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It was nine o’clock at night when I realized that I hadn’t bought enough stuffing material for a homemade cat scratching post my husband and I were making. I’d really wanted to finish it that night, because we’re due to get the new sectional that I’d finally managed to buy shortly. I was hoping to coax one of our cats into using the new scratching post instead of the new couch. (She refuses to use the 3 store-bought scratchers we have.)

So I began frantically searching the internet for store hours, but the fabric stores were closed. Ugh, I thought, who else sells fabric that would be open late? The only place I could think of was Walmart, but I don’t shop at Walmart because I don’t like the things I’ve read about them. So I had this little debate with myself. Should I give up my principles and go to Walmart anyway? After all, I’d probably only be spending about $2. Or should I wait another day and have the scratcher done that much later? Debate debate debate.

Then it hit me. I could use an old towel as the bottom layer for the scratcher, and then add the stuffing material I’d already bought on top of that. No moral dilemma, no extra money spent, no late night trip out to the store, no delay in completing the scratching post, and something I’d been thinking of making into a rag anyway would get more use.

Making do with something we already had on hand was actually a better option all around. All I needed was a little incentive to move beyond the usual thought process of “oh I need something, I better run out and buy it”. I’m going to work on incorporating creative thinking more often.