A Reminder of How Wasteful Our Generation Was!

[RadishRose]

My mother used to save aluminum foil. That part of the wrap used for something frozen or cooked that wasn't soiled, she would fold carefully and put into a drawer to use again.

I think it was a habit left over from lack of foil during WWll.

 

[Aunt Marg]

One kitchen drawer in our house (childhood home) had more rubber-bands stowed-away in it than you could ever have dreamed of!

Whatever my mom would take rubber-bands off of... vegetables purchased at the store, papers, magazines, other miscellaneous things, into the drawer the rubber-bands would go.

 

[Aunt Marg]

What about disposable baby diapers!! Think of the billions going into the landfills.

I don't know when the big switch happened where mothers started opting to use disposables, but right up to and including the late 1980's, most everyone I knew was still using cloth diapers, diaper pins, and rubber pants.

The last child I changed that wore cloth diapers and rubber pants was my SIL's youngest, and that was in 1998.

By that time (late 1990's) I knew of no one still diapering the old-fashioned way.

Pampers reined supreme.

 

[Aunt Marg]

What a great opening post! It really puts the last fifty plus years in perspective doesn't it? Reading that reminded me of so many things, wringer washer's and using a stick to push the laundry through (watching out for the fingers), getting the pile of new paper book covers on the first day of school and how the entire class would sit there, folding them up so that they would fit on our books, frozen laundry...I even remember my mom washing bread bags to use in the kitchen because plastic bags were 'special' and hard to come by so you re-used them. We were also very poor so even if they were available to buy, we could never have afforded them (no credit cards for groceries).

Loved the opening post and all the following comments. Boy does this one date all of us eh?

My mom washed out plastic bread bags, too, and I've always used and reused plastic bags as many times as I can, that is until there's no more use I can squeeze out of them, and then and only then do they see the garbage.

Still, I wash and dry them like laundry (by hand), and I hang them up outside on the outdoor clothesline to dry.

My mom used to use plastic bread bags for dirty diapers when out of the home (baby siblings), and I did the same with my kids when visiting, while out shopping, at the beach, etc.

 

[Aunt Marg]

We would have to cover our books with left over wallpaper...

I remember using an old large brown paper grocery bag, which I would cut to fit the book.

I learned the technique in elementary school.

 

[Aunt Marg]

Speaking of the old wringer washing machines, I remember my mom and I popping a few pairs of rubber pants over the years by running the rubber numbers through the rollers the wrong way when washing baby siblings diapers!

The sound of a balloon popping didn't even come close to that of a pair of rubber pants popping!