Every Last Drop
Josh likes to tell people that I talk about waste in the same way that other people talk about murder. I waste nothing. I do not even waste the 30 seconds as a meal heats up in the microwave. I use that time to put away measuring cups from the drying rack. I do not waste food. I don’t always eat it myself, but if you stare at Josh long enough, he will make a meal out of the remaining three bites from fifteen lingering Tupperware containers. I don’t even waste receipts. I use them as bookmarks.
So I just want to explain the eighty-five open bottles of dish soap, the thirty-one open bottles of shampoo, and the small army of almost-empty hair gel bottles parading across the front of our bathroom cabinet.
They’re all because I waste nothing.
Because I plan to cut open the top of the hair gel container and scoop out the last precious drop with the tip of my finger before I recycle the container. But the scissors are downstairs and the hair gel container is upstairs. So I place the almost-empty container in the cabinet and open a new bottle because my hand hurts from trying to squeeze something out of the almost-empty container. And the next morning, I grab the new bottle because the scissors are still downstairs and therefore too far away if I want to cut open the old bottle. The cycle continues.
The same thing happens with the dish soap. When we get towards the bottom of a container, I generally flip it upside down so the contents gather in the top and come out easier. But I can’t do that with the dish soap because the soap tends to leak out the top of the container. So when it gets close to the end, I tell myself that I’m going to dedicate an evening to standing in the kitchen, holding the bottle upside down over the sponge so it fills with that soapy goodness. But that doesn’t happen. Opening a new bottle on the other hand, does.
Actually, it does happen — all the old stuff eventually gets used — but it’s not before I’ve amassed a giant collection of mostly used bottles.
I’ll admit it — it is really annoying to live with me.
(But I bake cookies.)
13 comments
This is so relatable! And I thought it was just me!! ?
Me too!!! I am also known for pulling containers others have thrown into recycle that I know for a fact aren’t totally empty. And I will hide new bottles of shampoo and conditioner until the kids have used the bottom of the bottles.
Small cry on this end because I do the same thing. Which drives Grey absolutely batty as the clutter gets to him. So now scissors are stocked in the bathroom and there’s a timeline before near-empty containers are rinsed out for recycling.
But hey, we waste next to nothing.
Me too. Lots of upside down containers over here.
Add water to the shampoo and dish soap. That makes it come out easier and both are being added to water anyway when used. It just means you have to use a little more of it because it is diluted.
My personal hate is the pump top hand cream. It is so convenient and it leaves so much below the pump!
OMG this drives me nuts! My girlfriend does this all. the. time. There is no way to get that last 1/4 of an inch of soap/shampoo/toothpaste/hair product etc out of the container, and we only have so much storage space. I let her gather empties for a few weeks before the trash fairy comes to visit.
Wow you’re intense. I am not at all that way but I have reduced food waste by freezing leftovers in single serving containers. I will take a frozen meal for lunch but anything that sits in the frig icks me out, so it ends up in the garbage.
Hi Mel! I’m loving reading your blog, it’s been so helpful to me. I am actually going through my own TTC journey and writing about it is really helping me a lot. I feel like I don’t want my friends and family to know what I’m going through, so this community could be everything!
I was ready to go toe-to-toe with you,but you got me with the receipt bookmarks.
I felt horrible this afternoon when I couldn’t get the last 3 drops of honey out of the bottle, even when I warmed it up a bit.
Cookies make everything tolerable 🙂
Jill A. beat me to the punch: add water to the soap (slowly so it doesn’t foam). 🙂 I also waste nothing, which means I tend to buy less so it doesn’t go to waste, which I guess is good until your refrigerator is completely empty because it’s grocery night … ! It’s interesting; I hadn’t thought about it this way before but my mother hoards, and I think she thinks it’s because she’s afraid she’ll waste something, but it’s something else really … more like fear of not having that concern about wasting. Still, I wonder if they come from the same root?
I can relate actually, I really hate waste too!
Dear Mel, if I were closer I would come over right this minute and place several different size scissors in each room that needs one. I would even get you a special toothpaste scissor. (Soo much comes out of empty tubes!) While totally understandable, it sounds totally solveable to me.
So glad to Josh loves you so much. And cookies of course 😉
I’m with Lori LL on the receipt bookmarks 😉 but I can relate to a lot of this. Except dh has no patience with upside-down bottles that (to HIM) look empty, or empty enough, and often whisks them away to the recycling chute before I can use up those last dribbles of soap or shampoo. Drives me nuts.