If You Don’t Smoke, Why Do You Own an Ashtray?

Here’s todays Real Simple tip for “New Uses for Old Vices”

“Fill that (clean!) old ashtray with soy sauce instead. The notches make a handy rest for chopsticks between bits of spicy tuna.”

Hmm. I remember exactly what the ashtray that my non-smoking parents owned looked like. It’s a little creepy right? But it was a beautiful piece of ceramic, round, a light almost turquoise blue with dark blue and brown painted designs on it. And while it would probably make a stunning place to rest your chopsticks, the fact that this ex-smoker, who never ashed in that ashtray, still remembers what the damn thing looks like means that if you’ve managed to quit smoking? Throw those ashtrays away, pronto!

Also, I’m no Classic (SJ), or Fun (SP), or even a Smart (NT) — which means that I don’t often see the details, and I often don’t clean behind the toaster to get to the crumbs — but man oh man, a used ashtray even if it’s been cleaned and sand-blasted within an inch of it’s life? It would still skeeve me out to even consider putting anything edible in it that would touch my food. Ugh gross. Maybe it affects my aesthetic sensibility — I also can’t drink out of a water glass that hasn’t been cleaned properly by the dishwasher — but a used ashtray that has no further use should be recycled, turned into modern art of some kind, or, yes, thrown away.

And if you manage to give up the vice of smoking? It’s the same as with those beer cans, the poker caddy, the candy wrappers, the television remotes or the soda bottles — when you’ve given something up, the last thing you need are visual reminders of the vice. Especially in the first 90 days. And especially if it’s something like an ashtray that no one should be using anymore, anyway.