Making Use of Multiples

My Father-in-law Dad Eco is one of those people who can see an opportunity in everything and it’s a wonder the things he can think of do with ordinary stuff. He says that, "especially if you have access to a lot of the same kind of thing, you are almost obligated to find somewhere to use it". Because he grew up around that mentality, The King never passes by anything that looks like it might be going to the landfill without looking it over and telling his Dad about it if he can’t think of a reuse. He brings home a lot of stuff that the office is getting rid of that you might not have an opportunity to get any place else. Even things like broken chairs, he’ll remove the good wheels to be used elsewhere.

I remember years ago the office building where the King works was putting film on the windows to help deflect the sun. The film came rolled up on hollow tubes made of some kind of plastic that were about 5’ long and and about 3 1/2” in diameter. When he found out that they were just going to take all these empty tubes to the dump, he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and over several trips brought them home instead.

I couldn't imagine what the heck he was up to, but what he did was put in 2 X 4 posts in the ground all around the yard, spaced 5 feet apart, then screwed 4” strips of plywood to the narrow side of the post centred so that the plywood stuck out on each side of the 2 x 4. This made a slot for the tubes to just slide down into one on top of the other horizontally, and within a few hours, he had made an almost free solid fence. He even drilled a 1” hole at the top of each 2 X 4 and ran a set of Christmas lights through the top tubes before putting on a top 2 X 4 cap to his fence. Then he borrowed Dad Eco’s paint sprayer and painted everything white. When the string of Christmas lights were on they made the top rail glow with muted colours. It was so pretty, and best of all... it looked just like a log fence. He said he was sorry he didn’t have more or he would have made BooBear a log playhouse.

The King’s office buys their paper in cases. The boxes that they come in are a nice size about 18” x 12” by 8” high, really sturdy and with a good lid that slips on and off easily enough. The King brings these boxes home to me and his mother regularly rather than have them just go to recycle and we’ve both been able to make good use of them for general storage. Because they are all uniform in size, I can pack things in them and line them up on the shelf with a label of what is inside. For instance, I use a lot of them to store seasonal clothing and stuff that the kids have outgrown, but that can be handed down to nieces or nephews or the younger kids.

I just categorize the boxes with the sizes and the kind of clothes (eg: Size 10 - 12 girls summer wear) and it’s easy to find the boxes I need to get or put away clothes. As someone outgrows something and if its still in good shape, I file it in one of the boxes. Everyone in our family all knows that I have this clothing storage system, so when they come to visit they will often bring their bags of outgrown clothing and swap their sizes for sizes their kids can wear. Nephews and nieces like to “shop” in my storage room.

Mother Eco has also made use of these boxes for her wool and material storage. Dad Eco put up shelves for her specially spaced to accommodate the boxes exactly. She can see what she has quickly and easily by the labels on the boxes, and can open the lids if she needs to see exactly what is in each box. The boxes even have handles cut in to make them easy to pull off the shelf and carry, and they’re not so big that they get too heavy for her to handle. Because they are all the same kind of box, they still keep the storage room looking neat and tidy and they do the same thing as plastic totes but at no cost.