Simple Suggestion #197... Use every last bit

This is a pretty obvious suggestion... yet I suspect it's something that North Americans, blessed with an overabundance of everything, often forget. We have a tendency to throw things away before they're all used up, and as a result, waste a lot more than we realize.

My toothpaste tube is a case in point. I could have tossed it out two weeks ago because it was ALMOST empty. But sense prevailed, and I decided to see how many more uses I could get out of it. I squeezed the heck out of that sucker, as you can see. I even got my hubby to help squeeze out the last bit because I couldn't manage one-handedly, and his fingers are stronger than mine. I was finally forced to start a new tube last night. Had I thrown this one out when it reached the almost empty stage, two weeks' worth would have gone into the garbage.

And there are so many things like that in our lives... things we haven't used up completely before we toss them out. But if we don't want to use up our planet completely, we need to consider our consumption from all angles, and use every opportunity to avoid waste.

We need to think about...
wearing our clothes til they're no longer wearable, 

repairing every last thing that's repairable,

avoiding the fads and ignoring the trends, 

being model consumers for our families and friends...

So let's eat the last crumb and drink the last drop

and ensure that our waste of our planet will STOP.

What can you be sure to use completely in your life?

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Speaking of reducing waste, I want to brag a little more about my cousin Cyla, an artisan whose baby quilt was mentioned in Simple Suggestion #196. As you might remember, she's a quilter extraordinaire (I can't get over her sharp corners and straight seams) and she enjoys reusing fabrics in her works of art (that's what they are). This simple, old fashioned quilt that she made for her own happiness (and use) is made of men's old dress shirts and old white cotton pants that she got from her local thrift shop. It reminds me of my two dads, and Cyla says it reminds her of her quilter grandmas. God bless our quilter grandmas for memories like this. I think it's gorgeous, even though it's not quite finished, and I fully intend to visit Cyla, and see her, and it, in person.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.