Make Do, Mend & Minimise in 2025 (and 2024)

Green_hopeful

I have spent a lot of time clearing houses. My own and others. One of my things is to do Freecycle open garages where you put everything you are trying to rehome in the garage and advertise type of items and a time and date. I have got rid of loads of things using this technique. We have a box in our garage of things we can Freecycle. I had a few things recently from our aunts house which I advertised and when people came to collect I put our freecycle box in the porch and said they could take anything. Most of it has gone over a couple of days. It’s not stuff that could go to a charity shop but still has life left in it eg a pile of notebooks. 

Cherryfudge

YorksLass said:

@Cherryfudge - Yes, I'm not quite so nervous now about having the other eye done when the time comes but not necessarily looking forward to it either, IYSWIM!  Still, 10 minutes is a small price to pay to be able to see and the big girls' knickers will be on again.  

We haven't really had any dietary advice for DH other than having full fat milk fortified with skimmed milk powder, dairy products etc but his weight has been fairly stable over the last few months so I must be doing something right!  I've done a lot of googling and keep trying out new things for him.  My shopping list certainly looks a lot different nowadays. 

There were quite a few ideas that were new to me when I googled. I remember making Angel Delight with thick cream for someone who needed the calories - it was amazing!

And you will be fine with the second cataract op (says she who isn't the one having it).  

Some more making do and minimising here today as I made two batches of soup, using up a bag of sweet potatoes and some of the backlog of butternut squash. The second batch is still cooling before I shoehorn it into the freezer or fridge.

YorksLass

Small grocery delivery today, all P&C with nothing for the freezer ( ), soon put away.  Before the driver arrived, I gave the inside of the fridge a really good clean - everything out, inside of cabinet washed as were the shelves, door compartments and salad drawer.  Bottles, jars etc all wiped before putting everything back in.  Nothing to throw out but I did notice a couple of things will need replacing soon.  None of them urgent though.

Freezer minimised by some pork mince that I'll cook tomorrow, some fish sticks that we're having tonight with salad and a couple of squares of home made cake that we had with our afternoon cuppa.  Oh, and some slices of wholemeal bread that we had toasted this morning.  Only small amounts I know, but at least it's making a bit of space.

YorksLass

One drawback of having better eyesight is I can see things that I thought were clean but aren't!     I'm itching to get started on them but, as I have to avoid bending down too much for a few more days, I'm having to be content for now with adding them to my To Do list which is getting longer by the minute!  Appointment already made for post-op check up at the opticians after the Bank Holiday; if all is well I should get the other eye done soon after that.

One thing I have started on is cleaning the tiles in the kitchen.  Just one corner today and I'll work my way round the rest this week.  I'm scrubbing the grouting with an old toothbrush and the cheapest toothpaste I can find.  Needs a bit of elbow grease but it's a good Make Do instead of buying fancy expensive cleaning products.  And it leaves a fresh minty smell.

Soft plastics Minimised to SM, one book returned to the Little Free Library but another borrowed, so not really a Minimise.    Small Co-Op shop, saved £1 on two store cupboard items that were on promotion and £2.57 on membership offers.  Best bargain was a tin of sardines for 15p (65p less 50p member offer).  

I collected DH's prescription items from the pharmacy yesterday and managed to clear a space in the pantry for his meal replacement powders.  I'd asked for an assortment of flavours and that's what they supplied so we're both happy bunnies.

This morning I stripped our bed and, when I got out the clean bedding, I had a look through the blanket box to see if there was anything I could release to the CS bag but there wasn't.  I must have already done that but can't remember when.

Green_hopeful

YorksLass. It’s always nice when you sort through something and find you have already done it. Even if you can’t remember when. I did my wardrobe a little while ago and there wasn’t much so I must have done it before. 

Cherryfudge

Make do - I'm a cleaner and have colour coded washing up gloves depending on what areas I'm working in - and they get horribly sweaty. As a make-do solution I've retrieved some pegs off one of those plastic sock airers that broke. Each has a wire circle through where it was attached to a plastic chain that hung from the airer. I've threaded string through the wire and made hanging loops so each peg hangs from a string loop that can then allow the gloves to dangle and get maximum air between jobs. They can even hang from the cleaning cupboard key while I get on with other work. I'm hoping that hanging them up as storage means they get less yucky. Of course the best solution is to peg them on the line inside out but I don't always get round to that.

DH was telling me he's running out of summer-weight socks but I remembered I'd organised his socks in the winter so the light-weight ones were at the back of the drawer. Now the winter ones are at the back and we aren't needing new for another season.

Mend - nothing I can think of.

Minimise - one book gone to the charity shop along with a couple of bits from DH.

I've washed another batch of plant pots which tomorrow will go into either the 'recycle at the garden centre' bag or the 'in good condition but you don't need this many' bag. So while it's not actually minimised anything, steps are being taken.

I've also re-potted some houseplants which is just the opposite of minimising as one divided into three. Once the new plants have established I will try to rehome a couple - I simply can't accommodate all the plants I grow!

YorksLass

@Green_hopeful - Yes, it is a nice feeling and so is the second/third trawl through stuff when you discard even more!  I've now remembered when I sorted out the blanket box - at the beginning of the year when I bought some much needed new bedding.

Not much done today - I'm really tired for some unknown reason - other than the usual daily housework-y things.  A white wash load done, bread out of the freezer for tomorrow morning's toast plus a couple of squares of h/m cake, made 4 individual lemon posset desserts.  Today's dinner is some of the minced pork and veg that I cooked the other day with greens, mash and some pickled red cabbage.  

I've done a small grocery delivery order for Tuesday, hoping to not have to buy anything else until after the Bank Holiday.  I've done a rough (but adaptable) meal plan for the rest of the month based on what we already have in stores and I don't think we'll starve.  Come September, I'll be stocking up on winter supplies of tinned/frozen F&V since I think fresh might be in short supply/expensive because of this year's fickle weather.

Right, off to put my feet up and listen to Johnnie Walker's Sounds of the 70s - that's if I don't nod off!      

ETA: I'd added a new toothbrush to the shopping list but crossed it off when I found one in the drawer where I keep spare toiletries.  A small win and a few pennies saved.

Wraithlady

We're still waiting on the house move, so any sorting will have to wait until we actually have a confirmed date.

However:

Make do: Was looking for place-card holders that looked 'non-modern' and came across ones which were wooden cylinders with a hole cut through them - which is when I realised that we have a lot of wood lying around which could be used for this. Saves me £7.99

Mend: Patched the pocket bag of OH's shorts where the keys had worn through, got another sock to do. Gave up on trying to fix the lining of the leather coat I acquired yonks ago (which is 2 sizes too small anyway) and am in the process of dismantling it to make a bag (in the fullness of time)

Minimise: Trying to use up the contents of the 2 freezers - there's actually room in there now!

Cherryfudge

Make do / mend - one of DH's favourite jumpers has a hole under the arm and my previous repair seems to have stayed in place as it's the adjacent stitches that were unravelling. I realised the hole wasn't really mendable but after considering it I backed the hole with a nice stretchy bit off an old sock, then infilled over the patch with similar-coloured embroidery thread. I was genuinely surprised how well it blends and I'm hoping the elasticity of the sock fabric will be resilient.

Minimise - I've spent around four hours this afternoon finding and cleaning plant pots! There were lots stacked in a corner but also some blown under shrubbery or where plants have died off. All the clean ones are in three big bags (174 done today!) but by the time the sun set, there were still some to do and I didn't want to leave them on the lawn overnight in case they blow all over the neighbourhood. It was nice to find about eight good terracotta pots amongst all the plastic, I will hang on to those and a few of each size of the others. It's tempting to keep all the large ones, but until I make more progress, I won't really know what can go.

wumph

Received a parking ticket last week.  Was parked in special car park at hospital for blood tests, was having one,  for Blue Badge - free - which I have and was on show. It is a very small car park so lucky to get a space at all  right on the edge so just on the yellow line but no parking area next to it, just a bit of paved area.  Have appealed immediately and sent various pics of appointments/blue badge, eye appointment half a mile away a half hour later so not there half the day.  Still waiting result otherwise £60 fine.  I go there at least twice a year for diabetes tests so am really miffed.