Decrease Your Ick Factor

On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the least and 10 being the greatest, how gross do you think it is to buy an article of used clothing from a garage sale? What about eating leftover dinner for lunch the next day? Finally, imagine washing and reusing aluminum foil in your kitchen. The numbers you assign to these and other similar activities is what I would like to call your "Ick Factor". In general, the lower your numbers, the easier you will find it to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Because buying and using only new things in general just costs more.

I am a die-hard Amy Dacyczyn fan -- author of The Tightwad Gazette. Amy touched on these issues many times during her stint as a newsletter publisher. I remember reading in regard to purchasing used clothing, don't think of it as buying used clothes; think of it as buying new clothes that have been washed a few times. That's great advice! After all, once you have worn your own clothing and washed them a few times, aren't they then used?

It was with this in mind a few years ago, when my family was making one of several cross country relocations. I remember packing up one of the four bathrooms in our house. I reached for the toilet brush and thought that I would go ahead and throw it away only to replace it with a new one on the other end of the move. Then, I thought of Amy. I rationalized that I would have to replace the toilet brush in the new house -- four times over; once for each toilet. After using a new toilet brush once at the new house, I would have -- you guessed it -- a used toilet brush! When you have several bathrooms, replacing every toilet brush adds up. So, I took that used toilet brush, wrapped it in a recycled grocery bag and never looked back.

It's this kind of thinking that I encourage you to reconsider. Does it gross you out to think of buying clothing at a thrift store? Why? What about dishes? If your grandmother leaves you a set of antique china, isn't that the same thing? Many times, we are living up to expectations that we have in our minds, but not really doing ourselves any favors in the cash flow department. By the way, if you're nervous about using this argument with your teenage daughter, ask her how gross it was that she borrowed her best friends jeans last week. Aha!

Bringing down your Ick Factor will put you in a better position to raise your bottom line.

Happy Homesteading