Our mothers and/or grandmothers grew up in a time when money and resources were scarce. That scarcity forced people to really make the most of the few resources they had at their disposal. But our foremothers were as savvy as they come, and they truly mastered the art of reusing and repurposing!
There’s a lot we can learn from the way Grandma lived. Finding ways to reuse things maximize to your resources can help you stretch a limited budget. And on a larger scale, global climate change and other environmental issues have made resourcefulness and waste reduction more important than ever!
In today’s post, we’ll be following in our grandmothers’ footsteps by exploring 9 things they never threw away, so that we can learn how to reuse those things too! With the help of these simple tips, we can all work toward living a less wasteful and more resourceful life in the coming year!
9 Things Grandma Never Threw Away
1. Worn out Fabrics
Grandma was a real pro when it came to reusing fabric. If Grandpa’s suit started to fall apart, she would hack it up and turn it into something new! You can apply this “make-do” mentality by finding ways to fix or reuse old clothes, towels, and bedsheets.
You might be able to salvage your favorite pair of jeans with a new zipper! That old sweater may look as good as new after a good de-pilling session. Or you can cut up a hole-ridden towel to use as dish cloths. Even an old sheet can be used as a drop cloth!
Related: 17 New Ways to Use Old Bed Sheets
2. Aluminum Foil
Depending on how you used a piece of aluminum foil the first time, you may be able to rinse it off and use it again! Reuse foil to cover up leftovers, or ball it up and use it to scrub stubborn messes out of your pots and pans.
You can also use foil to sharpen scissors! Just fold a piece of foil up a few times, then cut across it several times with your scissors.
Related: 15 Brilliant Uses for Aluminum Foil That Will Save You Time
3. Shirt Buttons
Grandma would never have let good shirt buttons go to waste! If an old shirt starts to fall apart, reuse the fabric (see #1 above) and put the buttons aside somewhere safe. Use your stashed buttons to replace missing buttons on other pieces of clothing, or on clothes you make from scratch! You can make a lot of crafts and toys from old buttons, too.
4. Jars, Jugs, Boxes, & Other Containers
Many food items come in plastic or glass containers, and those containers can all be reused in hundreds of ways! Use larger jars to store bulk ingredients in your pantry or homemade spice mixes, and smaller jars to keep track of screws or nails in the garage.
You can even remove the labels from your containers to make them look a little nicer. (Check out the link below for details!)
Related: 12 Ways to Remove Stubborn Stickers Easily
5. Food Scraps & Bones
Grandma would never throw out perfectly good chicken carcasses, fatty bits of meat, or the tops and bottoms of veggies, because all of those things can be used to make delicious homemade broths and stocks! Whenever you have these types of scraps after preparing a meal, add them to a ziplock freezer bag and keep it in your freezer.
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Once the bag is full, dump it into your Instant Pot with a few cups of water and your favorite seasonings. After an hour or two of pressure cooking, you’ll have a delicious stock that’s ready to strain and use in all your favorite recipes!
6. Eggshells
Instead of tossing your eggshells in the trash, save them! After washing and drying them, you can use them for all sorts of things. They make a great fertilizer for your garden while also deterring pests. Check out the link below to learn much more about reusing eggshells.
Related: 8 Smart Reasons You Should Be Keeping Your Eggshells
7. Bacon Fat
Cooking oils and fats cost money to buy at the store, so why get rid of perfectly good bacon fat? You can use it in place of butter or oil while making gravy, soups, cornbread, potato salad, and more! Keep bacon fat in an airtight container in your fridge, and it will stay good for about a month.
8. Newspaper
Grandma had no shortage of ways to reuse newspapers and newsprint. Use it to wrap gifts and packages, clean glass and windows, cushion fragile items in storage, line pet cages, or start a fire! They also make quick and easy “sit upons” — just put several sections of newspaper in an old pillowcase – aim for about an inch thick pile of newspaper. Kids love to “sit upon” these outdoors!
9. Soap Scraps
When you use up a bar of soap, you usually end up with a little sliver that is too small to use functionally. Instead of tossing it out, tuck those soap scraps into a worn out stocking (or one leg of a worn pair of pantyhose) for safe keeping.
Once you have a good amount of soap slivers saved up, tie off the stocking and trim the excess material away. Then you’ll have a perfectly good soap pouch to use in the shower or at the sink for washing up!
What sorts of items do you reuse and repurpose at home?
NEW! Can you guess the 5-letter word related to today’s post?
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My Mom always reused her baggies. She washed them and let them dry. She only did this with crackers, cheeses, & fruit. Meats she threw as she didn’t take a chance on it not getting cleaned out well enough. No one wants to get sick because of that. I did this for a long time, and fell into the “I can afford not to do this” roll. I still save my foil that I use to wrap around baked potatoes though! :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Apple cores. One of my grandmothers kept a bag in the upstairs freezer and added fresh cores to it whenever anyone ate an apple. The cores are full of pectin, you see. When making jelly with pincherries, for example (fruit with little if any pectin), cooking that fruit with the cores helps the jelly set.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I like #9, the soap scrapes. When I have a bunch saved up I melt them down and make a new bar. Some smell really good when there are lots of different kinds in the batch. They can be quite colorful too. These bars get used in the kitchen when I need to wash my hands.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Amazing ideas. I have a box of buttons that my grandmother gave me 65 years ago and I will never part with it.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My moms Grandma’s family would save scraps and make quilts like Sherry is describing. Also my Aunt ( mom’s sister) when her boys’ jeans were no longer in good shape – she would use any good fabric leftover for quilts.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’m looking for your tips on using hydrogen peroxide. Thank you.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Here you go, Edith…
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This Is The Ultimate List Of Uses For Hydrogen Peroxide
I use sponges in my kitchen for easy clean up etc. I’ve learned to cut them in half or even into fourths if they are large enough. I certainly GeT my moneys worth out of them. And to keep them clean I wash them in the dishwasher with the dishes.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love these tips Jillee, and some of the commenters have left great tips too!! I’m a quilter and save worn out shirts for future quilts. I had a bag I had been saving for years of plaid cotton burron down shirts that were my dad’s, my husband’s and some were mine. In a move they disappeared. I do the same with buttons. I have saved them for years and they disappeared with the shirts too. I’ll start again.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My Grandma used old clothes to make quilts. Every time we went to visit her, she loaded us up with quilts.❤️
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Use it up
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without
I love it, Debbie! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ll never forget my shock at watching my grandmother wash a piece of plastic wrap to reuse! She washed it spread out on the counter top! I said nothing, but boy was I surprised!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I use old clean parmesan jars to hold bandaids and first side cream together in the kitchen and bathroom, they hold alot, keep needs together and are easy to find. Egg shells, veg scraps, banana skins, coffee grounds and so on for compost. Coffee grounds are very good for returning nutrients to soil. Reuse tea bags to soak in the water for indoor plants, leftover, weak coffee works well to. If you soak in Elaine salts save the water for outdoor plants.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Bacon fat will keep for a lot longer than a month. I have kept it for a year without noticing any flavor loss or change. I keep 2 small jars, one I’m currently filling gradually as I cook bacon and one I’m using for cooking until it’s empty, then I switch, I use a small amount to fry onions, peppers, okra, or yellow squash — or any combination of those! I also add it to boiled greens and beans. It gives veggies such a rich flavor.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Me too, Becky.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love to repurpose plastic jars that have flip-top lids, especially those with mouths that are large enough to fit a scoop (and my hand) into.They are super-duper multitaskers!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Do you know what I save? EVERYTHING!! And I can’t find uses for half of it. I hate to throw anything away…think I’m a borderline hoarder that has become the “stuff gatherer”. Help!! You all gave me some ideas, though. Thanks. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.When I get down to a sliver of soap I use a new bar, moisten the old sliver, and stick it to the new bar. I’ve been using the “same bar” for over 20 years.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I really enjoyed this article. Learnrd lots.My favorite thing to reuse is th plastic containers that fresh mushrooms come in, two main sizes. To organize litchen bagged spices or organize my junk drawer!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I let my new bar of soap and the old soap scrap sit on the bottom of the shower when I’m taking a shower. Then I press the scrap into the full bar. When it dries the scrap is very stuck to the new bar
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Great idea, Robin! Thanks for sharing. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Love your tips. I reuse parchment over and over. Just wash it out.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks Sandia! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.These days I rarely use bar soap opting instead for hand soap, shower gel, etc. I always stand the near-empty containers upside down to drain, but really thick stuff is hard to get out. Any tips?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You could try adding a smidge of water to the really thick stuff, and gently swirl to mix. Most of the stuff for washing and conditioning is water-soluble these days.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Moderation is the key in all things.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My grandmother always took that little sliver of soap and put it on top of the new bar. After a couple of uses it would “meld” with the new bar. No waste what so ever. I have done that for years now. Never, ever do I throw those away. Try it! You will see how much sense it makes. :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I like to add some water and shake it up. This will thin the liquid soap a bit, and make it last longer, too.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.(this comment was for Fonville :-)
The ‘Eggshells’ really can help as fertilizer. I didn’t know about the foil and scissors tho before, lol. I enjoyed this site, thanks for sharing! :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Where I live the local Wooloworth’s supermarket sells their own made pizzas that come on a bamboo tray a top of another tray of clear plastic… I reuse the trays … 1. under small jars and bottles that tend to tip over in my refrigerator wire shelves… 2. I keep my toaster on the trays when I put them into the cupboard (keeping the crumbs together for easy disposal, rather than crumbs throughout the cupboard.)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Wow! Great ideas! Thanks.
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