a Frugal Idea

I know many of us on our frugal budgets are trying to stay away from stores and buying stuff. Well, I've been on an organizing kick for the last couple of weeks...the kind of organizing where your mess gets much bigger before it gets smaller which makes me kind of nuts...but anyway, I cleaned out the tupperware cabinet and the pots & pans cabinet. One item that's been sitting and collecting dust since before I got married (so probably for the last 10 years), is the salad spinner. I thought the idea of a salad spinner was ingenious...but I went through phases...at one time I was young and childless with 2 incomes coming in and I'd buy expensive bagged salad because it was easier. Then, during pregnancy, I could only eat cold, crisp iceberg lettuce from a bag. It cost less but it was less nutritious too. Since I've discovered that fresh romaine and red-leaf lettuce taste so much better (when you're not puking from too many pregnancy hormones surging through your body), are so much healthier for you and are much cheaper than lettuce in a bag...well, I've had to reaquaint myself with washing lettuce. I usually cut it, put it in the pasta strainer to drain it, pat it with a few paper towels and voila! It's ready for a salad. Well tonight, said salad spinner was sitting up on the kitchen counter because I decided while cleaning out the cabinets, that I was finally ready to pass this thing on to good home, where it could loved and cherished...and well, spun. So anyway, I began tearing my lettuce and out of the corner of my eye, I spot the Spinner. And I think , Why don't I try it and see if I like it? And then I think, that's just going to open a whole can of worms. I'll end up seeing a value in it and keeping it and still never using it again. Well, I used it. And when I used it, I got excited! I liked seeing all the water (much more than I probably ever patted out of it with a paper towel) spinning out to the bottom of bowl. I liked that lettuce water didn't dilute the vinegar in my salad (I'm kind of hardcore on the vinegar side of things). Anyhow, I'm really liking the salad spinner now and will be using it again -and moving it to a more upfront spot where it can be easily observed and reached. What is my point? Well I felt like I had gained a handy new kitchen gadget without ever leaving the house and going shopping. I had the same end result of a shopping trip but I didn't spend any money...I'm so thrilled with my "un"purchase that I may have to try out the bread machine that's been sitting in my basement, unopened for the last 6 years.
So what do you have in your house that you've brought home and never used? What do you have lying around, that you're thinking you'd like to put out by the curb for someone else to find and take home? Have you ever thought about actually trying out one of those items or re-purposing it to make it work for you in a different way? Have you had a similar experience. Please share in a comment (bloggers love comments!). And happy un-shopping!