Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without

Tweet

We have all heard this expression, leftover from the great depression era (which is getting not too far from the 100th anniversary, mind you) There are times when I sit and think of all the stories my grandmother used to tell about when she was a teenage girl. All the saving they had to do, all the rationing, all the what quite possibly have bred the hoarding thing. Some examples of these stories we got to witness years later as we were cleaning out thier homes long after they had died. My grandparents had this massive food storage, it was almost like they were hoarding for the apocalypse. Anyway, we cleaned out this food storage, I found a jar of something green and black. The jar was labeled: pickles-1985. The current year was 1993! That jar was tossed out immediately. Back then, goods were homemade. Granted, I loved my grandmas apple pie, but I really didnt care for the Kool aid that was in these overused recycled jars. My grandfather was even worse with using the same jars for nails and various brick a brack, as they called it. Think that's a hoot, my great grandparents on my mom's side was even crazier about this stuff. As we cleaned out that house, they took saving to the extreme, from collecting bags of nothing but pinecones, to wiring thier entire house with extension cords (yes, extension cords) to even holding the bathroom medicine cabinet with just one long nail. But even in that craziness, I had to give some credit for the good from them, like how to cook some awesome potato salad and pistachio salad, the sweet water wheel my great grandfather had made from a wagon wheel and tin cans. (They lived next to a canal) and the countless family stories they told, which I learned a lot from. So begs the question: could you go back to living like back in the depression era?