Friday, June 3, 2011

Is your community supportive of your crafting?

One day, I let slip that I was thinking of collecting the plastic tops of OJ bottles and that I actually didn't have anything in mind for them (yet). 

The husband, initially aghast, suppressed a smile and said, "The county has interventions for people like you."


Apparently, some people let their houses get so cluttered with all kinds of nonsense that they call the county folks, who despatch an intervention specialist to help them clean out their homes. Sort of like Clean House, but without the wit. Is this true?


My feeble defence that "some people actually have bins in their garages where they toss all kinds of fun materials that they can later use to make really cool things!" fell flat. Now why take OJ bottle tops so seriously? Unless..... could it be...... he knows about my cardboard stash! And yet said nothing about it! Oh how I love this man!


9 comments:

  1. LOL - I have a growing collection of beer bottle tops - although I DO have several ideas nothing is concrete yet - AND I also have a tonne (no seriously it really would be about a tonne) of fabric, yarn, nick nacks etc and WIP's that need finishing before I go anywhere NEAR the bottle top ideas. Do you think your husband could give me the name of "the county folks" - I really could use some help cleaning out my house!!

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  2. Well clutter does become a legal issue when it's so bad that it becomes a health hazard. Then you have to clean it up or your house will be condemned. I guess maybe some counties have people in social services that will come out to help in situations like that?

    I feel like I'm like that with fabric :/

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  3. LiEr, when you say community do you mean your husband? LOL I don't think my husband cares less because he's more of a hoarder of useless junk than I am. I'm the same as you though. I think I've got more tins and containers than you can poke a stick at, just waiting for that craft I want to do. I keep all of my recycled rubbish in a huge rubbish bin behind the door and it gets emptied once a week. The kids and I are always digging around for cardboard boxes, bottle top lids etc to make something or other.

    I reckon go for it. There's worse things out there that require intervening! LOL

    Anne @ Domesblissity

    PS I need "Clean House" to come to my house for more than crafting supplies! LOL

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  4. LOL! I have a collection of wine corks (I told my husband I'm building a boat for us ;) ) and emptied-and-washed Nespresso capsules. They will find a very cool purpose, after they amass good numbers, of course!

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  5. but LiEr, this is EXACTLY what my friend A is doing with her creative reuse store! She collects all these things (and YES, she has bags of bottle caps of all kinds) and sells them to crafters for cheap. I love it because I don't have to store all this stuff, but yet I know where to go when I want odd little bits. I was in her shop yesterday and she has cardboard tubes in all sizes - castoffs from an office that ships blueprints, I bet. You should start a creative reuse store in your area - seriously. It would be a great channel for all your creative ideas and materials! I'll put you in touch with A if you want (or just send you the link to her store page). She started hers as a nonprofit for a master's project for her socialwork administration degree :)

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  6. @Margo
    Lovely! What a fun idea- I must keep this in mind for when our house truly does overflow. It isn't right now, because some of us (not me) pruned the garage of all the cardboard boxes, whole and flattened. I was just thinking, after reading your comment, that preschool teachers would love to shop at a store like your friend's - ours get parent donations of craft raw materials, but it would be so much fun to give the school a gift card to a store like this and let them stock up!

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  7. Bottle top snakes! My parents have been saving the tops from plastic milk containers until they have enough for all three grandchildren to make a bottletop snake each :-)

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  8. LiEr, creative reuse stores market specifically to teachers! I told my daughter's preschool teachers about it and they have become regulars there. Sometimes G will bring home a craft and I will study it with narrowed eyes and realize, oh yes, I saw those crazy, odd little bits at the creative reuse shop!

    Do I sound evangelistic about it? I think I am - it's such a clever way to get crafting goodies into peoples' hands instead of the landfill.

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  9. @gradissima
    I ran across this right after I read your comment yesterday.

    http://www.curbly.com/craftmel/posts/10308-how-to-diy-wine-cork-bath-mat ... ;)

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