1/2 cup corn, some leftover cubed chicken, an extra can of cream soup, 1/2 a box of noodles, and the remains of a bag of chips….. chicken casserole it is!
I’m in! My husband starting grad school this Fall and we will be moving mid-summer with very little extra space OR cash being our likely new lifestyle! So I am joining partly out of necessity and partly because I believe in non-consumerism and want to get the support I need to keep from buying crap I don’t need from the Dollar Store all the time, haha.
Excited to join. I am in the simplifying phase of my life!
I’m going to do my very best. I’m mending and fixing clothes, so getting some things under control.
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