One of the ways I ended up with too much clutter is that when I replaced something, I usually kept the old one “just in case.” My parents grew up during the Great Depression, so were raised with a frugal mindset that they passed on to me. Having raised a large family on one income, it often served me well (until we had to move and deal with all that clutter. See my new book for the gory details!)

Now that I live in a small house, and there are only three of us here, it’s really not a useful concept anymore. If something needs to be replaced, I’m best off doing so and then donating or pitching the original item. There is little spare room for “just in case” items.

So I was left in a quandary recently when my husband complained that one of our two little bathroom rugs had lost its grip and kept skidding when he stepped on it. The top of the rug still looked just fine, but yes, that skidding became annoying very quickly, and was also a disaster waiting to happen. We don’t need any broken legs around here.

I shopped online and found a lovely set of matching rugs from a vendor known for high quality. They really didn’t look much better than what we have, but of course they wouldn’t skid. The pair cost $60 plus shipping.

I thought about what I would do with the old rugs. They looked just fine, and one of them was. But I’d have to pitch them both. I wasn’t going to donate bathroom rugs.

The thought of pitching something that looked good (not to mention spending over $60) kept me from immediately acting on the situation. Then something occurred to me.

When I sew, I keep small squares of ribbed plastic shelf liner under the pedals of my machines so they don’t slide when I’m sewing. I vaguely remember throwing out the rest of the shelf liner after cutting pieces for each pedal. But I also remembered where I found it in the first place: the Dollar Tree.

So I ran out and picked up another roll for a whole dollar. I cut out a rectangle just a bit smaller than the width of our bathroom rug and placed it under the rug. It’s been a few weeks now and guess what? No slippage. So I saved a lot of money and don’t have to decide where to pitch those good-looking bathroom rugs.

My parents would approve.