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1:48

The hottest party in professional sports.

1:50

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1:53

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2:18

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2:20

app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you

2:22

get your podcast. I'm

2:35

Laura Vanderkam. I'm a mother of

2:37

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2:39

And I'm Sarah Hart Unger, a

2:41

mother of three, practicing physician, writer,

2:43

and course creator. We are two

2:45

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2:47

and our families. Welcome to Best

2:49

of Both Worlds. Here we talk

2:51

about how real women manage work,

2:53

family, and time for fun. From

2:55

figuring out childcare to mapping out

2:57

long-term career goals. We want you

2:59

to get the most out of

3:01

life. Welcome

3:06

to Best of Both Worlds. This

3:08

is Laura. This episode is airing

3:10

in late January of 2025. We

3:12

are going to be talking all

3:14

things repurposing in this episode. So

3:16

how we reuse things, ideas, etc.

3:18

in our lives. But we wanted

3:21

to open with a discussion that

3:23

we are blatantly borrowing from the

3:25

Girls Next Door podcast. that they

3:27

recently had an episode they called

3:29

Empties, which was things that they

3:31

had completely used up and thus

3:34

had to replace. So just a

3:36

brief list. Sarah, what has gone

3:38

empty in your household recently? Because

3:40

part of repurposing is also getting

3:42

your money's worth, you know, using

3:45

things up. So what have you

3:47

used up recently? Yeah. So we're

3:49

going to do this in categories

3:51

and our first category is going

3:54

to be food items. So the

3:56

empties that we... by constantly and

3:58

replenish constantly include Dave's killer brain.

4:00

cinnamon raisin bagels. We all eat them.

4:02

My husband is particularly addicted

4:05

to them. He's one almost

4:07

every single morning. Perfect

4:09

bars in various varieties. Amy's cheddar

4:11

burritos. It has to be the

4:13

cheddar because a lot of the

4:15

other ones have cilantro in

4:17

them and therefore are not good. In

4:19

my opinion, pink lady apples.

4:21

That's really the only apple

4:24

I prefer these days. And

4:26

on a similar vein, the

4:28

go-go-squez apple applesaupouches. My kids eat

4:30

them a lot. We buy a lot

4:32

of those too because apple sauce

4:34

is about the only fruit that

4:36

Alex will actually eat. Costco makes

4:38

ones that have more sort of

4:40

veggies in them. So sometimes we

4:42

can get those for him to be

4:45

eating as well. But yeah, we buy

4:47

a lot of those. Have you ever

4:49

had honeycrisp apples? They're very similar

4:51

to Pink Lady. I think they're

4:54

pretty good. Okay. All

4:56

right, we'll have to have like

4:58

an apple taste off sometime with

5:00

like all those wonderfully crisp

5:02

red apples that are that are

5:04

so good. But yeah, we have a

5:07

couple items from Costco that we

5:09

actually get through and have to

5:11

go back to Costco to get

5:13

because they wind up empty.

5:15

One is their Parmesan cheese. So

5:18

they have these tubs of

5:20

Parmesan cheese, but several of my

5:22

kids. like to put these on pasta

5:24

and they use a lot of them.

5:26

So we go through several of those.

5:28

We also get through the giant peanut

5:30

butter containers. Now, this is

5:32

an interesting thing because I thought we

5:34

were incredibly brand loyal to Skippy and

5:36

that is what Costco had. But then

5:38

Costco must have changed their contract because

5:41

now they have Jiffy. So we're like,

5:43

okay, I guess we'll get Jiffy and

5:45

it's fine. Everyone ate it. So, I

5:47

don't know. That's how how it goes. We

5:49

also get these little... balls of

5:52

mozzarella cheese. So there's

5:54

like snack size, mozzarella

5:56

cheese balls. That's another thing

5:58

that several of my kids. will

6:00

eat. And also, Go Go Squeeze

6:02

makes shelf-stable yogurt as well. And

6:04

we go through a ton of

6:06

those because they are obviously easier

6:08

to pack for lunches or snacks

6:10

or anything else because they do

6:12

not need to be refrigerated. And

6:14

the idea of room temperature yogurt

6:16

sounds repulso to me, but I'm

6:19

not the one eating it. So

6:21

there we go. How about cleaning

6:23

products, Sarah? Yeah, so we use

6:25

a lot of, I feel like

6:27

I'm gonna get like canceled, like

6:29

this is not good enough, but

6:31

Windex with vinegar. I'm sure it's

6:33

not, the world's best environmental choice,

6:35

but I love the slight vinegar

6:37

smell, I think it works really

6:39

well. So we do use a

6:41

lot of that. We do have

6:43

the Mrs. Myers soap and dish

6:46

detergent, kind of, and the refills

6:48

on subscribe and save, and then

6:50

admittedly we also use the dishwasher

6:52

pads that make it really, really,

6:54

really easy from cascade from cascade.

6:56

I feel like listing this, I'm

6:58

like, I'm sure we could do

7:00

better from an environmental standpoint. So

7:02

maybe that'll be a future thing

7:04

to work out. But right now,

7:06

those are definitely kind of rebought

7:08

many times in our house. Yeah,

7:10

we use a lot of Mrs.

7:13

Myers' handsoap, though I have one

7:15

child who washed his hands soap

7:17

for said child, because my frugal

7:19

self cannot... stomach the idea of

7:21

using nice hand soap for such

7:23

proficate use. I'm a big fan

7:25

of hand washing, by the way,

7:27

but this is a little bit,

7:29

a lot of it. But the

7:31

rest of us are using Mrs.

7:33

Myers' hand soap. We are also

7:35

using Don spray dish detergent. So

7:37

I would do a shout out

7:40

here. Some people get behind on

7:42

dishes because they feel like each

7:44

time they have to wash dishes

7:46

that has to be this production.

7:48

If that is the case, you

7:50

might want to change your tools.

7:52

So we use spray disc detergent

7:54

and then a scrubbing brush with

7:56

a handle. So you can literally

7:58

just spray one. dish with your

8:00

dish spray and scrub it with

8:02

your scrub brush and it's like a

8:05

10 second process for one dish and

8:07

you put it over there on the side

8:09

to dry and so they'd never build up

8:11

right and I'm not saying like after dinner

8:13

we don't have six or seven dishes

8:15

to do but during the course of

8:17

the day they can get done individually

8:19

so no one's ever supposed to be

8:22

leaving dishes in the sink. I've

8:24

never tried a dish spray but I think I

8:26

would like it. It's one of these things

8:28

you never really know how other people

8:30

are structuring their lives or like their

8:32

cleaning rituals or their showering rituals or

8:35

anything else like this and I've had

8:37

people talk about how they get behind on

8:39

dishes and Then it takes so much time

8:41

to get caught up and I'm struggling to

8:43

understand like why like what's going on?

8:45

I don't even understand, but it's because

8:48

I think they don't think it's possible

8:50

to do one dish at a time. Yeah, I think

8:52

with people that struggle with household

8:54

stuff, it's actually pretty common, because

8:57

there was that book, oh I forget what

8:59

it's called right now, but it focused a lot

9:01

on dishes, so I know it must be a

9:03

common thing. For me, that's like, I kind

9:05

of can't leave a dish there, like I

9:07

can't do it. There's other stuff that piles

9:09

up in my house like crazy. I can't do

9:11

it with dishes, so thus far we've been

9:13

okay, because I'm too crazy. I was just

9:15

saying we also go through a lot of

9:17

draft laundry detergent and people like what you

9:19

don't have any newborns anymore but for whatever

9:21

reason enough people had like sensitive skin and

9:23

then I started breaking out some weird thing

9:25

at one point so I was like well

9:27

I'll just wash my stuff and draft and

9:29

so we wind up going through a fair

9:31

amount of that as well. We do all free

9:33

and clear. Okay well that works that works. All

9:36

right and then one last category Sarah beauty, Sarah

9:38

beauty, what are your empties in the

9:40

beauty category? Yeah, so I have two masqueras

9:42

that I use for different purposes that

9:44

I rebuy again and again. My everyday

9:46

work life masquera is the Lancomb de

9:49

finicils. I'm like obsessed. And then my

9:51

party mascara is the Thrive mascara

9:53

because it like makes your eyelashes pop in

9:55

a way that the Lancomb does not, but

9:57

the Lancomb is just like perfect for work.

10:00

And then I have bought many times

10:02

over the bare minerals complexion rescue. It's

10:04

like a tinted moisturizer with SPF and

10:06

I feel like it really evens out

10:08

skin tone and I feel really virtuous

10:11

that I'm putting on SPF every single

10:13

morning. So love it. And then my

10:15

hair care is almost always mill bon,

10:17

which is the company that makes the

10:19

Japanese straightening products that are used in

10:22

my hair. So I'm pretty brand loyal

10:24

there. Yeah. So I use I use

10:26

ILEA. I think that's how you say

10:28

it. and I wind up rebuying tubes

10:30

of that when I am scraping the

10:33

bottom of the barrel as it were.

10:35

This elements or elements, marine cream, I

10:37

really got into that when they sent

10:39

a sample in the allure beauty box

10:41

and that turns out to be a

10:44

rather expensive addiction so I probably need

10:46

to rethink that but for now. And

10:48

then I'm gonna do a total shout

10:50

out to the Thrive mascara mascara as

10:52

well. I would be having constant empties

10:55

on that but as an advertiser they've

10:57

been fortunate that they've sent me replenishment

10:59

so I haven't had to a you

11:01

know, replace them quite as frequently as

11:04

I would otherwise. So thank you to

11:06

them for that, because I'm using it

11:08

every single day. Apparently, I like to

11:10

have my party eyes every day. So

11:12

there we go. So this episode is

11:15

about repurposing things that we reuse sometimes

11:17

in new ways in order to minimize

11:19

effort or time or cost or clutter

11:21

or environmental impact. So the first category,

11:23

though, we want to quick talk about

11:26

is reusing your own intellectual property. So

11:28

it turns out I've had people tell

11:30

me this in the past and it

11:32

took a while to get my head

11:34

around it was like, you know, you

11:37

create all this content, you can come

11:39

up with ways that you can give

11:41

it a new life. I mean, you

11:43

never want to do the exact same

11:45

thing for multiple places because, you know,

11:48

you've got to be respectful to your

11:50

readers, your listeners, etc. But there's often

11:52

a germative, an idea that you've used

11:54

somewhere that you can then... pivot in

11:56

some way to make it work in

11:59

a different format. Sarah you have done

12:01

this for sure in your creative work

12:03

I think you've figured out ways to

12:05

reuse some of your ideas I haven't I

12:07

don't think I even meant to do it

12:10

like it's not like I set out to

12:12

be like let me repurpose but funny

12:14

story so I'm working on a

12:16

book as we talked about during

12:18

those yearly goals episodes and initially

12:21

like three years ago, pre like 2022 I hired

12:23

someone to help me turn my podcast episodes into

12:25

the draft of a book because somehow I thought

12:27

like oh maybe I'll like ghostwrite a book or

12:29

I don't know I'm like based on my content

12:31

based on the way I teach planning on best

12:33

laid plans and she did a great job but

12:35

then when I read them I'm like oh god

12:37

no I can't like put out a book that

12:39

I didn't write like I need to put I

12:41

write I blog I can write like I want

12:43

my book to be in my voice however this

12:45

stuff is awesome hmm what should I do with

12:47

it let me try starting a course so I added to

12:50

them and tweak them and tweaked them and

12:52

tweaked them but they that they that they

12:54

that they was repur purposely was repurposed And

12:56

then after teaching Best Lady

12:58

Plans Academy, four or five times,

13:00

now I was like, I'm going to turn

13:02

this into a book. So it's been

13:05

like flipped around, repurpose. I feel

13:07

like it's only improved, like these

13:09

are like iterations, but I've learned

13:11

so much in each iteration. So

13:13

it's not like I'm just redoing, but

13:15

at the same time, it's like amazing

13:17

that something was really a set of

13:20

ideas that has just been like refined

13:22

over time and in some ways reused.

13:24

So yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, doing

13:26

that, yeah, well, let's take a quick

13:28

ad break and then I'll, I'll talk

13:30

about my repurposing when

13:32

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Edition podcast. The Daily Show podcast

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your podcasts. Yeah.

16:58

So I mean, this was actually one

17:00

of the the upsides of college application

17:02

season that Jasper and I just went

17:04

through. I really love that there is

17:06

the common app now so that at

17:08

least your basic essay can be reused

17:10

for every place. But then it turns out

17:12

that you can also sort of have general ways

17:14

that you're thinking about like your activities

17:16

or moments you've had in your life.

17:18

And then you can tweak them according

17:21

to the different questions that different places

17:23

ask. So it's specific to the university,

17:25

but like some of it could be

17:27

gotten at it in the same way.

17:29

And so it's a useful mindset for

17:31

people to have some of my

17:33

old before breakfast episodes. I am

17:36

now tweaking to turn into

17:38

Vanderhacks. Right. That's a great way

17:40

that I've been repurposing. If

17:42

anyone ever read Juliet School

17:45

of Possibilities, that novel, it

17:47

actually began its life as

17:49

a national novel writing month challenge novel

17:51

that was in many ways very

17:53

different, like it had a totally

17:55

different plot, but I kept the

17:57

location and I kept several of the main

18:00

characters. So that was a repurposing there.

18:02

And you know, it's really struck me

18:04

as I was doing the Bach project

18:06

last year. So in 2024, I listened

18:09

to all the works of Bach. He

18:11

was repurposing a lot. Like, you know,

18:13

he'd write a cantata for Sunday, and

18:15

then he'd need an alto solo for

18:18

something else, and it might get reused

18:20

again. And then when he did sort

18:22

of his major works, like the Christmas

18:25

oratorio, where the Bach be minor mess,

18:27

he had a lot of work to

18:29

pull from that he could then reuse

18:31

a chorus from something developed a little

18:34

bit differently or do this as a

18:36

baritone solo instead of a soprano solo

18:38

and so it was really cool to

18:41

hear that. If Bach can repurpose then

18:43

there is no shame in it. Yeah

18:45

I mean although he wasn't being recorded

18:47

right like I mean it's harder now

18:50

with stuff like that just because it's

18:52

it's all searchable it's existing longer term

18:54

like when his people performing a cantata

18:56

on Sunday morning did it. It was

18:59

all gone then once they did it

19:01

versus just the written record of it.

19:03

Like that was all that was it.

19:06

And that wasn't even going to be

19:08

distributed broadly because there was very limited

19:10

sort of printing going on. But yeah,

19:12

it's. And be that as it may.

19:15

We repurpose all sorts of other things

19:17

beyond IP. So hand-me-downs, for instance, is

19:19

the ultimate clothing repurposing. Sarah. What does

19:22

your hand-me-down system look like these days?

19:24

We don't have the best system. I

19:26

think we've been able to get away

19:28

with a sub-par system because of the

19:31

spacing and ages of my kids. So,

19:33

really, the only passing on that's realistic

19:35

is for either Annabel or Cameron to

19:37

pass on to Genevieve at this point,

19:40

because Annabel and Cameron are essentially the

19:42

same size. They also have wildly different

19:44

styles like... they're not passing things back

19:47

and forth, but either of them could

19:49

potentially pass some stuff to Genevieve. And

19:51

so I just put it in a

19:53

bin and we periodically look inside the

19:56

bin and because there's a big enough

19:58

gap, like there's almost six years. between

20:00

Genevieve and Annabelle and like four between

20:02

I can like get away with not having

20:04

great system because it's not gonna it's as

20:07

long as I look at that bin like

20:09

every year or two I'm gonna catch stuff

20:11

is my point because it's like a pretty

20:13

long window before it's actually ready for her

20:15

and then the worst case is if I

20:17

miss the boat then I can send it

20:19

to my niece so yeah someone can get

20:21

it someone can use it So we actually,

20:23

we probably have more of

20:25

a handme down system than

20:27

we even really use at

20:29

this point, but we have

20:31

bins for pretty much all

20:33

kids sizes now in a closet

20:36

in our house. And so they're

20:38

labeled like size 5T slash 5

20:40

or size 67, size 810. And

20:42

The goal is to be able

20:44

to pull some of this

20:46

stuff out of there for

20:48

the little boys in particular

20:50

as they are getting to

20:52

those individual sizes. And so

20:54

it's been really fun to

20:56

see some of the clothes

20:58

that Jasper or Sam wore

21:00

on Henry. Now, obviously all of

21:03

it doesn't make it. As one

21:05

might imagine, there are many

21:07

items of clothing that... you

21:09

cannot have four little boys wear and

21:12

expect them to survive. Just the sheer

21:14

passage of time, it also turns

21:16

out that, for instance, little boy

21:18

sweatpants do not last because the

21:21

elastic in the waistband falls apart

21:23

after about, I don't know, three, four

21:25

years. So in fact, we haven't even

21:27

been able to use most of Alex's

21:29

pants for Henry, which was kind of

21:32

sad. But... That is what it is.

21:34

They also cost like $9 to

21:36

buy. I'm not really, you know,

21:38

hoping for heirloom quality little boy

21:40

sweatpants But things like coats and

21:42

boots snow pants Sweats

21:44

sweatshirts dressy sweater. It was

21:46

like a sort of mesh

21:48

orange t-shirt that had sharks

21:50

on it and that like literally

21:52

everyone has worn because it

21:55

just it's indestructible. I don't

21:57

know like most t-shirts won't last

21:59

for 17 But that did. Yeah,

22:01

so repurpose your clothes, repurpose your kids

22:03

clothes, and maybe be more systematic about

22:05

it than me. It sounds like Laura's

22:07

label the sizes system actually sounds extremely

22:09

smart. So especially if you have more

22:11

kids than I have. Go for it.

22:13

Exactly. But even if you are passing

22:15

it back and forth to another family

22:18

who live near you, you know, if

22:20

you like, okay, here's the bin of

22:22

size six clothes, take what you want,

22:24

get rid of the rest or whatever.

22:26

No, you're right. That's probably way more

22:28

appealing, even in a buy-nothing group or

22:30

in your neighborhood, giveaway group to be

22:32

like, who wants all of these clothes

22:34

in this size. Like, that's actually usable.

22:37

Yeah, yeah, exactly. What about food, Sarah?

22:39

Let's get two leftovers, repurposing food. Oh,

22:41

we're better at repurposing those. I gotta

22:43

say, we, our leftover game is pretty

22:45

darn strong. Most weeks we eat it

22:47

one way or the other. So sometimes

22:49

we have planned leftovers for a dinner.

22:51

I know you guys don't do that

22:53

a lot, but we'll be like Wednesday

22:56

and Thursday, we're eating spaghetti and meatballs

22:58

and salad and just make a lot

23:00

of pasta and it works out. Otherwise,

23:02

I love taking leftovers for lunch and

23:04

I think I talked about how I'm

23:06

working on better work, better planned out

23:08

work lunches. So I'm trying to kind

23:10

of like earmark like, okay, if I'm

23:12

cooking on Sunday, And so when you're

23:15

putting it away, putting it directly into

23:17

containers that can be put in your

23:19

lunch bag, I think is key. Or

23:21

with my kids, they love heated leftovers

23:23

in a thermus that you heat that

23:25

morning. It's like, they love that. Yeah,

23:27

so I think making extra, as long

23:29

as you plan to eat it, can

23:31

just be incredibly efficient and a great

23:34

way to use things. I'd say we're

23:36

not as good about like... I don't

23:38

know, just like accumulation of random ingredients

23:40

or things that go into the freezer,

23:42

like I feel like I could systematically

23:44

be better at like repurposing the nuts

23:46

that we have lying around, things like

23:48

that. Yeah, I mean, so we do

23:50

sometimes make a second dinner out of

23:53

stuff, but it's more like we will

23:55

reuse the main protein of something as

23:57

an ingredient in a second meal. So

23:59

if we grilled a bunch of steaks

24:01

on the... weekend. It's just as easy

24:03

to grill a few extras and then

24:05

that can become steak fajitas. Yeah. Some

24:07

night during the week. So we have

24:09

definitely done that. So our house managers

24:12

sometimes cooks on like Wednesdays

24:14

and if we haven't made it

24:16

through all of that stuff like

24:18

sometimes if we have a night, Thursday

24:20

or Friday, where people are in and

24:23

out, the adults will mostly just eat

24:25

that. It tends to be more the

24:27

adults who are eating a lot of

24:29

the leftovers in my house, unless there's

24:31

leftover pasta or leftover mac and

24:33

cheese, and the kids will often have

24:35

that as snacks. But yeah, I eat

24:38

leftovers for lunch most days. So if

24:40

there's anything left over from the night

24:42

before, I will have that as my lunch.

24:44

I will say that if you are working from

24:47

home. The leftover game for lunch can

24:49

actually be a little bit different or

24:51

you don't have to heat it up

24:53

in the microwave And this was a key

24:55

learning for me like life hack here, which

24:57

is that many things taste better When you

24:59

saute them right because you're putting oil in

25:01

the pan And so it's a little bit

25:03

you know, it's warmed all the way through

25:05

and it's got that extra a little bit

25:07

of the the fat that it's cooking in

25:10

so that can make leftovers a lot

25:12

better that it's not just whatever you

25:14

had heated up in the microwave, it's

25:16

that you throw it in a pan

25:18

and saute it, then you can add

25:20

extra things to it, right? Like,

25:22

you know, maybe throw in some frozen

25:24

corn if you had that or extra

25:27

veggies or put some rice on

25:29

it. Adding a new ingredient is

25:31

another way to make repurpose food

25:34

taste even different the next

25:36

day or so. So I like to add

25:38

Chipotle Mayo to a lot of leftovers.

25:40

because that then makes it spicy and

25:42

I dip whatever I had the day before into

25:44

the Mayo and it's like an entirely

25:47

different meal. I also think put an egg

25:49

on it could be a great home lunch hack

25:51

where if everybody ate all the protein which

25:53

sometimes happens in our house like I didn't

25:55

buy enough chicken but I have no pile

25:58

of rice and vegetables I can use them

26:00

by cracking an egg or two on

26:02

there and then all of a sudden

26:04

I've added back in the protein and

26:06

also shout out to the toaster oven

26:09

like frozen slices of pizza put in

26:11

the toaster oven for 375 for about

26:13

20 minutes come out like you got

26:15

them at the pizza shop I love

26:17

it yeah like the best well and

26:19

sort of a fun thing with hosting

26:22

a party I do like to buy

26:24

a little extra obviously don't want to

26:26

run out of food for your guests

26:28

But then I'm often having that for

26:30

lunch for days afterwards and it's like

26:33

a very special lunch that you're having

26:35

cocktail shrimp and party nuts and like

26:37

the fancy veggies with dip and all

26:39

that. So it's like, you know, a

26:41

little bit better than you would have

26:43

probably been eating otherwise. I mean, I'm

26:46

not saying that it's not wonderful to

26:48

have a microwave burrito. But sometimes the

26:50

party leftovers are a little bit more

26:52

exciting. Ooh, that's awesome. Quick break again

26:54

and then get to some household items

26:57

that we are repurposing these days. John

27:05

Stewart is back in the

27:07

host's chair at the Daily

27:09

Show, which means he's also

27:11

back in our ears on

27:13

the Daily Show Ears Edition

27:15

podcast. The Daily Show podcast

27:17

has everything you need to

27:19

stay on top of today's

27:21

news and pop culture. You

27:23

get hilarious satirical takes on

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entertainment, politics, sports and more

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27:29

of correspondence and contributors. The

27:31

podcast also has content you

27:34

can't get anywhere else like

27:36

extended interviews and a roundup

27:38

of the weekly headlines. Well,

27:40

we are back. This episode

27:42

is about all things repurposing.

27:44

We've started off. Apple podcast.

27:46

Well, we are back. This

27:48

episode is about all things

27:50

repurposing. We've started off with

27:52

a discussion of our empties,

27:54

things we have had to

27:56

replace because we have completely

27:58

used them up. talk about

28:00

reusing your own IP, you

28:02

know, having repurposing of clothes,

28:04

repurposing of food. The next

28:06

category, of course, is household. So

28:09

what are some of the household items

28:11

that you wind up repurposing,

28:13

Sarah? Yours are so much better than

28:15

mine. I think you can come up with

28:17

that many. I mean, we, definitely, the idea

28:20

that you're gonna like get rid of your

28:22

Legos once you've built the thing that's in the

28:24

picture, obviously we don't do that. I also will

28:26

say that when you have to buy a million

28:28

poster boards for school, don't forget the back of

28:30

the poster board, especially if they're the kind that

28:33

are white on both sides. There is no reason

28:35

that can't be the next poster, and the rate

28:37

at which our school seems to ask for poster

28:39

boards, this is very important. And then, well, the

28:41

last one you do as well, but gift bags, big time.

28:43

I mean, birthday party, you carefully fold all those up, and

28:45

then we put them in the closet, and then we

28:47

put them in the whole collection of gift bags. And then

28:49

we have a whole collection of gift bags. Yeah, no, definitely

28:52

do not throw out your gift bags.

28:54

It's a little harder to repurpose like

28:56

actual wrapping paper. I know some people

28:58

do this. So if somebody was

29:01

very careful, for instance, opening a

29:03

birthday present or opening a Christmas

29:05

present, then you might be able to fold

29:07

it up and especially reuse it for

29:09

smaller things. I tend not to have

29:11

quite as good a system for that,

29:13

but gift bags, absolutely. I've noticed most

29:15

people do not actually write the child's

29:17

name on the gift bag itself. So that

29:20

means it's fair game for anything.

29:22

So we have at least two

29:24

dozen gift bags in the closet.

29:26

So any time that a kid is

29:28

invited to a birthday party, we can

29:30

reuse one of those gift bags

29:32

with some tissue paper in it.

29:35

Or for our own kids sometimes,

29:37

if it's an oddly shaped item,

29:39

I will use a gift bag

29:41

as well. So big shout out

29:43

to that idea. We've actually reused

29:45

some gift tags. I think I mentioned this

29:47

in one of our holiday episodes, but we

29:50

buy these really nice gift tags. And

29:52

then every year there's going to be a

29:54

gift to Alex for Mommy and Daddy. There'll

29:56

be several. So now I have gift tags.

29:58

Say that so I can read. them. But

30:00

yeah, we have a bin of

30:02

old Halloween costumes. So I know

30:05

a lot of kids like to

30:07

play dress up, especially, you know,

30:09

kids sort of in the four

30:11

to seven year old range. That's

30:13

a big thing for creative play

30:16

at that age. And the more

30:18

stuff you have, the better. And

30:20

if you've been buying Halloween costumes

30:22

for low these many years, you

30:25

probably have all sorts of size,

30:27

four to eight superhero related stuff.

30:29

that they can then be Spider-Man

30:31

and dance around the house as

30:33

Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man. Who else?

30:36

In our house, we had every

30:38

Disney princess. Every Disney princess. Well,

30:40

I only have one girl, so

30:42

we have a limited number of

30:45

the Disney princess. We have some.

30:47

We actually have, we have, oh,

30:49

Elsa, everyone has Elsa, but that's,

30:51

you know, Elsa. We have, Belle.

30:53

Actually, we had we had Anna

30:56

too. That was the year when

30:58

she really did both, I think.

31:00

But yeah, you can use all

31:02

sorts of Halloween costumes for your

31:04

dress-up bin for later, or if

31:07

you know, you have your own

31:09

random things that you aren't entirely

31:11

sure you want to toss if

31:13

you had to have a top

31:16

hat for some random work bonding

31:18

event, like it just goes in

31:20

there and you make the most

31:22

of it. I would say if

31:24

you have a set of formal

31:27

dishware that you don't actually use

31:29

that often, like if it's only

31:31

for parties or something like that,

31:33

try to give it some sort

31:35

of everyday life in other ways.

31:38

So maybe it's that you just

31:40

put it as decor somewhere, but

31:42

it could also, you could use

31:44

a pitcher for flowers that you

31:47

could reuse that. I use some

31:49

of the plates to go under

31:51

plants. And so then it's kind

31:53

of more decorative than just whatever

31:55

random plastic plate I happen to

31:58

throw under a plant. It's like

32:00

Oh, it's a nice China-looking thing

32:02

that I'm using for that. Maybe if

32:04

it was my own heirloom China that

32:07

I was not wanting to have anything

32:09

ever get on it, I wouldn't do

32:11

that. But in my case, this set

32:13

kind of came with the house. So

32:16

I'm trying to repurpose it. You might

32:18

as well use it. Either sell it

32:20

or use it. I don't really think

32:23

there's any reason to do

32:25

just hoard it. It's so funny.

32:27

I think it's a beautiful. Nice,

32:29

you know, when it was originally something,

32:31

right? Yeah, but what's so funny is

32:33

that it's really old and so like

32:35

the coffee cups like for after dinner

32:37

coffee are these tiny little things. Like

32:39

I can't imagine when I like serving

32:41

my guest like a four ounces of

32:44

coffee and be like that's all you get.

32:46

Did humans like used to drink less

32:48

or something? They must have. I

32:50

know Americans drink a lot. Because

32:52

it's after dinner coffee, it must

32:54

have been that you only were

32:56

having a little, like you don't

32:58

want to be up all night

33:00

then versus now as well. But so

33:02

it's almost humorous. Like I

33:05

could not see like serving this to

33:07

somebody with a straight face. It's

33:09

almost like thimble-less. That's

33:11

funny. Last categories, Sarah.

33:14

Templates and lists. So. We know

33:16

that some of our listeners have made an

33:18

art form of this. I mean, I do a

33:20

ton of template reusing at work. I've

33:22

talked about that before. Those expanded phrases, you

33:24

just type a few things, and then you

33:26

have a whole thing to fill out, love

33:28

it, love it, love it. I have a

33:30

few phrases on my using apples, keyboard

33:32

shortcuts that do that as well. But I

33:35

will say when I'm making a list. like

33:37

a packing list or something. I actually, I

33:39

think both of us, I like to start

33:41

fresh because it's almost like the act of

33:43

making a list is the act of like

33:45

thinking through it. However, I'm gonna give a

33:48

shout out to a before breakfast episode

33:50

that I listen to with Amanda, who

33:52

I'm friends with, and you did a

33:54

great job interviewing her and one of her ideas

33:56

was to have a packing list notebook in

33:58

which she would create each. fresh, right? So

34:00

she's not like reusing the whole list,

34:02

but she can flip back and look

34:05

at prior lists for ideas and inspiration.

34:07

And perhaps if she forgot something, she

34:09

would like underline it so she'd see

34:11

it. I kind of think that's like

34:13

the sweet spot there because you're generating

34:15

it fresh, but then you have like

34:17

this reference to check yourself. And perhaps

34:19

if I had done something like that,

34:22

I would have brought bathing suits to

34:24

Montana. And instead I had to go

34:26

to Target and it was annoying. The

34:28

line was super long. Well, totally because

34:30

you know, like I'm skiing. Like the

34:32

first thing you think is not swimsuit.

34:34

Like obviously if you're going to a

34:37

beach resort, you're thinking swimsuit. Although even

34:39

then, like reminding yourself to bring flip

34:41

flops, you know, you don't necessarily think

34:43

of that first thing and then going

34:45

to like city vacations. I don't know

34:47

if you're going to Paris or something.

34:49

You might want to pack an umbrella

34:51

if the forecast remotely seems like it

34:54

might rain over the course a week.

34:56

Now obviously you don't need to drive

34:58

yourself crazy with this. If you're going

35:00

to somewhere that has civilization, you can

35:02

buy an umbrella, right? They use umbrellas

35:04

most way everywhere around the world that

35:06

you would be traveling. And so you

35:09

can in fact purchase one just as

35:11

Sarah did in fact purchase swimsuits at

35:13

the Target in Montana. But given that

35:15

a swimsuit takes zero space in a

35:17

suitcase, that's, you know, the kind of

35:19

thing that it's just as easy to

35:21

throw in. So reusing a packing list,

35:23

even if you are creating a new

35:26

list, having the old ones is helpful.

35:28

I also, I save all my holiday

35:30

gift lists in one notebook. And this

35:32

is helpful partly, you know, I don't

35:34

want to give the same relative a

35:36

pair of shearling gloves two years in

35:38

a row, even though it seems like

35:41

they might like them, which is why

35:43

I gave them to them last year.

35:45

I don't know, maybe they lost them.

35:47

Like maybe it actually would be a

35:49

good gift. But just to try and

35:51

make sure that I don't have that

35:53

same thought of like, Oh, yes, that

35:55

is a brilliant gift for this person

35:58

too many years in a row. I

36:00

love that because there's also a sentimental piece

36:02

of that too. Like I love the idea of flipping back 10 years and

36:04

being like, oh, we got Jasper, this little kid big, and now he's like

36:06

in college. Like, that's cool. Gift notebook. Yeah, I mean, my list does,

36:08

I only started doing this a few years ago, so it

36:10

doesn't go quite that far back. But it is like an

36:12

actively managed list each time that, you know, I'm creating and

36:15

I have to cross many things out, and then I

36:17

have to add things because everyone has the same number

36:19

of the same number of the same number of the

36:21

same number of the same number of wrapped things, wrapped

36:23

things, wrapped things, wrapped things, wrapped things, wrapped things, wrapped

36:25

things, things, things, things, it is helpful to at

36:27

least be able to reference that. I've

36:29

also seen people do something similar with

36:31

like their holiday planning or like holiday

36:33

meals and stuff where they'll kind of

36:35

keep everything in a binder and then

36:38

just like reuse the same recipes and

36:40

like add notes year after year. Okay,

36:42

need more, grimmer, very sauce. And again,

36:44

that way they're not reinventing the wheel.

36:46

If they're holding the same kind of celebration,

36:48

they can just refer. Yeah, I probably

36:51

should do that with Thanksgiving. Where was

36:53

my gravy recipe? I mean it's somewhere,

36:55

it's in the pile and I can

36:57

find it, but it's, yeah, maybe it

36:59

should be corralled a little bit. Digital

37:01

could be good too, like Apple Notes

37:03

would be so easy to make just

37:05

like Thanksgiving folder and then just throw

37:07

everything there. Yeah, yeah, no definitely. So,

37:10

you know, lots of different ways we

37:12

can repurpose things. We would

37:14

love to hear your lists as well.

37:16

Like if you have this an amazing

37:18

template that you use and repurpose all

37:20

the time. So this week's question

37:22

though is related from

37:24

maybe it's sent in by

37:27

whoever is annoyed from me

37:29

that they're getting that box

37:31

of size six items. It

37:33

says what do you do

37:35

if people give you hand-me-down

37:37

such as clothes or toys

37:39

or household items that you really

37:42

don't want? I mean first of

37:44

all I hope I think it is

37:46

when you are passing things down

37:48

you need to ask. It's not a

37:50

I have these things for you. I'll drop

37:52

them off on Thursday. It's like, would

37:55

you like this box of size six

37:57

kids clothes? And then you get to

37:59

say, yes. or no, and I'm the

38:01

kind of person who, if I don't

38:03

need them, like, and often I don't,

38:05

I'll just say, no, thank you. And

38:07

honestly, I don't think anybody has tried

38:10

to give me hand-me-downs for a while,

38:12

just because I already have kids that

38:14

would be hand-me-downs, I guess they could

38:16

give to hand-me-downs, like, I guess they

38:18

could give to hand-me-downs, to like, I

38:21

know some of the things might be

38:23

useful, like. My sister-in-law offered some ski

38:25

clothes and we're like, yes, because ski

38:27

stuff is super expensive and like, they

38:29

live in Florida too, so it's not

38:31

like that stuff is heavily used. And

38:34

then the key question to ask is,

38:36

is it okay? Or if I don't

38:38

need everything, do you want it back

38:40

or should I donate it? And that

38:42

way you are kind of set free.

38:44

You can take one thing from the

38:47

pile and donate the rest or you

38:49

can give it back if that's what

38:51

they say they would prefer. So that

38:53

they would prefer. There are definitely times

38:55

when hand-me-downs are very helpful. And again,

38:57

yeah, things like snow pants and like

39:00

it saves you a ton of money

39:02

that you don't have to purchase it,

39:04

especially if you're only going to use

39:06

it twice a year. Like I mean,

39:08

it's great to get those hand-me-down and

39:10

then give those things a new life.

39:13

I think sometimes people have some guilt

39:15

about like having stuff that they haven't

39:17

used or that maybe they spent more

39:19

on than they wanted to. And so

39:21

it's like very important to them that

39:24

they get it to you, whether you're

39:26

all that excited about it or not.

39:28

So I mean, if you've got somebody

39:30

like this, I think you can wave

39:32

it off and be like, you know,

39:34

like, oh my gosh, that's so generous

39:37

of you, but we just had my

39:39

daughter's birthday and she got so much

39:41

new clothes, we can't even fit it

39:43

all in the closet right now, you

39:45

know, or something like that, you know,

39:47

just to imply like recognizing the generosity,

39:50

but also. waving it off as much

39:52

as possible. If you really think it's

39:54

important to the person, I mean, maybe

39:56

you could pull out one thing from

39:58

it, donate the rest. and then

40:01

like point to that thing

40:03

all the time. Right? So if...

40:05

I'm trying to think what it would

40:07

be, but maybe they passed along some

40:09

ridiculous vase that they were never going

40:11

to use their house. And you find

40:13

it's not terrible. You can put it

40:15

somewhere in your house. Like every time

40:17

you see that person, be like, oh,

40:19

I have the most gorgeous lilies in

40:21

that vase you gave me. I love

40:23

it. Thank you so much. And just

40:25

keep hyping that one thing over and

40:27

over again. Yeah, but then they pegged

40:29

you as like this person likes my

40:32

hammy downs. Hopefully there's not too

40:34

much more stuff coming with that. But then

40:36

yeah, I think, you know, you can quietly

40:38

donate a lot of stuff. But I like

40:40

Sarah's language too. Would you like it back or

40:42

should I donate it? And, you know, maybe, or

40:44

like, would you mind if I passed along

40:46

anything I couldn't use and then, you know, feel

40:48

free to do what you want with it? All right,

40:51

love of the week, Sarah. Well, I talked

40:53

about the weather last week and I have

40:55

to say I'm enjoying wearing I have like

40:57

the old school classic L.L. Bean. Like they

41:00

feel, I don't know if they're actual swayed,

41:02

but they feel swady on the outside and

41:04

they have like sheepskin in the inside and

41:06

it's very rare when I get

41:09

to like use them legitimately. They're

41:11

so comfortable. So shout out till

41:13

there's a really comfy pair of

41:15

classic slippers that last year after

41:17

year. I've been reused, not

41:19

repurposing, but we're using them

41:21

for probably more than a decade now.

41:23

They're awesome. That has been used for

41:25

all my other kids or at least all

41:28

my other boys Getting to see it

41:30

used a fourth time for years We were

41:32

using a snow suit that I think my

41:34

brother's kids had used so it

41:36

was even better like had been

41:38

used for 20 plus years That's

41:40

a really great when something can

41:42

be repurposed that often, but it's

41:44

fun to haul out these little

41:46

kid coats as the kids get big

41:48

enough to use them and this comes

41:51

in handy too because it turns out

41:53

that children lose coats. And so when

41:55

a certain child had left a coat

41:57

at school and it could not be

41:59

found. could not be located in the

42:01

Lost and Found. Who knows where it

42:04

went? Maybe it didn't get left to

42:06

school. Maybe got left somewhere else. I

42:08

don't know. There was another coat of

42:10

that size available from past children using

42:12

coats. So nobody had to be coatless

42:14

until we could figure out another solution.

42:17

Awesome. Well, this has been best of

42:19

both worlds. We have been talking repurposing.

42:21

We will be back next week with

42:23

more on making work and life fit

42:25

together. Thanks

42:28

for listening. You can find

42:30

me, Sarah, at the shoebox.com,

42:32

or at the underscore shoebox

42:34

on Instagram. And you can

42:36

find me, Laura, at Lauravandercam.com.

42:38

This has been the best

42:41

of both worlds' podcast. Please

42:43

join us next time for

42:45

more on making work and

42:47

life work together. John

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