Mom used to keep a collander (It was only years later that I learned that a collander wasn't really called a "garbage strainer") in the sink. Any food scraps, etc, got scraped into there when rinsing pots, pans or plates (no garbage disposal), and eventually wrapped in old newspapers and put into the actual "trash" to get set out once a week. Everything else that would burn, would be burned in the trash barrel out in the back yard.My depression era grandparents didn't waste ANYTHING.
Little 'Garbage' or 'Trash'.
'Tin' cans got squished flat, laid under driveways so the 'expensive' gravel didn't sink.
Even broken glass got recycled as sand filters etc.
The dead car parts & 'Gadgets' collected up, and in the winter when things slowed down, grandpa would take them apart for copper, brass, aluminum, iron, etc., Some got melted/cast into parts, some got sold for scrap (money).
Everything from junk mail to news papers got rolled to burn in the wood stoves.
The 'Yard' took money & time to maintain, the garden made our food AND some money.
You NEVER took a shovel, post hole digger, axe, etc without a wire brush and oil can.
If you didn't clean the tools off and oil them, put them back under cover, you most certainly heard about it!
Taking care of what you have is a good habit to get into...
I'm not a fan of 'Disposable', buy quality, take care of it... Buy once, Cry once.
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." About twenty years ago I heard this from an older fellow who grew up during the great depression. May not apply in our plastic disposal world.
Mom used to keep a collander (It was only years later that I learned that a collander wasn't really called a "garbage strainer") in the sink. Any food scraps, etc, got scraped into there when rinsing pots, pans or plates (no garbage disposal), and eventually wrapped in old newspapers and put into the actual "trash" to get set out once a week. Everything else that would burn, would be burned in the trash barrel out in the back yard.
We say that and live it. Along with it we also say “skills don’t weigh anything.” So in addition to washing out bags and never getting bottled water, we garden and can and hunt and sew and repair our own appliances and cars.
There was a pretty big difference between garbage & trash,
The NON-meat was compost, the meat/bones/grease was 'Garbage'.
Even spoiled oils/grease got used as fire starters.
Anything that wasn't slick print paper was burning material, we rolled it but some shredded it and made mats, logs or pellets.
Seems like a lot of work to me, but that's the way you want to do it...
We used to shred, soak and make 'Egg Crates', these were great for eggs (duh), but they also made pretty good air spaces in the compost pile which supercharged it, particularly when you were introducing worms.
Uses are only limited by imagination...
Or more to the point, uses are limited by LACK of imagination.
Something similar was "No one can take an education away",
From people that lost nearly everything, that's good advise!
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I personally like building 'Rube Goldburg' machines!
A harrow that uses drop in railroad spikes,
A pull behind mower powered by an old pickup differential
(So the tow vehicle doesn't need a PTO),
Just something to do rather than pay retail, and then can't find replacement parts.
My people threw nothing away. Everything had a use and then another use after it was used. Compost....Yes.
Garbage went to the hogs.
Fire starters, lube for many different things.
Some of the contraptions they came up with were amazing and worked pretty well. But man OSHA would a brick.
Yep, heard it and lived it (my parents lived through the Great Depression. My mom would save, wash out and re-use baggies. And I mean the thin plastic baggies... the kind that needed a twist tie to close - before Ziplocs were invented.