The Thrifty Therapist: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

My mother is currently WAY into making miniatures. I mean, this techno-phobe, almost octogenarian is watching YouTube videos and hunkering down with her bits and bobs and is making things for a currently fictional Barbie house. She is making plans for us to work on making some rooms for the Barbies that she is collecting.

So, why am I putting this on my blog?

My mother is the QUEEN of making things out of other types of things. She has always done this and always will. She is having so much fun making things, and she will continue to make these things until she is finished. That's how Mom goes - full-out until she is done.

Her latest craze has been making plants for Barbie out of tape, markers, twist ties, and bottle lids. That's right. She has made some house plants for Barbie's soon-to-be-made Dream House.

My mother is my original Thrifty Therapist. She is an Occupational Therapist (retired) and has always been crafty as well as artsy. We used almost everything over again when growing up - paper grocery bags, plastic meat trays (my father made them), all sorts of things. If there was any other use for something, we found it.

As I am sitting here at my desk, I have an empty white prescription bottle sitting here. With some GooGone to remove the label, I would have a large decorative vase for Barbie.  So, I keep things like this, even though I rarely make things for Barbie dolls. I see potential in lots of what others consider trash, so my life looks like this - things everywhere!

I blame Mom... and her Mom... and probably her Mom. I think this is something that we all just learned from our mothers - so many generations of using things as much as you possibly can to save money, energy, and time. I keep it up, but it will stop here with myself and my sister. That is a little too bad, but that's the way it goes, right?

I make most of the visual aids that I use in my music therapy sessions. If I see something in a catalog that is at a price point that is outside of my budget, I try to figure out how to make something similar. In that process, I get a chance to figure something out, make something, and then use it with my clients through investing some time, energy, and materials. This process often reveals why something is so expensive to begin with - it takes time, energy, and materials to make just about anything.

 I shop at thrift stores when visiting my sister and my mother. I would like to shop at more thrift stores in my town, but their operating hours are not convenient for my schedule. My mom and sister get most of their materials from thrift stores - what other people give away. Many of the instruments that I have are from thrift stores. I get the opportunity to use things that enrich my clients' music therapy experiences for less money than brand new things - it is a win-win.

This ended up being a ramble about Mom and Sis, didn't it? That's the way this blog tends to work. Time to head out into the world for the next day before break. Five more days until I am finished working for the year... 2024.