12 April 2010

Free storage............

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was to share some of my ideas and thoughts with you and possibly inspire you in some way. I have to live frugally, and thank God, this comes naturally to me. You may laugh at some of the things I do to make ends meet or may groan in agony claiming there is NO WAY you would ever do that regardless of circumstances, but hey, we do what we have to do, and I do a few things that I didn't think I would ever do either. It's OK. Not everyone will find something they can take away from this blog and use. Others may. And as Alton Brown says "That's OK by me, too". (Alton Brown?  From The Food Network "Good Eats" program.  He's a little goofy.  OK, a lot goofy.  I love his show!!)  If nothing else, perhaps you will get a laugh or two from this goofy blog. And please, feel free to comment on any post --- positively or negatively, it is all welcomed. Here we go.........
A dear friend of mine has cats. Lots of cats. She rescues cats like I rescue dogs, and she goes through a lot of kitty litter. She asked me one day if I had any use for the plastic buckets that the litter comes in. I told her that I could use a couple of them to clean up and store Toonie Mae and Charlie's food in. They eat different types of food ---- more on that later ---. I hate keeping their food in the paper sacks it comes in. The zippered tops are hard for me to open for some reason and they are unsightly when the food is used up past half a bag and the top looks weird. ---- I SEE YOU ROLLING YOUR EYES!!!  ------ . I thought about a plastic garbage can, but that was too big. The large litter buckets are just the right size; I can divide a 40 pound bag of food between two of these and they are easier to handle and store and I don't need a chiropractor's appointment after trying to move them around. My friend told me that she had more of these containers should I need them. Well, the lure of something as interesting as a plastic kitty litter container kept my mind going :-) . Suddenly I envisioned lots of uses for these buckets. One to store my used-only-once-in-a-blue-moon kitchen utensils, one for my income tax papers (I could store them in the garage without worry of them getting damp. Ya never know when Uncle Sam may come knocking), one for the paperback books I have to keep around because I have them listed on http://www.paperbackswap.com/ . You get the idea. Storage. Plastic storage with a secure lid, all the same size. I told my friend that I would take any and all of her kitty litter containers she wanted to get rid of, and when I got home from the matinee at the local movie theatre on Sunday, my front porch was awash in plastic buckets. I immediately began cleaning them up and making labels in 48 point type and printing them out. I attached them to the buckets with some clear mailing tape. I really wanted to spray them with some spray paint made for plastic--- to get rid of the logos --- but the weather was a little cold for that and I just couldn't wait to get started. Maybe sometime in the future. Some people use cardboard boxes for their storage needs and some things can only be stored in a cardboard box because of size, etc. I still have some stuff in cardboard boxes, but anything that will fit in a kitty litter bucket will be stored there. They come in TWO sizes and are a cinch to store. They stack nicely, plastic is weather proof, and they are being repurposed and not disposed of in our landfills. Looks like a win-win situation to me. Oooooooh, the possibilities!!!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will come back. Have a great week!

1 comment:

  1. Great Idea and I especially like the fact that they are tightly sealed and the same size to store so easily. You could even throw in some lavender in the ones that you'd like a nice fragrance in!

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