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LIVE24SEVEN // Motoring, Sport & Entertainment K AT E JUS T I C E – UP - C YC L ING


A newfound love of ‘up-cycling’


Kate Justice is turning into the epitome of her Grandmother…


Do you ever worry about turning into your parents? Sometimes, I remind myself of my mum so much, it's almost creepy. People often tell me I am just like her... and that my daughter is just like me. (Luckily my mother is completely fabulous, so it is always a compliment.)


But recently... I have noticed that I might actually be starting to turn into my grandmother! My dad's mum, Dilys, was born in Wales in 1917, 100 years ago and so lived through the Second World War. The hardships and rationing imposed on this generation is what I've always blamed for her need for strict routines with regard to food shopping and storage as well as the massive, yet harmless hoarding habit.


My childhood memories of time spent at 'Grandma and Papa's' are sunny, cosy and safe... but something that always comes to the front of my mind when I picture their house is the almost unbelievable collection of empty margarine boxes, carrier bags, and pieces of string. As I said, I think this generation did not have the wasteful, disposable attitude to 'stuff' that seems so prevalent today... and I always thought that's why Dilys never threw anything away.


Until I found myself washing out the empty Lurpak tub and putting last night's left over lasagne into it for storage in the fridge.


I did this (honestly) because I'd indulged in one of the large family sized tubs of butter, which did actually make the empty tub quite useful. However a week or so later, when we finished the next, smaller, butter, I also washed and kept that one. For someone who likes order in the kitchen and a neat fridge with matching glass storage


/ 102


ware, this was a big step away from the norm. Husband put it down to my age; he thinks collecting empty plastic boxes is a thing all women will do eventually and it's not just a generational thing. But surely it's too early for that? I'm not even in my mid forties yet!


Alarmingly, though, I am now having difficulty chucking out / recycling these cleverly crafted little tubs, every week. Somehow the smaller ones now seem more useful and the stylish glass-wear with neatly fitting lids feels cumbersome and oversized. The collecting, the hording, the miles of aisles of piles now seems to me, to be more about a lack of ability to discard something that is useful, whether I need it or not, than having lived through a time when everything had to be cherished and made the very most of.


The issue is that no one else in the house is used to this method and perfectly decent food parcels, disguised as butter, get left in the fridge until they go off. We are also running out of cupboard space.


Husband says I am allowed 20, which let's face it - is 20 more empty, plastic, non matching, branded boxes than I need... but it feels like a good compromise. However, I've just finished a jar of chutney... and instead of being in the glass recycling bin... it's sitting by the sink to be washed. Although I slightly fear this new love of 'up-cycling' might become addictive, I also feel warm and fuzzy in the knowledge that some of Dilys has truly rubbed off on me. When I start saying to my own children, "Oh you'll have a good laugh clearing out all my rubbish when I'm gone", I'll know the metamorphosis is complete.


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