A Tale of Two Cities

Submitted by Tammy of junck

My husband, two dogs, cat and I recently moved out of our 1700 sq. ft. bungalow (in the country) and into a 700 sq. ft., story and a half house (in the city). The new house was built in 1924 and required major renovations.

Waste not - want not was a motto I grew up with. Downsizing means purging. Lots and lots of purging. This was difficult for me at first. Not only does everything have a memory attached to it, I can find a use for just about anything I lay eyes on! To make the job a bit easier, I created a system of sorts (no pun intended!). As I unpacked box after box of “stuff” - I would place the item in one of three boxes - “Keep”, “Auction”, “Donate”. Not only did I set aside items for donation to the local thrift shop, but also for the local animal shelter and women’s shelter (think towels, sheets, toys etc.).

We dealt with the construction material in a similar way. Our renovation was extensive (taking the house right down to the bare bones) and included wiring and plumbing.

We took all the metal scrap to a local metal recycler (did you know that steel is the most recycled product in the world?). When you recycle metal, you get paid based on weight and the current value of the particular metal. Our trips to the metal recycler became a game with my husband and I guessing how much we’d make!

Wood went to a local salvage yard or to neighbours (for firewood).

Before anything went to the landfill we would ask ourselves “could anyone make use of this?”.


While we have very little room for “stuff” anymore, I did save all the porcelain tubes from the old wiring... I’m sure I can think of something to craft with them.