The Thrifty Therapist: Reusing Things I've Had Forever

I am a packrat.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, it means that I am more likely to keep something based on its potential to become something else than I am to throw it away. That means that my home is never neat and minimalistic - no matter how much I try to make it so.

I picked up some free magazines at the library the other day - Elle Decor and Veranda publications. I looked through them this weekend after I was finished with the Online Conference for Music Therapy stuff that happened, and I had to laugh out loud.

The decor and examples shared in those two publications were SO not what I like, do, or want to achieve in my home. I laughed out loud at the featured furniture selections which were not under $12,000 dollars. I will NEVER have a chair that costs $12,000 dollars! EVER!! There are so many things that I could get for that same amount of money.

I quickly decided that subscriptions to these magazines will not suit me at all, but the pictures are nice. I might cut the magazines up to keep some of the views and advertisements. After that, it will be time to toss the magazines into the recycling bin.

The entire purpose of this train of thought is that I was looking at the various ways that designers put together all of the rooms and thinking about what I have available. I am always challenged by organization and the piles that I accumulate. So, it is time to start looking around to see what I already have that will help me do things in better ways.

I am a cardboard hoarder. There is an entire (strangely shaped) closet under my stairs that is full of collapsed cardboard boxes. There is no reason for keeping all these boxes except that I know there is at least one more move in my future, and I hate buying cardboard.

I can use that cardboard to make things - something that combines my need to reuse what I have and to get some good storage options. Making things will also allow me to satisfy my need to be creative and problem solve a bit. If I need a box of a certain size, I can use the cardboard I already have to make that size. I can also paint things to match my color schemes, so all that just for the cost of paint and tape.

I like reusing things. I like looking at my scores of file folders and thinking up new experiences or new ways to use those folders with clients. I love taking boxes from food and making them into journals to share with others. (By the way, does anyone want one? I have several I will send to you for the price of shipping!) I like using the countless envelopes that I receive to make pockets and things for those journals. There is nothing more satisfying for me than to take something that I would throw away and turn it into something that is functional and pretty for me.

I used a cardboard box to make some lamp stands recently. They aren't finished yet - I want to paint them and then decoupage them with some napkins that I bought for just this purpose (on clearance!). I just have so much that I want to do and not enough motivation to finish things when I get home from working. So, those lamp stands are holding lamps in their cardboard glory. I'm okay with that as well - at least, for now.

So. I am now looking around my entire home and seeing things that are not used well and are not functional for my way of living. I can see all of them, but I just can't start. I have some difficulties with this process, but I am getting to the place where I have to do something. It is time to be proactive with this process.

Step one: Pick a corner - any corner.

Step two: Go to that corner and clean it up. Decide what needs to go and what needs to stay. It's really not any more complicated than that.

Step three: Take the things that need to go and put them into the trash immediately.

Step four: Put things that need to stay in places where they make sense. For example, tools go into the two designated areas for tools - the downstairs bookshelf and the upstairs bookshelf.

Return to step one and continue.

Sounds easy, right?

Ugh.

Reuse. Repurpose. Recycle when necessary.

Be thrifty.


By the way, I am now on Bluesky at MusicTherapyWorks. Follow me over there, please.

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