As I sit here in my kitchen this morning, I have been reflecting on all of the changes that I have made in the past several years that have allowed me to be more mindful of the food we eat. It is so energizing for me to be able to save money for our family by putting in extra work to can, freeze, preserve, menu plan, and build up my pantry. And I can directly see the rewards in the amount of money and time we save each month, but also through the interest and changing habits of friends and family. It has been wonderful to be able to can and preserve with friends and family. I imagine that we are living more closely to how people lived centuries ago, before mass production, industrialization, and genetically modified foods. I think of my grandmother, who is 92 years old next month, the youngest of seven children, and her mother died when she was four years old. She, along with the other siblings who were too young to work, stayed back home while her father and older siblings went out to work. She learned to can, cook, clean, and preserve to help feed her family as she grew up. And she has taught her family the art of putting up food, and now she, along with my mother, have been the ones to teach me. What a gift it has been...sometimes I wonder if I do it because I love it, or if I do it because it reminds me of them.
But food is not the only way I have seen my habits change over the years. I have been much more aware of the waste we produce as a family, and what we can reuse. We do all of the usual things: bring our own reusable bags to the grocery stores, use glass food storage that will last a long time, use glass water bottles, and more. But I wanted to share other things we do as well that maybe you and your family can do to reduce waste and save money and time. So here is a list of several things we do and how they help us.
Around the house:
Candle warmer- when your glass jar candles stop burning, and there is still a lot of wax at the bottom of the jar, place it on a candle warmer to release the rest of the scent. It actually smells stronger than lighting the candle in my opinion. Don’t forget that you can also reuse the glass jars for storage or making your own candles.
Scrap fabrics- save your scrap fabrics. You never know when you will need just a little bit of fabric for mending something or for an art project, and you’ll save money and a trip to the store.
Clothes- we donate most of our old clothes, but sometimes they are just too scrappy. For example, I recently put two pairs of jeans with holes in the knees into the donation pile, but at the same time, I have been wanting a pair of jean shorts. So I just cut the legs off of both pairs and folded and hemmed the ends for a custom length. I also kept the extra denim fabric. If you have an item of clothing that you love, but you have worn it out, turn it into something else. I have even turned an old sweater into a pillow. (Thanks, Pinterest!)
Buttons and Belts- I combine all of the extra buttons that come attached to new clothes with the buttons off of old clothes and save them in a jar for replacing lost ones and for crafts. I had two old belts that I turned into the handles of a canvas bag, and then I attached a vintage doily.
Gift bags, tissue, ribbons, bows- when someone in your home gets a gift, reuse any descent looking wrapping on the next gift you give. No sense in throwing it away when it’s perfectly good.
Plastic spray bottles and glass jars- I put my homemade all purpose cleaner in a spray bottle from an old cleaner that I bought at the store over a year ago. Once it is empty, I just filled it again with my own recipe and it works great. I keep glass jars from groceries items like pickles, salsa, etc. If they are nice jars with fairly wide mouths, metal lids, and straight sides, I store them to use later as homemade soy candle jars. Pinterest has a great tutorial on how to decoupage the metal lids with scrapbook paper to make a nice finished package that I could even give as a gift.
In the Garden:
Coffee grounds and tea bags- these make wonderful compost, so instead of throwing them out, add them to your compost bin.
Kitchen scraps- also great compost, but make sure your scraps are vegan.
Water- save water from leaks in your faucets, cooking/food prep water, or even put a bucket in your shower to catch water as you wait for it to warm up and use it to water your plants. This is a great way to save money and resources.
Herb overload in your garden- are you growing herbs in your garden but can't seem to use them before they wilt? Try washing them and putting them in a plastic bag in the freezer to use as needed. Another way to freeze them is to chop them up and put them in ice cube trays, cover them with olive oil, and freeze them. Remove them from the tray and store in a freezer bag to use while you cook. Or there is always drying them by hanging them upside down in a cool, well ventilated area or with a dehydrator.
Gleaning/foraging- if you know of friends or family who have an abundance of produce from their trees or garden, or if you know of plants in a public space where produce is just ripening and going bad, try gleaning or foraging. Then use the produce to can, preserve, freeze, etc. Just do your research to make sure plants aren’t privately owned or sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals. Also, if a friend or family member is letting you come pick, please clean up after yourself, and even pick up rotten fruit on the ground as a way of thanking them for sharing. My husband and I just gleaned about five pounds of blackberries which I froze, and we found an apple tree in the area where apples are just falling off the tree and rotting. I will be doing some research to make sure the apples are safe to eat, but this could mean a lot of free applesauce to last us though the year. We have also been invited to glean from plum, pear, and apple trees, as well as gardens of friends and family members, for which I am very thankful.
In the Kitchen:
Vegetable scraps- save your carrot, celery, onion, shallot, bell pepper, mushroom, etc. scraps in your freezer. When you have a few cups, dump them into a large pot of water (or even a crockpot) with some salt and peppercorns to make your own vegetable broth. This will save you money, and it comes from produce you were going to throw out anyway.
Green onion ends- place the root ends of green onions in about 1/2 inch of water and watch them grow back. You potentially will never need to buy them again.
Brown bananas- make banana bread or peel them and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer to use in smoothies or in banana ice cream (recipe to come in a blog post soon).
Ziplock bags- I will often wash out and air dry my freezer bags if they are in good shape to reuse. Freezer bags tend to be pretty sturdy, and I don’t like throwing them out when they are still perfectly good. This means buying bags about half as often as I have in the past.
Unused shower caps- these work great to cover larger bowls of food in lieu of plastic wrap. I would only use brand new ones, but this is a great option for all the times you go to a hotel and don’t really know what to do with that shower cap they usually give you. You can even buy sets of these shower cap covers in varying sizes specifically for this purpose. Just wash and air dry before reusing them.
Canning mishaps- sometimes people make mistakes while canning. For me this year, it was canning a dozen pints of plums that were not yet ripe. I figured they would be fine since I canned them in a sugar syrup, but that was not the case...they were very sour. Besides learning a valuable lesson, I was able to take out all the plums from this batch and turn them into a batch of vanilla plum jam instead. Add enough sugar and some vanilla, and your fruit tastes just right. I ended up with five pints of delicious jam from fruit that I would have otherwise just thrown into the compost.
These are just a few of the things we can all do to reuse, recycle, and reduce waste (yes, I am fully aware that I sound like a tree hugger here, but let’s just call a spade a spade), and there are so many other ways too. What are some of the things you do in your home? I’d love to hear new ideas and tricks. Thank you for reading about this mindful home.
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