Ann Said Mrs. G. Should Do This
Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 2:50PM Mrs. G. 
Friday, Mrs. G. was running errands to prepare for a Saturday night of dinner and games with friends. Before she started her intentional odyssey of getting this and that, she stopped by her friend Ann's house to say hello. Mrs. G. mentioned she was in search of a table cloth to fit her enormous dining room table.
"I don't really want to spend the money but right now I'm using a duvet cover* as a table cloth and it just doesn't look right, it doesn't cover the entire length of the table and the sides hang nearly to the floor," Mrs. G. reported.
Then she and Ann went on to discuss how they don't really have champagne taste but they would like most of their shit** to just look and work right.
As Mrs. G. got up to leave, Ann insisted they look through her table cloth stash to see if she had one that would work for Mrs. G. As luck would have it she did, a pretty white one.
"Now is this a loan or a gift?" Mrs. G. asked. "Because white is playing with fire in my house."
"It's a gift," said Ann, ripping off the thrift store tag*** as she handed it to Mrs. G. "I might need to borrow it when one of the girls gets married."
"We can bleach it when that day comes," Mrs. G. agreed.
"Hey, I might be able to use that duvet cover as a duvet cover."
Ah, friendship. It keeps a woman sane, grounded, dignified
Ann said she thought Mrs. G. should ask her readers what they have used to "make do" in a pinch, and in Ann and Mrs. G's life a "pinch" can last anywhere from two hours to 14 years.
So Mrs. G. is asking: What have you used to "make do" in a pinch?
*Not the duvet cover in the giveaway
**Ann didn't say shit. She is more civilized in her use of language, meaning she, unlike Mrs. G, can be snarky without swearing.
***One of the foundations of their 10 year+ friendship is their mutual ability to squeeze blood out of a turnip. They don't have to squeeze turnips so much these days (knock wood) but it's in their DNA.
Reader Comments (51)
I ran out of my regular skincare products (have you seen how expensive the stuff can be?) and I've been making do, cleansing with ground oatmeal and moisturizing with coconut oil- the cooking kind. I don't think I'm ever going back! My skin loves me and for pennies.
I used a thriftstore table runner as a sling under the belly of an aging dog who was having trouble staying up on her feet after a stroke. Very festive with the tassels! if I had needed, I could've gotten more runners to add a seasonal flair. Fortunately she only needed it for a few weeks before she could motor on her own with no support.
For the past 20 years, we have used a pair of old blood boxes (used to haul bags of plasma in Korea or Vietnam) as end tables in our living room or family room. They were something dh's dad bought at a thrift store or yard sale and stored cans of dried beans in for 20 years prior to that in a precursor to the Y2K preparation that everyone else did much later. They still smell of musty, dried beans if you open them. We painted them (20 years ago) brown and spiffed up the latches and hinges with gold paint. Recently they've had squares of upholstery fabric samples I bought at a garage sale covering the tops where the paint and underlying canvas or whatever have bubbled up. A third chest is in the guest room, unpainted but draped in fabric, where it serves as a nightstand. This weekend we bought new tables for the family room. (Because I am holding out for dh to *build* tables for the living room where we currently have two mismatched hand-me-down coffee tables that we've also had forever.) We bought new tables, Mrs. G., and they are lovely, but I'm wondering if we should have only bought the smaller chairside tables and just continued using the blood boxes instead of the full-sized end tables we also bought. And, yes, I did check Goodwill before we bought those furniture store tables. If I won the lottery, I would still be checking garage sales and thrift stores before buying new, which would probably make me the only lottery winner in history to not go bankrupt a few years after winning.
About 6 years ago during the summer, I came home from work and got ready to make dinner. My parents were due to arrive for their summer visit. It was hot for us here in the NW. I looked across the kitchen to notice that my upper cupboards were about to fall off the wall. I live in a mobile home and every thing is assembled with glue and few screws. The cabinet that held all my dinner ware was about to hit the floor.
We emptied them and ripped them off the wall, just as my parents arrived for their visit. We met them at the door while carrying the cupboard frame out to the deck. Over the next few days we threw up some open shelves in their place to give us a place to put the plates. Who knew it was forever? Here they hang in the same shape as they went up. Someday maybe we'll do something more finished. But I kinda doubt it.
I bought some kicka$$ boots that I wanted to wear the next night to a party but I needed some of those clips that hook to the bottom of your pants legs and keep them neat and tucked in. I asked at a couple shoe stores and was told to order them online - but I needed them then! So I bought an ironing board cover which comes with those pieces of elastic with a clip at each end to hold the cover tight on the ironing board. They worked perfectly as boot clips and I still use them.
I was in a hurry to get the curtains up in the master bedroom. They're pretty sheets, hung upside down so the hem shows at the bottom. I hemmed them at the top with straight pins as a "temporary measure". That was 10 years ago and I don't think I'm going to get around to having them properly hemmed anytime soon. (I don't sew and don't own a machine).
My first ever car was an old 70's Chevy Nova. The starter had a broken part in it, meaning that 4 out of 5 times it would start with the key, but the fifth time it wouldn't. I was young and couldn't afford the repair just then. So a friend of mine showed me the starter under the hood and how to touch two circuits with a screwdriver, and voila! It worked like a charm for months til one night as I was leaning down into the hood to start it, I fell right in. Little bit embarrassing. I got it repaired shortly after that.
Hmmmm...I haven't yet gotten around to replacing the college-era furniture in our living room with grownup furniture. Futon? check. Cat-scratched 3rd-hand loveseat? check. Mis-matched thrift-store wooden dining chairs? Check, check, and check. I think the "pinch" in this situation is the penny-pinch. :)
My dishwasher is leaking. The da*n thing is only about 4 years old. I can't afford to call a repair person - they charge you just to look at it. I looked around online and I think it's just a hard gasket thing. I'm homeschooling my oldest, and my husband works all the time. One of these days I'm going to figure out where to order the part and fix it myself. Until then, I have a bowl stuck under the corner where it leaks to catch the bit of water that coms out with each load. It'll do for now.
Oh, and did I mention the front burner on the newer glass top stove quit working? Yeah, I guess I'll be making do with three burners until I figure out how to fix that.
3+ years ago the knob to turn on the dryer broke. My son replaced it with a light switch. The sideboard in my dining room are actually two dressers from my brothers' room-they are at least 35 years old. I have used sheets as curtains and tablecloths. The shelves on my dining room wall are actually yard sale mantles. I have old wooden soda cases for storage at the front door. I call it upcycling.
Oh sheets as curtains many a time...
Boxes as end tables (throw a tablecloth or sheet over them and they will do in a pinch!)
I know there are other things, but they've probably been used that way so long I can't remember the real use of them....
Tree branch rubber banded to two nails over a door frame, with a twin flat sheet on it as a makeshift door in the summertime, to prevent air conditioning from going to the hot kitchen. It actually looks quite artsy, if you don't look too close.
Well done ladies! Well done.
My dream is to live in a tiny house someday, so I love figuring out how to make items do double duty. (It will save space when I'm living in 100 square feet.) I guess this isn't "making do" because I intend to keep on doing it forever, not just until I can figure out something better. I use olive oil instead of shaving cream, eye makeup remover, and lotion, in addition to cooking.
Some of my best craft creations come from "making do" instead of running off to the craft store. For a while I made decorative pillows from my husband's old shirts and jeans. They were so cute that all my friends were requesting them as gifts.
Good for you, Jenny. I can't say anyone has commented on wanting my duvet table cloth.
My fancy schmancy Bosch dishwasher that is only 4 years old, has duct tape holding the handle on. Not exactly the decorating look I was going for....but it'll do until the repair guy comes. Lucky I bought the extended warranty. (And the duct tape has worked for 8 months now. That' s the problem with making do - if it works, you never get around to the real thing.)
7 years ago, we had an addition built on to our home in order for my parents to come and live with us. Part of that addition included a new kitchen ( I love to cook!) - my husband built the cabinets (they are gorgeous)...and I got the stove of my dreams....a 6 burner plus griddle Viking (we call her the "sexy bitch"). We had intended to get a new subzero fridge, but in the end, the budget lost. Hubs built the cabinets to hold the fridge we had planned but eventually knew we couldn't afford. So, our trusty side-by-side is still in this massive space. It didn't really bother me until a friend was coming for the weekend. She is a wonderful person, and her home is impeccably decorated. I was in a frenzy trying to make everything look beautiful for their visit....and kept going back to the gaping hole wondering "what" I could put there so it wasn't so obvious. Bingo....old ladder in the garage with paint splatters....a fresh coat of white paint, several boards screwed on with garage sale trays, and viola: very cute shelving unit to fill the void! It is filled with my large stainless bowls, and large pots. She never noticed (nor would she have....she is not like that...this was me, not her.....what the HELL was I thinking!)....and that ladder/shelf is still there and a part of our kitchen! When the dang fridge dies....I don't know if I'd even want to replace it with what we had originally intended (oh, who the hell is kidding who...that money train left a long time ago).....anyway, it is cute and serves its purpose!
Does mending count? I am the mending queen. I've moved up from the ordinary clothing repairs and am now working my magic with luggage: I have repaired a duffle bag, backpack, and the strap to a saxophone case.
Sheets as curtains & tablecloths, check! Milk crates "freed" from the dormitory back porch have been in use since 1985, but my all-time favorite is the shelving unit from an old armory: solid wood, hand-written labels still visible ("mortars", etc.) was with us for well over a quarter century. It was a perfect size for notebook paper and colored construction paper, but it had also been used for dh's t-shirts and sweaters. Sadly, it had to stay behind when we downsized on our move last summer. I miss its ugly, solid usefulness.
I lost the grill for my minivan last fall when it battled with a deer at 50mph. I have big plans for the replacement grill. It will be recycled heaven! Photo will be blogged when all is done, I promise!
Mrs. G, I think you could have afforded a table cloth if you really needed one . Why do you pretend to be middle class when you just bought a $400,000 house (it's public record)? You are so full of shit and you can't ban all of us who are calling you out on it. How's that exercising program going? Haven't heard much about since you last whined about your weight. I'm suspecting you are still the size of a barn.
Bullshit You, I knew the day would come when my extraordinary wealth would be exposed. Yes, we paid 400K for our palatial 2000 squarefoot ranch built in 1957. It is surrounded by hundreds of other palatial ranches built during the 1950s for Boeing employees. Due to our excessive wealth covertly hidden in the walls of the six rental houses we lived in prior to buying our first home last summer, it only took us 22 years to come up with a down payment. Are you familiar with the Seattle housing prices? If you were looking up my public records, you probably came across the vintage Subaru and Ford Focus we are close to paying off. I can understand your jealousy and rage. Im not going to address the personal insults because they are just so old and tired...fat? Size of a barn? That's some fresh material, Bullshit You. I hope you enjoyed spewing this last night because you are now banned. Mrs. G.
First, the kitchen sink plumbing (under the sink area) developed a leak--I put a bucket under to catch, and emptied it daily....that went on for 8 years. I told husband to fix, or I would call a plumber, and he never did, and I didn't until the day my kitchen sink faucet developed a problem to where it did not work--so it was either put in a new faucet NOW, or calling a plumber. I had a Honey-Do list a mile long for that plumber....he not only fixed the kitchen sink faucet, the under sink leak, but the undersink upstairs bathroom leak (close to 8 yrs as well) replacement of a bathroom sink faucet, plus a few other chores...husband refused to fix himself (he was perfectly capable) let me empty buckets (almost daily on both kitchen and bathroom leaks) instead of fixing. What a @#$ !!!
Hmmm.... Sadly (ok, not really) those "make do" modifications have become so commonplace, I'm not even noticing them anymore. Would it be the red linoleum in our bathroom that I swore would be gone in two shakes (when we bought this house 20 years ago) or the staples I used to hem the lining in one of my favorite skirts that's been through the washer many (many) (many -- ahem) times, or the dishtowel curtains (in same bathroom) or perhaps the electrician's tape that seems to repair every ailment? I'm embracing our fixes. Proudly.
We have nice things too, honestly.
Oh Oh Oh -- we had a plumber install one of those instant hot water deals in the kitchen some time back. Only the outlet was also married to the garbage disposal. Both on, or both off.
Electrician's turn!
So now we (we? who are we kidding here?) crawl under the sink to manually plug in the disposal when we (again with the "we") want to use the disposal.
I'm pretty sure I could go on -- but will stop now.
You're welcome.
Years ago, our church choir took a road trip to sing at a convention under some hot TV lights. The women wore floor length white dresses and I stood in the front row. As I was dressing for the concert, I realized that I had forgotten my long slip. I couldn't do without one so luckily I remembered I had brought my own pillow with me. So I ripped out the bottom of the white pillow case, bummed a safety pin from one of the other ladies and made the case into a half slip in two minutes flat. No one was the wiser!
Yes to the covered milk crates/boxes as tables but my 'best' is the knobs on our cooker (stove/oven combo. What do you US Derfs call it?) It is only 5 years old or so but we have now had four of the six knobs come off. While waiting for the first replacement (a cost of £15!!!!!) to arrive we used a pair of mole grips. As each subsequent one fell off I haven't bothered to replace them as the cost would be nearly the same as the cooker itself. We would be lost without the mole grips and each time CK uses them for their proper purpose my heart beats a little faster until they are returned to their 'rightful' place on the worksurface.
BS YOU: what a loser. Get lost.
Mamaraby: try RepairClinic.com. You can order the part, and watch the video on how to replace it! A long-time friend of ours directs and produces all those videos.
The fronts of my kitchen drawers came unglued so I took all the stuff out and put it in baskets on top of the counter. The drawers went to the garage for re-gluing and painting. Nobody has ever noticed that I have gaping holes where the drawers should be. And it's been about 6 years now.
Hey Bullshit You: Get a life. It takes a lot of talent and courage to spew hate under an anonymous name. Coward. Go away.
As far as things in a pinch, all I've got is a roll of fabric used as a tablecloth. My mother in law gave me this fabric so I could make curtains. I don't sew. Never have. I laugh every time she comments on my beautiful tablecloth.
My kitchen floor is being taken over by small area rugs as the floor warps and the tiles peel up one by one; this is the sequela to a leak we had about five years ago. I don't want to redo the floor because the entire kitchen needs a redo, as does the foundation under the kitchen. This house is held together with duct tape, bent coat hangers, staples and paperclips, covered over with sheets and odd pieces of fabric.
I put cotton in my virtual ears a few years ago to filter out my anger towards trolls, and now I just feel pity for them. How very sad they must be.
Our waterbed is ENORMOUS, as are the prices of the sets of sheets. Several years ago, I caught a going-out-of-business sale and bought all three sets of the Ralph Lauren Super-King, Super-Deep-Pocket 500+TC regular-bed sheets they had left---for 75% off. The label didn't mean anything---just so they WORKED.
Daughter Caro took one of the huge long pillowcases that we don't use anyway, cut long pieces, folded them into neatly-sewn tubes and stitched them beneath the corners of the bottom sheet for the little PVC pipes which secure the corners beneath the mattress. We're now on our second set, with one left in the store-room, and have already saved several hundred dollars over the years of use.
And few of our "tablecloths" are---there are Battenburg shower curtains, beautiful sheets, both twin and full, and all sorts of other big swoops and rectangles and circles and squares which started their lives as other things.
The Guest-Room Battenburgs are four shower-curtains as well, on sale for like $5 each, the bedside "table" is a stack of two big ole picnic baskets beneath a little round tablecloth, and all the "holders" for brushes, nail files, q-tips, etc., in our bathroom cabinet are small clear glass sugar-or-creamers---heavy and pretty, and all from yard sales.
A BIG baker's rack (thrift store) over by the downstairs bath holds towels and cloths, with six rolled in the wine-slots, as well, and a wide three-flip-door file cabinet holds all the linens for downstairs, and the TV/DVR/Cable box all sit atop. And a little two-drawer one right outside Chris' bath holds his unders and socks.
There are also several big packages of two-feet-square upholstery samples which I like to put onto the seats of the oldest dining chairs, just for a little seasonal change-up. (And to cover the blobs of Play-Doh, Elmer's and spillages from the Grandchildren's use).
Sadly, Mrs. G, there are some angry, unhappy people out there who think they can make themselves feel better by trying to hurt others. We just need to ignore them! (just like the bullies we tell our kids to ignore).
Looks like one of Anon's 5 friends is trying to sneak back in.
I love to re-purpose things around the house. I'm using some vintage, embroidered pillowcases that my great-grandmother made as simple curtains on the window in my craft room. I have an old, tarnished tea set that is being re-used all over the place. The sugar bowl holds paper clips here on my desk at work. The creamer holds packets of stevia next to the coffee maker at home, and I use the tea pot for flower arrangements.
Let's see -- in our first apartment I made a valance over the kitchen window by laying a 1" dowel on top of the upper cabinets that flanked the window. Then used shower curtain hooks and a lace runner to make the valance. It stayed up until we moved 5 years later.
Our old house had a huge picture window flanked by two normal sized windows in the living room. The total length of it was 13 feet which required a special order for a curtain rod that length. I was in Lowe's for something else and noticed they had round bannister wood for $2 a foot. Sold! I never even painted or stained it. I found some wood brackets that almost matched the rod. When we were getting ready to sell the house 10 years later, I finally found some wood finials to put on the ends of the rod to make it look a little more finished. And the curtains for that window? Yep. Two full sized flat sheets. I used the top hem as the rod pocket. No sewing required.
When the kids were toddlers, our sand box was a large underbed storage bin.
When I first started working in an office (1981), pantyhose was part of the required office ensemble which also consisted of suits and heels! Since all of the wages I made were gone before I even got paid (cause back in "our day," our kids needs came before anything else), I couldn't afford to buy new hoisery every time I got a "run" in them. So I would wear two pair...cut the "bad" leg off and put them together! Wah-lah!!! Problem solved!
@Hey Nana - that is an ace idea. If I ever reach the point where I have a paid, real job again I have that filed away for reference.
my main claim to 'make-do' fame is my lack of microwave oven. about 8 years ago, the one i had died. i used it quite often and i'm sure it was just exhausted. at that time, my youngest was still really little and money was incredibly tight...so i did the Japanese thing and i 'gaman'ed (put up without). i became very skilled in the art of warming up pretty much anything using my toaster oven, fry pan lined with baking sheets, or (my personal favorite), yes....a bamboo steamer! Some grandma-friend gave me one and, seriously, it's one of the best ways to warm up things...even cook (doubledecker steamer = chicken and veggies cooked together, for example). i do admit to doing the superiour dance, just a little bit, when people start talking about how they "would die without their microwave"!!! heh heh heh me: what? you use your microwave?"
we actually got one from a returning foreigner but, to be honest, i do not even have it plugged in...it's just decoration for my kitchen!!!
I do the repair, repaint, repurpose gig to no end.
But I think my true making do gig was when my clutch went out on my truck. I was 18, had blown through what savings I had taking care of my mother through a surgery, no resources to get it fixed for a couple of months. My Dad, normally a pretty useless soak, taught me to drive my stickshift old farm truck without a clutch. I found if you really know the rhythm and rpm's you don't need the clutch, you just shift at the perfect moment. I also became an expert at navigating my little city without stopping or slowing, just taking roundabout routes at the same speed.
Good grief, my stories all start out sounding funny to me, and then end as depressing ghetto momentos.
Molly, I used to have to do that with a car (automatic) that would die if it stayed still for too long, so we learned to avoid red lights (unless we could turn right), heavy traffic, etc.
~ Bed pillows on our crap futon because the seating is so uncomfortable. I plan to give them black pillowcases so they’ll blend, but for now, our “couch” has “seat cushions” that are covered in random old pillowcases. Also, why do we keep getting futons? We had 2 real couches in the first 4 years of marriage but now we just keep buying futons. I want a real, heavy, COUCH!
~ Milk crates (the yucky plastic kind, not the cool, old, wooden kind) holding CDs, DVDs, cords, odds & ends . . .
~ Sheets as curtains. Sheets as a sofa slip cover. Sheets as a table cloth.
~ My daughter dropped (thus breaking) the glass coffee pot and I keep meaning to go to the thrift store to pick up another, but forgetting. So I just put a glass bowl under the drip & then pour it into a plastic pitcher.
~ I suppose this isn’t making do, but while we have finally graduated to real IKEA tables as bedside tables, we still don’t have “real” dressers. Every bedroom has a set or two of plastic, see-through dressers. We keep getting them because if a drawer breaks we just pull one from someone else’s dresser, they’re easy to move around, and they’re cheap. I daydream of finding the perfect real, wood dresser at the thrift store to buy.
~ We brought a shower shelf thing (a long pole w/shelves attached) with us to our new place a few months ago, but don’t need it in the new shower. So it leans against the corner and holds toilet paper rolls.
~ I’m planning a vegetable garden and will be making do with a lot of household items as containers for our plants, as we don’t have a large yard. Sauce/jelly jars, wine bottles (as watering globes), whatever else I can scrounge up that isn’t serving a purpose already.
~ I make a lot of accessories and clothing out of old clothing I don't wear anymore. This weekend I took a bunch of blouses & skirts that I used to wear to work, and made them into infinity scarves.
I don't understand the hate. Why would someone "stalk" Mrs. G and make stupid comments about a tablecloth, for heavens sake? What kind of bile runs in that person's veins?
As for the tablecloth - I know exactly why you wouldn't buy a tablecloth. We too, have a large table, and it's hard to find affordable cloths for it. I really love those wonderful French damask clothes you see that cost around $200 - $300, and I suppose if I really really wanted to buy one I would be able to. But I don't think it's worthwhile to spend $200 - $300 on a tablecloth.
So it's not that I can't afford a tablecloth, but that I don't feel it's RIGHT to spend $200 - $300 for a tablecloth. And I don't want to spend anything on something that would be ugly, no matter how cheap. Which is a why a bedsheet or a duvet cover works. Or, thanks to Mrs.G's friend Ann, a thrift shop tablecloth.
As for us, our outdoor lighting is cheap and dirty. We have two decks outside where we have outdoor picnic tables, but we don't have light fixtures. About ten years ago, I got a cheap "light socket on a long cord that plugs into the wall" from Cost Plus ($12) and a paper Japanese lantern ($8) , which I dangle down from the upstairs deck, and pull the plug into a window to plug it in. That's our outdoor lighting.
The socket is fixed in place with those plastic zip-ties. Every summer the paper Japanese lantern lasts about three months before I have to replace it.
I adapted this same technique to our indoor dining room light. We have a bare bulb light socket in the ceiling and I've covered it with a paper Japanese lantern. Works for me.
gotta say - bullshit you must really need a job or something if s/he has the time to look up housing crap. really? and then to take the time and energy to focus her hate into a literate comment. she's probably jobless 'cause of her lovely personality.
i like the format of leaving the comment out there and including your reply. dooce gets quite a bit of hate/jealousy crap and at one point she posted a separate page to list it all out and have fun replying to it. it gave us all insight into the hell that blogging can be for people that put themselves out there - and you could have fun mocking their craziness. unless that's just a waste of time and energy... ehn. my pathetic way of saying "well done mrs. g."
and making do? i think i do it so often that it's normal and i don't think it odd...until i have visitors and see things through their eyes. we've been in this place 7 years and i have yet to hang a curtain. wait! i lie. 5 years in we did hang curtains in our son's room.
onward.
I love all you derfs who defend me, but please don't feel the need. I am about two seconds from password protecting this blog because, well, because it's my blog and I think it would make it a happier place.
I also appreciate the few snotty emails, one of which informed me I am now the 1%. This has made me laugh out loud all day.
I wish we had some photos of some of these "make dos" you describe!
I think I can beat blood boxes as end tables. When I was a kid my mom (who is a great decorator) antiqued a lot. She came home one day with a large oak chicken incubator and we used it as a coffee table for years. I'm not sure where it went, but I wish I had it. It was really cool.
When someone, like BSYou who posted above, tells me I'm fat I like to steal & twist a famous quote and tell them that fat can be worked off with exercise, but they are ugly. Not on the outside ugly, but a special inside ugly that will never go away because it is rooted right down to the bone. }:D
We have been making due with two of the four burners on the electric stove working until my son got fed up and finally fixed it. I was very grateful. (I don't take on electricity, it bites back.)
My mother used to fix small bumps & dings in the wooden furniture by matching & coloring over them with my crayons. She's very good and crafty about not only fixing things with duct tape or glue but doing it so you can't see that she used it. My aunt takes the cake as the queen of doing over old furniture with, of all things, contact paper. She can take an old dresser, repaint it, put new knobs on it and then cover the top with marble patterned contact paper and it looks great.
A few of our make do's--
My back was hurting one day and I couldn't find the heating pad, so I filled an old soccer sock with rice and heated it in the microwave. That was two years ago and I still use it. The heat lasts forever, but the house does smell like rice for a while.
A couple of months ago we got tired of our pre-teen daughter slamming her door, so we took it off the hinges. With two brothers she does need a little privacy, so we hung and old lime green curtain on a tension rod on the doorframe. She actually likes the curtain and our house has never been quieter.
I've used cheaper Target tablecloths to make curtains because I just liked the pattern on the fabric.
We needed a place to hide our speaker from sticky, curious fingers so we hid it under one of those small round tables with a long tablecloth around it (the kind of table that was always at grandmas house--you know the kind)
I use those ziploc plastic food containers to organize my bathroom under sink cabinet.
And BS-- that's just mean
i love the idea of you having a closed blog. why put up with the bullshit?
Don't really have a clever make-do project like some of these incredible stories listed but... I just have to tell you that photo had me laughing this morning! Back in the 1960s, I remember watching my two older cousins roll their long, luxurious locks in used frozen orange juice cans to get these wonderfully soft curls in their hair. I was a total tomboy--more interested in their horses than their clothes or shoes or passionate pink lip gloss--but I loved watching them prance around the house with a mess of Minute Maid cans bobby-pinned to their heads. Still cracks me up just thinking about it!
Having just heated up some stuff for lunch I was thinking the same thing Mrs G, pictures needed of all of these I think.
I've found that a black Sharpie can work wonders on concealing furniture knicks, as well as scuffs on my shoes.
littlemama, do you mean the round cardboard tables, or the plywood-ish ones? I remember both of them. :)
Sally, I use a black Sharpie on shoe scuffs AND on my gray roots in front (forehead, temples) if I realize I'm overdue for a roots touch-up & headed into a day of meetings or something. Just a couple quick swipes and the gray disappears.
Haaaa! I have a list. We intend to move in 2 years to prepare for the empty nest pre-retirement era. You know the one where your time, and money, is your own. Dreaming....
This year is officially Reduce, Repair, Replace or Remove Year.
The standing joke is that anyone who stands still too long might end up going...out the door.
-the carousel microwave oven...that doesn't turn.
-the 4 hotplates.... where only 2 work.
-the washing machine...which always stops and needs it's load adjusted.
- the VCR/DVD player...where only the DVD part works.
- the stereo....which is dead
- the computer...which doesn't have a printer.
- the vaccum cleaner...which is so old they don't sell the bags for it any more
- the TV...which is not digital, doesn't have cable or any bells and whistles.
We bought things second hand, made do and got 30 years of hard family life out of most things, including the house.
We'd do it all again the same way....but we're looking forward to the reward. New house, new things!
I was thinking about this post some more - and realized that I grew up with nice things, but things were also expected to last and to be versatile. So the long dining room table might have a tablecloth on top, with a sheet underneath to drape to the floor...Kitchen items were recycled into garden items...it was always okay to find a second use for something. I try to do that now - to reduce the amount of stuff I *buy* if I can find something around the house that will work instead. So much of the stuff in stores is badly made and designed to wear out quickly that I really have made an effort to reduce the amount I buy. Of course, some times it works and sometimes it doesn't...but I figure intent counts for something!!!