I’m not cheap. But I don’t shop much. I don’t bargain hunt much either. It’s hard to find things I need besides necessities.
What I love are do-it-yourself lifehacks, Foxfire tips and tricks, how-tos, home remedies, unique solutions, and utility gadgets. If I can make something myself or fix it cheap, I’m in. I’m a bit of a collector.
My garage, for example, is full of experiments in storage. My nails are in fruit jars and I string my spare plumbing PVC elbows and connectors from the ceiling on a wire coat hanger. Sometimes it’s hard to throw out bottles, containers, and gift bags.
A while back I was regretting recycling a couple of Raley’s and Safeway cardboard six-pack wine totes. They’re so architecturally sturdy and functional. I hated sending them off to the knacker. So instead, I turned them into a wall of sturdy storage pouches.
First I split a six-pack carton in half, three pockets on each half. Then I flipped one half around and jammed it into the other half for strength, like spoons, or a fist in palm, making three double-lined sturdy pockets and a flat back. I then heavy-duty stapled the inverted, doubled-up six-pack to a spare piece of wall and put whatever fits into them, carpenter pencils, painter stir-sticks, warrantees, instruction manuals, gardening tools. Make all you want for free.
I keep a half-sack of kitty litter and a Ball jar of collected sawdust from old projects on hand in case of an oil spill. After you triage the mess with litter, detergent and a garden hose, mix sawdust with lacquer thinner, smear it on, tape over a sheet of clear plastic for a day, and brush it all away. Useful once every five years.
My pantry is full of the big bottles of apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, 20-percent vinegar, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl alcohol, baking soda, moth balls, Simple Green, Dr. Bronners, and such. When it comes to cleaning, running off varmints, or killing weeds and stink, I’m old-school Foxfire.
It has saved me money. I once bought a $4,000 leather chair from Adobe for $65 because someone’s Labrador had slept and peed into it for a good decade and it reeked bad enough to scare away a honey badger. I soaked the stuffing in a homemade solution and it came out smelling like lemon drops and sunshine.
I wrap bungee cords around the ends of my cabinets like elastic waist bands to hold upright and tight tall items that are hard to store horizontally, like yardsticks, my crowbar, long board and pipe pieces, folding chairs, folding cots, fishing poles, brooms, rejected wall art, and such.
In the yard to remove our hot tub lid, instead of buying a commercial hoist, I built a slide-off platform out of smooth redwood that butts to the tub. Flip and push. Pull and flip. No lifting necessary. Even Susan can move the lid with ease, and she’s a girl.  That was a money saver.
My backyard stair railings are homemade steampunk — iron pipe and elbows bolted into the concrete. My triple-foil squirrel-proof bird feeder I invented after some online inspiration and plenty of trial and error. It only took a month. Now I must design a bird-proof squirrel feeder.
My compost pile is a long patch of beauty, if you like eggshells and banana peels. It’s 10 years old, 12 feet long, and two feet deep in the corner of my yard. Wild potatoes, carrots, and onions grow out of it all the time. Every six months I chop and stir it. I call it Worm World. Last week I removed four wheelbarrows of rich dark sifted soil for my rose beds and the heap is still mounded.
My two favorite gadgets are in the bathrooms. If Susan doesn’t like them, they get rotated out once in a while. We recently bought a great $10 motion-sensitive night light that illuminates the inside of the toilet bowl in rotating colors. It is super cool and mighty useful. I bought three and gave two as gifts. Who needs to flip on sleep-disrupting bathroom flood lights when all you need is the glowing bowl? Susan is iffy on it. A year ago we bought a bidet attachment for the master bath after hearing friends and relatives rave. What can I say? It’s staying.
I do not have many kitchen gadgets. I’m not a fan of one-function devices. They take up space and are at best cumbersomely convenient. I have good knives and pans, and a metal mesh glove so I don’t nip my fingers. My kitchen is where I practice my favorite cooking tips and tricks.
Sure, recipes are great, easy to read with tasty results. They are also as ubiquitous as the letter R and as easy to follow as a straight line in a dark forest. Recipes are a starting point, cover-band cooking, ingredient basic training. I like cooking tips and techniques, the best ways to prep, cut, cook, and serve, Alton Brown stuff. Recipes are the launching pad, but the kitchen is in the rocket.
I thought of sharing a list of specific favorite tips and tricks. Soon I realized it was unnecessary. Books, magazines and websites are bursting with them. They are as common as recipes.

Steve Gibbs is a retired Benicia High School teacher who has written a column for The Herald since 1985.    

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