How many of you are 'make do and mend' types?
People make fun of tendency to save things (not hoarding!) assuming I'm just keeping garbage. But most of the things I save are because I can foresee a future use for them. That extends to my way of making a meal out of disparate things in the fridge that most people wouldn't see as 'mealable'*, and re-purposing random items for my needs.
*The other reason it's easy for me to do this is because I have a very simple palette and a lot of times these 'meals from nothing' are actually throwing together a bunch of items I like and eating them all at once instead of individually.
Here are a few examples of what I mean.
I tend to collect boxes and you’ll see what that has stood me in good stead recently.
Example 1
I don't currently have a place to keep my sheet music so I'm using a fan box that comes up to windowsill height, and fits perfectly in the corner next to me by the piano. Worst case scenario, I get a nice table runner and hide the box under it. No one needs to know!
Example 2 and 2b
I've been waiting for a piano stand for over a month. For reasons unknown, the first two that I ordered never came and the only note I got from Amazon was 'underliverable'. Mkay. I've now ordered a third stand, waiting to hear what's wrong with this one. In the meantime, after seeing my poor piano languishing on various couches, I decided to use my bar stools as a stand, and a piece of wood board (that I saved from a mirror I put together) to extend the music stand so I could clip entire pieces of music along the board instead of having to turn pages in mid-song. Winner!
I've done the same thing with a makeshift bedside table until I get a proper one.
Example 3
It's summertime and it's hot and humid where I am. I ran clean out of ice cream and couldn't go out to get more for a few days for various reasons. I looked at my peanut butter and thought 'that'll freeze, right?'. Pulled out an empty tray of ice cubes, put a dollop of peanut butter in each one, topped with chocolate syrup, and put them back in the freezer. A few hours later, chocolate and peanut butter ice cream cubes! Full disclosure, I did not get the proportions right for my taste, a little too much peanut butter to chocolate but you get the gist! Last summer I did a similar thing by making coffee, letting it cool, filling up an ice cube tray, freezing it, then throwing it in a blender with milk and chocolate. Iced mocha!
So, most of these are pretty simplistic placeholders but they do the job. Shout out to all you who find ways to make things work where others just see garbage and peanut butter :)
Let’s hear your creative solutions!
Cardboard music holder and sheet music board.
Bar stool piano stand.
Placeholder nightstand.
Sweet peanut butter and chocolate ice cream.