Have you heard this saying?

[Backpacker]

"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.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

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.

 

[UNCLE HARLEY]

You didn't have to grow up in the depression to understand what he was saying. I still put patches on all my jeans that have holes in the knees.

 

[JeepHammer]

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.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

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.

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.

 

[churchmouse]

I grew up with depression era farmers. So yeah I lived it.

Wasted nothing. Everything had a purpose.

 

[wcd]

"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.

Yes its common among farmers here. A lot of us live that way. Lots of wisdom there.

 

[gregkl]

Yup. My mom taught me this when I was a kid. I live by it.

 

[db1959]

My grandpa, who was raising of family during the great depression said that a lot. He also tossed in a take care of your belongings or they won't be yours. Baseball gloves left in yard, bikes not put up, he would kindly donate them to the those less fortunate than us.

 

[spencer rifle]

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.

 

[JeepHammer]

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.

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.

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.

Something similar was "No one can take an education away",
From people that lost nearly everything, that's good advise!

--------

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.

 

[churchmouse]

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!

--------

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.

 

[DRob]

Former mother in law would save aluminum foil, wash it, iron it, and reuse it. My dad would save the little remnants of bars of soap until he had enough to melt them together to make a bar large enough to use.

 

[femurphy77]

My mo in law died a couple of years ago and we threw away over one hundred cool whip containers
She was 92 so yeah its a generational thing. Although I do loathe throwing something away because replacement parts cost more than a whole new unit.

 

[JeepHammer]

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.

NO KIDDING!
It's like they never heard of a belt/gear/sharps guard!

I was about 13 at a river bottom saw mill watching the big 'Buzz' saw work,
The guys says "Don't stand there!" And points at the rafters,
There were saw teeth that had broken or come loose stuck all over the ceiling beams!
The sheet metal looked like someone machine gunned it!

Everything we owned was belt, chain, open PTO driven.
All the machine tools had open belt drives or gear drives and farm equipment before modern hydraulics looked like it was designed to chase down & eat humans!
If you are of a certain generation, everyone knew a farmer/kid with a missing hand/arm from a bailer, corn picker, etc.

If you had hogs, even the livestock tried to eat you!

I still use the old harrows, cultivators, plows, discs, cycle bar mowers, hay rakes, etc.
I'm doing small patches with small equipment, and it's dirt simple, but it's also all sharps or bone breaking edges.
The older, smaller equipment suits my homestead better, and it lives forever with just a little maintenance...
You just have to make sure there aren't any kids or pets around.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Got another saying for you:"He'd squeeze a nickel so hard the Indian's nose would go up the buffalo's ass".

My mom grew up on welfare during the depression with a legally blind mother and an absent father. There was gardening. There was canning. There was walking. There were live chickens. Christmas was the welfare people bringing a coat and a pair of shoes to each school age child. Relatives back in WV didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing. She made a good life.

I grew up listening to the stories, and I have an appreciation for what I learned. She wonders why I want to learn how to can, hunt, butcher animals, why I want a wood stove and oil lamps. My dog murdered a duck in the backyard and I had her plucked, gutted, and in the freezer within a half hour without having to think about it or look up a youtube video

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

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.

Old Pop still does. LOL

Speaking of safeties, though, there's an old pto driven screw type log splitter rusting down out behind Pop's pond. And it's going to keep doing so. I used it for a couple of years, but that thing's a maneater.