MacKenzie Drake sent me the link to this article on Lifehacker titled Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Making Your Stuff Last Longer. Longer lasting stuff means less money we have to shell out replacing it, so this is definitely a good thing.
I use the piece of denim on my razor blades, as well as a small brush to clean them before drying them off between uses. The mineral oil tip will definitely help with rust on the cheapo blades I use. I already have some—it’s great for conditioning wooden cutting boards as well as moisturizing things.
The hard drive in the freezer trick is a tech trick we use to attempt data recovery on damaged hard drives. I wouldn’t recommend using it for anything other than a data recovery attempt.
I use the freezer to keep batteries fresh longer, but I honestly try to keep battery use to a minimum these days. I used to use a lot of them, and I have a ton of rechargeables hanging around from when I did, but I have eliminated most of the devices that used them from my life, so that is not really an issue with us currently.
My cookstove came with this place, so I have no idea how old it is, but I was told it was less than 10 years old. The refrigerator is about 2 years old I’m guessing—it was a gift in repayment for pet sitting for a friend.
The washer and dryer are both 5 years old and going strong. The washer has been used more than the dryer cause I do try to hang my laundry out on pretty days during warm weather. With rising utility bills I may try to line dry them year-round, even if indoors!
The oldest desktop computer here is four years old – highly upgraded and still going strong. It doesn’t get powered on very much these days because of electric usage, but does get called into service for heavy lifting on occasion, but is mainly kept as a spare because it has been such a reliable machine. I work on computers so I try to keep up with the Windows operating systems and technology, but even with that computers are never discarded until they are totally dead—and then the functional parts are saved!
We don’t have a stereo, television, game machine and the like—so no worries on life span there…
I rarely do cut flowers, wash all my laundry in cold water and am working on reducing dryer usage, as well as working on other things to make them last longer. What do you do?