I am finally ready to accept it – just because something is f-r-e-e doesn’t mean I have to bring it home.
Seriously, my kitchen drawers are brimming with all sorts of things I didn’t need, but I picked it up and brought home simply because it was f-r-e-e.
I have 3 quarts of olive oil in the kitchen cabinet. But Carrabba’s Restaurant gives away these petite packets of olive oil. Every time I order take-out the server asks me if I’d like the warm bread, olive oil and fresh Italian herbs for dipping.
Do they even have to ask? Of course I do! Not only is it yummy but it is f-r-e-e! Hello, sign me up!!
So I end up with petite packets of olive oil and cute containers and Italian herbs. Which I save because I have my own at home. What exactly am I saving them for? I blame Carrabba’s.
Number One Chinese Restaurant near me gives f-r-e-e hot tea. It is a special blend and it is delicious! They leave extra tea bags by the hot water. Basically it is an invitation to take extra home, right? But I always ask and they always tell me to take some. So I do. I don’t want to be rude.
But I have so many boxes of tea at home there is no way I can drink it all. Plus I really only like this tea with my fried rice and veggie dumplings. But I take it home anyway. Where it sits in the drawer.
Then the other day one bag got wet and started brewing right in the packet inside my kitchen drawer! I blame Number One Chinese Restaurant.
Don’t even get me started on the wet naps from TGI Fridays. These gems are perfect for popping in your purse in the event of a sticky finger emergency. However these packets have been in my kitchen drawer so long they dried out! And no, adding water will not bring them back, I know because I tried.
There are no words for the condiment collection I have amassed. It is truly award winning!
Don’t like spicy mustard or Tabasco and I already have two open bottles of soy sauce! What am I thinking?
Yes I have 4 pounds of sugar in a yellow tub on my pantry shelf. But that didn’t stop me from grabbing a few extra packets from the sugar caddy on the table in the diner – you know, just in case.
Do I have to really talk about the tiny tube of sour cream?
And let’s not discuss the “stoppers” for to-go coffee cups from the fancy coffee house. I guess when you pay $5.00+ for a coffee you want to get your money’s worth. Doesn’t seem to matter that the “stoppers” don’t fit the t0-go cups I buy at the grocery store.
And since I can’t identify whatever is in this bag I guess we can skip the discussion. It reminds me of something from the Ghostbusters Movie.
What do you pick up and bring home just because it is f-r-e-e? Condiment packets? Tea bags? Flyers and brochures? Samples of some kind? Pens? Extra grocery bags?
Sure you may not pay for the item with money – but you pay for bringing excess into your home/office/life in other ways. You lose time looking for what you need but can’t find because of all the extra stuff. Or you waste energy trying to figure out a way to store it all. Then you stress over what to do with all the extra stuff – since we don’t want to be wasteful we want to find it a new home. So we give it away for f-r-e-e.
I’m not sure who can use my petite packets of olive oil, tubes of sour cream and coffee cup stoppers. Maybe I’ll just use them up. Any idea what recipe uses sour cream, spicy mustard, tarter sauce, and Tabasco?
Then I have to find a way to break the habit of picking up and bringing home the f-r-e-e-b-i-e-s!
Are you with me? Can we pledge to skip the f-r-e-e-b-i-e-s this week? Let’s try it and see what happens.
Let’s catch ourselves as we cling tightly to the f-r-e-e item, loosen our grasp and drop it. Put down the tarter sauce. Walk away from the tea bags. Breathe. It will be okay, there is enough sugar and sour cream to go around.