My photo of my rather well-used garlic pot here is a bit unusual as a start to a #FridayAfternoonThought. I have, of course, promised you random topics on a Friday and here's one to illustrate the point.
You're stuck with a (in this case small and domestic) problem. You've tried various different ideas and none of them has proved very satisfactory. It's taken a while because each possible solution needs time to prove itself one way or the other. In this case, two or three years and all have failed after a while.
You hunt round for yet another idea. Recently you've had to abandon a perfectly good use for something else, here a garlic pot, because of a forced diet change. After looking at an empty garlic pot sitting on the shelf for a few weeks, the obvious hits you - use it to solve this small and domestic problem!
And, yes - after a few weeks of testing, kept in the fridge, this is the best solution yet. Adopted.
Repurposing anything is one of my favourite waste reduction hacks - saves the earth's materials, money, space and time. It can be material things, like my garlic pot, a piece of furniture, using the back of an envelope to write a list or a project plan or sketches, a room in your house. Upcycled or not, something not being used is put to good use.
Ideas and concepts can be repurposed too, or even mistakes. The reusable adhesive for Post-it notes was (alledgedly) a 3M mistake in a manufacturing batch. That workshop designed for a particular group didn't happen - can it be repurposed for a different group?
Shiny, new is enticing but often repurposing the tried and tested is as, if not more effective.
And what do I now use my garlic pot to keep? Root Ginger.