Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2021

calleyw

Laura_Elsewhere said:

calleyw said:

After about a year I got round to stitching up the holes in the thighs of my gym leggings. Much prefer those as they are black to the bright coloured ones I often wear to save wear and tear on my jeans that seem to shred in the thigh area!!!! Thats the issue with having thick thighs 

It's also the issue with denim that has stretch fibres added to make them more figure-hugging without the expense of proper design and cutting differently for different sizes, aka 'pattern grading'... by adding stretch, they can save a lot of money but the fabric is no longer hard-wearing so anywhere that gets any amount of friction or daylight-exposure will disintegrate far faster... which means you buy another pair, so it's win-win for the manufacturers! 

I's why we all remember jeans lasting years and just getting softer and paler, but now you can't actually do that any more... 

I only tend to buy £10 ones from asda and they are not proper denim as you say.  Might be time to invest in some more expensive heavy weight ones

2Scratters

Hi Peeps,

looking like we are all missing in action. Grabbing the last the summer has for us staying outdoors while the weather is still in our favour. 

Minimising - got a large shopping bag together for GD as she and her friends are doing "Jumbo sales". This was "stuff" I should have been putting onto Eday. Space created. Can  now see a large pile of wood flooring that we'd purchased for here when we moved in 6years ago and only 1 room has been completed with it. Also minimising clutter and stuff that is about in the "wrong place". Found places for the "new" and the old went out. Out went boxes and tins that housed some oddments.
Less spending fits in here too, found a lovely Barber shop in next village. Thats £15 saved on my previous haircut charges, bonus for having short hair

Making do - that includes food from the freezer. (Did use Earth & Wheat for a few months) Good food but too much building up in the freezer now. Found items about in odd places and moved them to be used. Really need to keep DH in check, he has a stash of gifted toiletries unused/unfinished. I'll just move them to the front so he can use them.
Need to measure the drop on my vertical blinds for the front bedroom to order just the blinds. I never knew this was a thing. A bit miffed as I had thrown out a perfectly good rail when doing the bedroom just because the blinds were rather past it. Done for a fraction of the cost of new. DH very good at fettling and cleaning items back up. We won't be making that mistake in the living room as that is a big window.

Mend - not much happening here at the moment.
However there are 2 crochet blankets that need completing. (I will not be buying any more wool)

2Scratters xx

Laura_Elsewhere

MINIMISE: It's all been happening round here - not sure what's got into My Intended but he tackled the box-room of our tiny flat, and got tons of stuff out. 
Nine enormous boxes of packs of toner and ink-cartridges, many still sealed in bags, from a professional-standard inkjet printer he got rid of 15 or so years ago (he moved here about 8 years ago...) are going to a specialist recycling/reusing place as soon as we find one who will take such old obsolete stuff. 

And we have FINALLY found a charity - Orthocycle - which will take M.I.'s son's pos-surgical "moon boots" - which is brilliant as we could understand why he NHS won't take them, but couldn't stand the thought of them going to landfill. Orthocycle will take all kinds of things, crutches, air-boots, etc., and refurbish them to use in developing countries where they also train people. We are SO aware of how his life would have changed - or ended - had he not had the brilliant, brilliant, brilliant NHS surgeons, so we're pleased as anything to be sending things there, and a hefty donation with them, and a thankyou card (they are all NHS staff, who do this in their spare time, bless them even more). 

MAKE DO: I've been working my way through the little freezer bit of our fridge-freezer, so I can fill it with new homemade ready-meals. We've also been out raiding hedgerows and I have elderberry syrup and damson jam on the way. 

MEND: while M.I. was turning out the box-room all weekend, the flat was full of the things he'd moved out of he way so I had to stay in one small corner of the sitting-room (even the bathroom ended up with boxes piled in it - I have lived here seven years and never knew we had a 6-foot artificial Xmas tree...) so I got on with lots of mending, hurrah! 

Working_Mum

I moved house last year - seriously downsized! I moved with furniture and things which i loved and couldn't bear part with. I knocked about my downstairs and finally got it decorated which meant I could sort my garage!

My garage now houses some of my old furniture which is being used to store the items I cannot have in the house. I have an old credenza which is my alcohol and glasses storage. An old Ike4 book case for my food/prep stores. An arts and crafts oak writing bureau with glass cabinet above is looking gorgeous as a cocktail cabinet! A chest of drawers I used to have in my bedroom now houses all of my tools. A shelf unit on top has my tins of paint/varnish etc so I can see what I have at a glance.

I don't like to think of it as "making do" as I smile every time I walk into my garage and see my old furniture doing its thing!

Siebrie

I'm loving the unexpected 6-foot christmas tree! And the old furniture still pulling its weight!

I finally got rid of 4 large bags for life filled with old winter clothes and rags. Husband insisted it could still be used by his African relatives, but I really disagreed. I wanted to get rid quickly, but the local clothesbank had vanished! The bags were in my car for about a month before I found another drop-in container that had parking space and I had a few minutes spare to park and drop.

I only work half-days on Wednesdays, and have agreed with my boss to take every Wednesday off to use up my vacation days. This will give me time to put the house to rights before we start renovating. We have stopped the contract with the Architect, as husband and I agreed to separate, but have now agreed to re-start a much smaller renovation with the same Architect, just doing the basics to get the house non-leaking and slightly more spacious. This will benefit either the partner and children staying here, or the sales price.

Thrifty_Taylor

A bit of minimising here. I finished the poncho & gifted it to a friend for her big birthday (thinking of making one for myself with wool from my stash), also I've nearly finished moving a big pile of soil (originally stacked turf) into our new raised bed, then we can plant all the raspberries & blackberries in it.
Make do: picked lots of gooseberries from our bushes & made a crumble.
Mend: been doing lots of mending of clothes for customers

Wraithlady

Make do: Got a load of jam jars from MIL's house to supplement what I had in. Also spent a day actually finding out what I had in the freezer - using a stack-a-crate lined with the wool-packs from various online food deliveries (works really well) Now I know what I've got and (more importantly) where it is in the freezer!

Mend: In the process of mending an old and comfortable pair of jeans, next up is an old cashmere cardi of MIL's with a large hole in one elbow

Minimise: In sorting out the chairdrobe, found I had 6 (yes, 6) pairs of black jeans. I can give the least knackered to charity, the ones that are thin material or past-it will be hacked up to make a hexie rug (one of my many Works In Progress). Also defrosted the large bag of crabapple juice to make apple and rosehip jelly, and managed to get rid of several jars of 2-year old damson jam to enthusiastic friends . (The jam cupboard was too full to fit the jam I'd already made, let alone the jelly I still have to make!)

Next to be minimised is the large bag of blackberries in the freezer

Siebrie

DD10 made a pencil bag at her art club, and wanted to add some decorations, so we looked through the iron-on patches stash and used 2. She also found some small crocheted flowers, which I will attach this evening. So, minimising by making something cute.

2Scratters

Hi Peeps,

Making Do - made good use of TGTG offers the other day and got 2 good bags from 2 different locations. Very pleased as only 1 loaf of bread between the 2 and we have plenty in the freezer as it is. 
Had a problem with the land line as had some sort of interference. Turned out it was the old BT line breaking down, V are not doing any maintenance and more. So am now on broadband telephone. I had started looking at a new phone set, I had already decided what we were going to purchase. Good job didn't rush as current phones are fine. Spending unnecessary money averted

Minimise - money in bank accounts.
 Just moving it to savings for now as some will need to be disposed of soon if we get our extension built.
Managing to get some low number of items from the house and still getting an item of "anything" from the loft each time I go up there.
Always make an extra effort when the bin men are due too.

Mend  - a bit of a cheat maybe... DH is helping DS finish decorating and the repairs that go with it!! It will be our turn soon.

2Scratters xx

Herbyme

Any advice about how to mend very small holes in a very fine knit woolly? It doesn't need to look amazing, it's more sentimental value than 'for best' but I'd like to make it tidy and stop the holes getting any bigger