Picking Our Own Trashby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 08 Apr 2008 04:32 AM
We keep a large, lined, garbage can down in the basement. In this can goes dryer lint, burnt out light bulbs, and various home improvement trash. Basically, anything that isn't food gets thrown in this garbage can. Every once in a while, when the can is looking full, I'll go and raid it while I am waiting for the washer to fill for laundry. I usually find some paper and cardboard to pull out and recycle. Sometimes I'll pull out other items to reuse them, such as that burnt out light bulb that can become a darning egg or a jolly snowman ornament, or a ripped shirt that can become a rag rug. Yesterday, I found one of our dining room chair cushions in the bin. The cushions are usually kept downstairs on a shelf, since they might get soiled by the kids. This cushion was sopping wet and stained. Putting my detective hat on, I have to assume the following happened. One of the dining room cushions must have fallen off of the shelf onto the floor, perhaps dislodged by a passing laundry basket. I am guessing this. Last week, we had a leak in the basement from the utility sink. The chair cushion must have soaked up the water. When my husband investigated the leak, he must have seen the pillow and then tossed it in the garbage can. Of course, I rescued this pillow. All it needed was a good wash with some Tide on hot water. I also added a boppy that needed washing and some kitchen towels to balance out the load and make using the washer energy efficient. At the end of the wash, the chair cushion came out as good as new. A quick dry in the dryer (since it was raining outside and nothing would have dried on its own), and I could pop the cushion back on the shelf. Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments uncommonhomemaker (5) 08 Apr 2008 06:36 AMhave you ever looked into felting fun with dryer lint or papermaking w/ dryer lint...i recycle everything :)  Sara Denomme (1063) 08 Apr 2008 07:09 AMI was going to suggest using the lint for felting, too, uncommonhomemaker! Nothing but lint is allowed in my laundry room basket for this reason. :)  Mary Ann Romans (26886) 08 Apr 2008 08:19 AMI would learn to learn more about felting with dryer lint. Meanwhile, you might want to check out this article about uses for dryer lint! http://frugal.families.com/blog/hoff-real-uses-for-dryer-lint Community Tags frugal, reuse, recycle, thrifty, trash Discuss this article
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Some times sweating the small stuff can add up. It all depends on your circumstances and your level of frugality. Here is one of the things that we have done this past week that could be considered frugal. 
