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

London_1

Good evening canny chums , just been having a read through, and my, we are all seemingly on the same page when it comes to Making do, Mending and Minimising

Since I moved in with DD and my son-in-law when we moved our two houses into one on the IoW ( that was serious minimising )
 It's been a daily sort out and minimising for us all. Especially as we have the builders changing what was a double length garage into a sitting room for me, with a downstairs shower and loo attached.
All the stuff we had deposited in the garage the we moved here had to be found space for so the builders could get started.

A good deal of stuff we realised we really didn't need, my DDs square chest freezer for a start as all the children having grown and flown, there are only three of us as a rule here apart from when the off spring come to visit from the mainland.

We live around a mile from a huge Tescos just outside Ryde, so no real reason to have a second freezer as she has a fridge freezer in the kitchen.
 Plus the washing machine that was left in situ in the house, we swapped over for her better one, and she put both items on the local freebay on Saturday and they both were collected and removed in an hour 
Better than going to the tip and they both worked fine, win-win for both the chap who collected them and us. We didn't need two microwaves either so one of those has gone on freebay as well, and been collected.

My son-in-law cooks dinner every night for the three of us, and always seems to cook just a little bit too much so any left overs I keep either in the fridge for lunch next day, or once cooled frozen in a portion for me 
So I'm happy with making do and not wasting anything and at the same time its also minimising left overs that might have ended up wasted.

I have a small box next to my chair in the conservatory where any mending is left and I am more than happy to do it as I quite enjoy doing small repairs by hand, and my DD loathes and detests sewing and always has.

 The children (she had five )all grew up knowing if anything needed repairing or buttons sewed on, or trousers turning up or down Nanny was the one to do it .The youngest Mikey actually brought me some mending over when he came over in the summer for his break from Uni he had a small rip in one of  his pairs of jeans and he said 'I knew if I brought it over you would fix it Nan'  

Todays lunch was a portion of left over chicken curry from last night and very nice it was as well  

Streeeetching things out instead of wasting stuff is so ingrained in me I think, comes of growing up with rationing I think

I too cut the bits of toothpaste tubes to get the most I can out of them Why not if you have bought it then use it You wouldn't throw out the bottom inch of milk from a bottle or a tin of something would you  (well I certainly wouldn't )

I have a small bridge in my mouth and tend to break a Sterident tablet in half to soak it with so a tin of 20 tablets does double the amount Still keeps them clean, and I usually throw the used lot into a carton, and when its full tip it down the loo last thing at night small daft things maybe but if it helps to stretch resources (and cash ) a bit why not.

I'm a great believer in using stuff up, and recycling as much as I can, the less that gets tipped into landfill the better


JackieO xx

mandy47

London_1 

I'm a great believer in using stuff up, and recycling as much as I can, the less that gets tipped into landfill the better 

I'm a strong advocate on this subject.
I'm currently planning to upcycle DDs bedroom furniture. She recently moved to her own place and didn't need any wardrobes or drawers. 

I do wish more youngsters felt the same. I live on a corner plot that's not far from the local senior school. The children meet on the corner and sit on my wall whilst waiting for others. I have no objection to this. What I do object to is going out every morning and collecting the discarded crisp packets, chocolate wrappers and Costa coffee cups.
I'm doing my bit for the planet and I've got a lot less time left on it than they have! 


 

YorksLass

@mandy47 - My late DF lived on a corner plot near to a high school and the discarded crisp packets etc were his bugbear too!  Our local chippy (that we never used 'cos it was so awful) closed recently and I've noticed there's definitely less litter from polystyrene trays etc.

@London_1 - Nice to hear your news from your new home.  I can imagine how much satisfaction you got from seeing the household items being re-homed.  I sometimes wish I could get rid of everything in the house and just start again - but that wouldn't be very MSE or fit in with the MMM mindset!  And I couldn't afford it anyway!     

I've Minimised a small set of drawers from the spare bedroom.  The charity that collected the bed didn't want them (?) but I've given them to a young woman who lives up the road so they're having a new life in her daughter's bedroom.

Yesterday I went to the hairdresser for my every other month cut and called at the PO next door to return the leggings I'd ordered.  I didn't mind that I would have had to shorten the legs but they were far too big for me overall.  The waist fitted OK but the hips and legs were like a ship in full sail!  Anyway, that's a parcel gone from under the stairs.

Today's Make Do has been using up a bag of frozen celery and some bacon bits from the freezer for a pan of celery & bacon soup for the weekend that we'll have with two p/b crusty rolls.  For breakfast I had a few strawberries with Weetabix and I've used a couple of ys soft baps for lunch today, filled with the last slice of ham and grated cheese from the fridge.  Tonight's tea is savoury pork mince with mash, swede, carrot and a couple of small Yorkies.  I will get the freezer emptied!  Hopefully by the end of next week!      

suzeesu2000

Make do - dinner from freezer and pantry shelves

Mend- DH hoody pocket sewn back on

Minimised - in progress, sewing old fleece type materials into blankets for cat sanctuary, one down, five to go

Cherryfudge

Make do/minimise - finished up the houmous, crudites and pizza slices left over from Tuesday.

Mend - nothing.

Minimise - one pair of trousers to the give-away bag.

weenancyinAmerica

@mandy47 - Would it be possible for you to put a large trash bin on the corner or ask the city to do it? Show them some of the pictures of what you have to clean up and it might show them the need.

Green_hopeful

@mandy47 we have lamp post bags in Peterborough. People spend a lot of time litter picking in the area because there are very few bins. The litter pickers either tie bags on or make their own litter bins with plastic containers. 

YorksLass

@Green_hopeful - What a brilliant idea!  Sadly, I doubt our Council would be amenable to the DIY version.  

Make Do: Casserole beef defrosting for a stew for the weekend - it will probably make 4 portions so we'll have to eat it twice but that's OK.  Not-so-very nice teacakes will be turned into a bread & butter pudding this afternoon that will also use up the last of my sultanas (currently soaking in alcohol  ) and some cream from the fridge.  Potato cakes using last night's leftover mash, carrots and swede.

Mend: I've chopped off the excess fabric from the PJ bottoms and will sew new hems this afternoon, most likely by hand as (a) I can't be bothered dragging the sewing machine out and (b) I quite like hand sewing.

Minimise:  Usual household rubbish, empty eye drops bottle in recycling.  I have a bag of tablets (no longer to be taken by DH) and an empty inhaler ready to return to the pharmacy and will have to remember to take them with me next time I pick up DH's new meds.

mandy47

Make do
Using freezer stock and still getting bits from the garden.  Low spend on this weeks grocery. Made a madeira cake without needing to buy any extra ingredients. 

Mend
repaired my key ring. 

Minimised 
1 bag to the charity shop
DD collected another boot load of her belongings.
Green bin filled with garden waste. Trying to get garden ready for winter. 

mandy47

Green_hopeful said:

@mandy47 we have lamp post bags in Peterborough. People spend a lot of time litter picking in the area because there are very few bins. The litter pickers either tie bags on or make their own litter bins with plastic containers. 

Excellent idea. We have bins nearby but there always seems to be litter on the floor around them. Ironically the dog waste bins are always full of litter!
I wonder at the thought process involved 🤔