Is It Monday Again? A Practical Use for A Thrifty Find...

Well, it is indeed Monday again. A brand, spankin' new week. We've turned the corner to Christmas; and at this house we've started, just barely-- with those preparations.

Today, I thought I'd show you a practical use for some thrifty finds...

Our find?

Old enamelware lids for vintage pots.

Now, what did I want with a pile of enamelware lids, with no pots to match? Only one dollar bought the bunch.

Why am I such a sucker for a bunch? Eh, it must be the hoarder in me.

Admit it, you've got it, too.

Well, they were nice colors, white with blue trim; some white with red. Both colors I have sprinkled liberally throughout the house. So they would be usable. For something. (All hoarders tell themselves this!)

Actually, there's more to this story. These were an on-going estate sale find...and when I bought these, I asked the nice lady "Where are the pots?" She said to check back, the sale would go on for several weekends.

The family was cleaning out mom's house and some of the stuff they had was amazing, but they were putting it out gradually, as they cleaned.

Since the sale was right off our road, and on the way to all points necessary in my life...I was hoping that the next weekend when I went back, that the pots would have been found and put out for sale. I went back twice more and the pots were never found.

( I really love old enamelware pots and use them all over the place. especially on the farmhouse porch to hold flowers and plants.)

So....

My little pot lids never met their match again.

What to do?

Well.....

Do you all use trash cans in the main living areas of your home?

Well, I do, I figure the more trash receptacles placed around, the more the people that live here will choose to use them. (Most of the time, it's true.)

But sometimes, trash cans are just plain ugliness. I can't see a modern-day plastic trash can sitting in the dining room, can you?

But...

This old crock just works and looks better...

So, around here, I use old crocks wherever I can for trash cans, especially in the main living areas of the old farmhouse and areas where the trash can is impossible to hide.

They just look better and stay put nicer than anything a person can buy these days. I stick little felt rounds to the bottoms of them so the roughness of the pottery won't scratch the wood floors and we're set to go.

And since we have pets, the trash receptacles can be accessible to the little stinkers, and sometimes that can cause trouble and messes.

One day a light bulb came on in my head and I thought, why not use the larger-sized lids to block off my trash containers to the pets?

(Yes, there is a light bulb in my head, and no, it's NOT a CFL! Which reminds me, are you remembering to hoard your favorite kind of light bulbs? I am and am building up a good inventory. This is justifiable hoarding, in my view. Until the light bulb police show up and pat my house down for the contraband, I'm all into the Edison sort of light bulb.)

So, the crocks work, and I kind of like it, and am going to be on the lookout for more "trash can sized" little crocks for other rooms in our home, because this lid idea really looks kind of nice, in a farm-housey sort of way.

(Spell check does NOT like the word farm-housey...but that's another case of "what do they know, anyway...".)

I also had a couple little bitty ones from the pile, that I imagine were paired with small saucepans...and one went to work as a paper-weight in my desk area. It's kind of cute, and lifting a pot lid comes as naturally to me as...well, nearly anything, and now I'm putting a lid on my bills while they wait to get paid. Heh.

Now, I did not post this so that you would go on a frantic search for odd vintage enamelware pot lids...heavens no!

I only posted this so that you could or would begin to look at the odd vintage things laying about (usually I spend a dollar or less on these odd things...it's a fun rule I made for myself) in a new and different way...so many of you, I know, are already so good at that.

I do find that if I have the odd, seemingly useless item laying within reach for a couple days, I can usually find a place to use it. And, if I find myself not touching it for weeks, then it's usually tossed or given away.

I was just kidding about the hoarding (I think!).