Cleaning out cupboards and closets can be overwhelming and for those of us who were brought up with the saying....."Use it up, wear it out, make it do--- or do without". Throwing out things often feels wasteful and stressful. Here are a few of my "use it up" tips:
In the Kitchen:
Old Herbs: not useful for medicine anymore, these can still be used to add to animal bedding to keep away fleas/mites. Any aromatic herb will do--and make your pets smell good between baths.
if the herbs are good, but you only have a tiny bit left--and the nearly empty jar/bag is taking up space, make these leftovers into ice cubes for use in future soups/sauces.
If there are old dusty herbs hanging up, use them as fire starters for the fireplace or woodstove--or as potpourri ingredients.
Leftover foods: Banana peels--freeze them and in spring, put them around rose bushes and other heavy feeding shrubs
Lemon/Orange peels: save for potpourris, or to add to vinegars, dressings, oils, herbal baths
Leftover Cheese: All those cheese rinds that look gross or are too hard to grate--freeze and add to soups and sauces. It adds a really deep/rich flavor
Leftover Wine: Use it in cooking! If it has already started to turn--then what you have is free, yet high end, wine vinegar. You can also make a wine vinegar with 2-3 parts leftover wine to 1 part apple cider vinegar
Coffe/Tea Grounds: You can use them on houseplants or freeze them (just keep adding new ones to the same container) and use in the garden. You can dry them and use them to freshen carpets and floors before vacumning.
Egg Shells: I wash and crumble shells to put in compost, also as a snail repellent, but best--- as a very usable/easily assimilated form of calcium supplement. Just put the crushed shells in some organic apple cider vinegar and let set a week, strain and take a Tbsp. per day (use organic eggs too!)
Other Reusables:
Wood Ashes: I save these in a metal can to use in the garden around plants infested with slugs. Just sprinkle a little around plants and the slugs dry up as they crawl over them. My favorite use for wood ashes, I learned from my grandmother--as a perfect silver polish. Using a soft cloth, dampen it, dip into a little wood ash and then then wipe. It is almost effortless---and it is not a toxic nightmare like commercial polishes.
Old carpets/blankets: Use to put on the ground in Fall where you want to prep the soil for a new garden. It smothers weeds and softens for tilling (rubber backed carpet sshould be taken back up and reused again for the same purpose, but not left to rot as it may leach toxins into the soil)
Old Screens: These make fabulous herb drying racks. Stack using small bricks or wood blocks
Please feel free to add your tips for "using it up"!
Old carpets/blankets: Use to put on the ground in Fall where you want to prep the soil for a new garden. It smothers weeds and softens for tilling (rubber backed carpet sshould be taken back up and reused again for the same purpose, but not left to rot as it may leach toxins into the soil)
Old Screens: These make fabulous herb drying racks. Stack using small bricks or wood blocks
Please feel free to add your tips for "using it up"!