Some things you just can’t get away from. Everyday when I got home from school, it was the same thing.. Mother met us at the door. “Take off your clothes and hang them up. Take off your shoes and put them under the bed. Get a biscuit out of the oven and do your homework. Then you can go play.”
I hated hanging up my clothes, preferring to pitch them wherever they landed. I got sick of hearing how much work went into washing, starching, and ironing them. After all, she had a wringer washer, clothesline, and iron. What else did she have to do anyway? She was a mother, not a person. I got sick of all that nagging about my shoes. I didn’t always have time to go back and put my shoes away when I tried to slip out to play. Many times I’d kicked them off in the yard. Once a dog chewed one up, a disaster, since getting new shoes involved pinching pennies and careful timing. Daddy got paid on Thursdays. Mother went to the bank and did all her shopping Thursdays. There would be no money till the next payday. A Tuesday shoe emergency messed up the whole plan. Daddy also had to be dealt with. When we messed up, she was responsible. It rained on the just and unjust alike.
Finally, the point of the story. Despite my best efforts, Mother’s teaching, or genetic input took control. The instant I get home, I change and hang up my clothes and put my shoes in the closet. If I had one, I’d certainly have gotten a biscuit. This just isn’t right. You’d think after more than sixty years , I’d get a break.
Worse yet, I have to be frugal. I have to use it up. Wear it out. Make do or do without, just like people were directed during World War II. Paper towels and napkins are wasteful, so I use dish cloths and cloth napkins. Buzzy went into a clawing frenzy and scratched a hole in my nice bamboo sheet a while back. He is not frugal. I couldn’t bear to toss those beautiful sheets and pillow cases, so I am making them into napkins and hankies. Bamboo hankies are $19.99 per six pack. Bamboo napkins cost $19.99 per twelve. So far, I’ve made a dozen napkins and a dozen hankies and some sleeping shorts for Bud. There is enough left over for more several more hankies, napkins , dish towels, dust cloths, and doilies for embroidery. I am sick of the carcass of those sheets , but can’t bear to throw them away when all this costs nothing but some work. I think I need therapy.
Nutsrok 
I’m frugal from growing up watching my mom struggle. I have never liked to shop and always try to save money
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I don’t want much. That helps.
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Same here
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Hold off on the therapy until you find yourself starting a nice, neat file of cardboard in graduated sizes and thicknesses. I speak from experience. 😂
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My Mother in law has closets packed with newspapers. When she ran a school cafeteria she saved industrial size food cans. She also saved ragged old dolls with intention of refurbishing them. They were just ugly with jagged hair and broken eyes.
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Okay, I never got quite that bad. I feel (but don’t look) better… 😂
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This is a result of being raised by parents who went through the depression or it is in y case. I hate to throw food away too. I do a lot of donating but worry that it doesn’t go to someone who will cherish it like I did. I wore uniforms for school so I was glad to take them off when I got home.
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We wore clothes that my mother starched with homemade starch, the powdered kind you mix in boiling water, the hang on the line to dry. Those clothes hung on line to dry. Then Mother sprinkled and ironed them. It was a lot of work. She dipped pants in starch and put pants stretchers in the legs so they dried with creases. Then she ironed them. There was always a stack of starched clothes waiting for the iron. That work load was murderous. Sometimes she could afford to hire her ironing done for a nickel apiece, but not often.
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A good post. Growing up in post war Britain I also know about frugality….and still carry on with many of the ideas that were indoctrinated into me – and I am very glad they were. Habits that have stayed with us as we move through our lives. i.e. I must make my bed when I get up in the morning:)
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I am the same! I have my good clothes and my house clothes. And there are no shoes on in this house! I too use washable cloths and have reused a duvet cover as a throw on an armchair which is 16 years old, grubby but still working just fine!
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If it works, it’s good.
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First thing I had to when I got home from school was change out of my uniform and take my school shoes off. Now at the age of 61 I come home take my good shoes off, change out of my going out in public clothes into house clothes. I still use hankies daily, and have reusable dish clothes. I try not to use paper towels as it is a waste of money.
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Same here
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