The joy of shared values

I was having a conversation with my husband in the office the other night when he happened to look out the window.  He jumped up, cutting me off mid-sentence while peering through the blinds.  “You wouldn’t believe this,” he exclaimed, “I think I see a free grill!”

With that, he ran out of the room.

Wow.  All I could think was, wow, how times have changed.  When we got married (almost 22 years ago, yikes!) he was king of the credit card, and thought in terms of monthly payments.  I, on the other hand, was raised with a “make do” mentality, from “why do we need to replace this perfectly functional  50-year-old item for something new?” parents.

But over the years, I’ve watched him change.

Although my bottom line reason for loving to buy things used is always budget, another big reason is the environment, and my love for this beautiful planet.  Less wasted stuff = less garbage in landfills.  If I can possibly fix something instead of throwing it out and buying a new version, I almost always will.  I patch clothes.  I glue broken pieces.  I buy used.  And if for some reason I just want a new version of something I already have, I find some way to sell or donate my old one.  I never throw away something that still has possibility.

I am amazed at what people will throw away.  On my daily dog walks, I’ve found laundry baskets, children’s toys and TONS of perfectly good wrapping paper (don’t people know the holidays will be repeating again soon?), among other things.  I always love the couple of weeks after Halloween, ‘cause I score a lot of great pumpkins, which are awesome for compost.

When my puppy jumped up and bit a hole in one of my favorite shirts, I used one of my favorite fixes: the iron-on patch.  (Does this remind you of your childhood?)

I cut this one into the shape of a heart - I actually liked how it turned out!

But back to the grill.  Apparently our new neighbors had been given someone’s old grill that they thought they could fix.  But the new neighbor guy looked at it and decided that no, he couldn’t.  (Or maybe didn’t want to, not sure which.)

Anyway, my husband was psyched!  “I definitely can fix this with probably $50 worth of parts, and it’s exactly what we need.”

I tell you, this was NOT the guy I married.  And I mean that in a good way!