6 Things North Dakotans Will Never Throw Away

Times are tough and money is a little tight right now, so it's perfectly acceptable to hold onto some things just in case you need them later, or to save a buck.

Here's the thing: even when money isn't tight and all is fine and good in the world, North Dakotans have this silly and somewhat unhealthy habit of holding onto things just a little bit too long.

There are certain items we never feel comfortable throwing away, and it's so normal to us that we don't even really notice that what we're doing is a little weird.

We save things that are clearly trash and find a new purpose for them. This makes our homes look like they are filled with junk, and sometimes it does get out of hand and turns into a full-blown hoarder situation.

I'm not saying this is true for every North Dakotan, but it is for many.

I've put together a list of things North Dakotans never get rid of to help inspire us to do a little cleaning... a little out with the old and in with the new. Even if you're pretty good about getting things out of your house, I bet you will find a couple of these things lurking around your North Dakota home.

Let's take a look.

Brooms

Our mantra in North Dakota is "it doesn't need to look pretty, it needs to work". No, we don't throw away perfectly good brooms, which by our definition is a broom that is under 23 years old.

Butter Tubs

Pens, nails, screws, paperclips, etc. everything gets thrown in the butter tub.

Cookbooks

We don't even cook. Even if we do, we Google recipes or just give it our best guess. We've never even purchased cookbooks in our lives; they've just been passed down over generations. Pretty sure they came from ancient times.

Lawn Chairs

In case of emergency sits. The ones with exposed rusty metal are my favorite because you can never get too many tetanus shots, I say.

Plastic Grocery Bags

The North Dakota sentiment is that you can never have too many plastic bags. We use them as trash bags for our mini bathroom trash cans, lunchboxes, and even as suitcases. - A family member of mine used to make fun of me and call it a "White trash suitcase". I am clearly unfazed by the comment as I still use them for all of the above reasons to this day.

Cords

We don't know what any of these cords go to. We want to get rid of them, but we convince ourselves that our friends and family members might need some of these cords, so we keep them. We'll see if they want any the next time they come around. Psst. That never happens. They sit in a closet and haunt us like the Annabelle Doll.