Wear it out.

Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without.

Writing this list has been much more challenging than I anticipated. Everytime I come up with something I think we "wear out," I realize we actually turn it into something else.

Nah. Not worn out yet.

We don't wear out a lot. We're far more likely to repurpose, rework, or pass something on. So many things have so much life, if you're careful about the quality you acquire in the first place, and continue to be mindful about how your handling. We're pretty good about making things last, but we're not perfect. Eventually, things just wear out. Here's our list.....

• Shoes. I find that shoes wear out much more quickly than I would like. For my husband and myself, we try to invest in really good shoes, which seem to last longer. For our children, we find it's a balance. Spend too little and the shoes won't even last to be outgrown. As our children have gotten older, shoes outlasting two (much less three) wearers have become more rare, but are still not unheard of. We recently discovered Shoe Goo, which means adult shoes lasting even longer. But we find that either children's shoes are less well made, or children are just plain harder on shoes. 



Not even close to being worn out. 

• Jeans. While jeans may be outgrown (or less frequently, out shrunk...), they do not get tossed. We rarely have many nice looking out-grown jeans anymore -- the ratty  ones become patches for jeans I'm trying to coax through  one more season being worn. There are tons of ideas on the web for using old jeans.     
• Appliances of any sort. It has to be our deaddeaddead for us to give up. My husband has begun to take it as a personal challenge to see just how many things that he can fix that "aren't worth" the cost of repair. He's repaired flat panel televisions, computers (hardware issues), and even my 40 year old, already-once -rebuilt Vitamix. When it's really dead, or when we come to the conclusion the cost of repair is not worth it to us, we have a "guy," Billy. Billy is a local guy, and he can work wonders with other people's "trash." Even when I have something that is our deaddeaddead  I call Billy and he will come get it. The man is a tinkerer, and he's happy to use the parts from our deaddeaddead to give new life to others. So, I guess in this case, "worn out" is relative to context.
• Rags. Actually, our rags are the second (or third) life of anything fabric that's a natural fiber. I have a bunch of plastic containers we fill with rags and then soak with vinegar. They get used, washed, dried and back into the containers. Rags have to completely disintegrate or be uncleanable to get retired.
• Candles. I use tealights to keep my coffee warm in the winter. On occasion, I find they won't burn anymore, but there's still plenty of wax in the cup. So they get saved, and then they get remelted, and re-made into candles or, more usually, firestarters.

I would be very, very curious to read what you wear out in your home. Please take a moment and leave a brief comment, listing anything you wear out in your household.