As my tagline says, Domesblissity is “a place to call H.O.M.E.” and the “M” in the acronym stands for making do. But what does “making do” mean?
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, it means:
“to manage to live without things that you would like to have or with things of a worse quality than you would like”.
So how does that apply to us, as homemakers and mothers in our every day lives? In my mother’s and grandmother’s day, that was life. That was just the way it was. You made do with what you had. If you ran out of something, you used what you had until you could replenish your stock, whether that was in a month’s time or when you had the money or, sometimes not at all. Often women got by quite well just using what they already had.
Even if you had the money, you tended to ‘save it for a rainy day’ and just made do with other things that you had. It also meant being kind to the environment. Things were made to last back in those days and if the television broke down, you called the TV repair man. If the sofa fabric wore out, you had it recovered.
Making do with what we’ve got will save you money. You won’t have to spend unnecessarily on products that aren’t in the budget. You’ll save time by not having to run to the shops to buy that particular thing. You’ll reduce clutter by not having unnecessary items taking up valuable space in your home. If you can try to only buy items that have multiple uses, you’ll find you can make do in all areas of your home life.
Cooking
As I don’t meal plan, I plan what we’re having for dinner in 5 minutes so I’m only ever using what I’ve got. I like to use up what needs using first so not to waste food so I never have to worry about running to the supermarket for that one ingredient I need to make a meal.
If I don’t have an ingredient, I’ll use the Cook’s Thesaurus to find an alternative and if I don’t have that I usually omit that ingredient or make something else.
Making do in the kitchen means you stay away from the supermarkets and use what you have. There is always an alternative ingredient or recipe you could try instead.
Baking
The same applies to baking. Don’t be tempted to follow food trends, a pretty new phenomenon since social media has come along. Tim Tam Cheesecakes, Nutella filled doughnuts or protein balls are just some of the latest trends in recipes here in Australia.
As you know, I’ve never been one to jump on the bandwagon and only ever bake using what I have. I’m always inspired by what needs using up. If I have strawberries that aren’t fresh, they’re usually frozen to be used in a smoothie or used in muffins for lunch boxes.
By making sure I have a fully stocked pantry with things like cooking chocolate (for chocolate drizzles or Choc Chunk Cookies), sugar, vanilla, flour, icing sugar, brown sugar etc etc, I can pretty much bake what I want. The old fashioned recipes are often the best and they bring back so many memories of my childhood. My kids are enjoying the same recipes now.
I would no sooner go out and buy a packet of Tim Tams for a particular recipe than fly to the moon. If I did buy a packet of Tim Tams to be eaten like that and there were a few left, I might use them up in a recipe (but like that is going to happen). The only time I would buy speciality biscuits or lollies for a recipe is for a birthday cake, for example.
Cleaning
How many cleaning products do you have? Do you have a cleaner for the kitchen bench tops, one for the shower, one for the vanity, one for the furniture, etc etc? If you have a really good all purpose cleaner that will do everything that’s all you’ll need.
You have all your cleaning tools in a caddy and go from room to room. Same for the cleaning cloths. Why buy cleaning clothes, brooms, tools and brushes for every single application? Use what you have like old towels, t-shirts, sheets, the one broom covered with a cloth and secured with a rubber band to clean hard to reach places. The list is endless.
If you make do with what you have for cleaning instead of being tempted by ads and supermarket products and make some old fashioned cleaning products out of everyday products you find in your pantry, you’ll save a ton of money.
Furniture
Long gone are the days when one lounge suite would last you an entire life time. The only expense you had was to eventually get it recovered because it was manufactured so well to begin with.
Furniture today is made so cheaply, it’s nearly become disposable like with most things in the home. By buying a good quality piece of furniture and keeping it clean, you really should have it for a long time. Alternatively, buying a good quality secondhand piece will achieve the same results.
Instead of changing your furniture every time a new decorating trend comes out, make do with what you have and change up the cushions or other decorator items. Making do with what you have will not only save you money but it will save the environment by not having to dump your used, cheap furniture just because it’s gone out of style or you decide to change the colour.
Appliances
There’s an appliance for just about everything today. Some cost a couple thousand dollars and are meant to save you a lot of time and they probably do but if you don’t have the money to spend on things like Thermomixes or the lastest pressure cookers, look at alternative, easy ways to cook a recipe.
You don’t want your kitchen cupboards full of appliances you’re only going to use once a year. I’ve never owned a mix master in my life. I rather opt to use my Nanna’s wire whisk to make all my recipes. After all, the ingredients only need to be mixed together for all the recipes I like to bake. If I was to be making sponge cakes, pavlovas and other recipes that need a lot of aeration, it might be worth it to buy a mix master but I’d rather the kitchen cupboard space for other things and make things like my basic cake recipe that doesn’t need hardly any mixing at all.
Think wisely about the appliances you keep in your home and whether they have multiple uses. Make do with the ones you’ve got instead of buying special appliances for one off recipes. Try to think of either an alternative recipe or use a different cooking method or utensil.
Clothes & Shoes
I recently updated my entire wardrobe and created a Capsule Wardrobe. I got rid of all those one off purchases that didn’t really match anything and kept to a colour scheme and reduced my wardrobe contents to only 20 items that could create over 250 different outfits.
If you buy good quality clothes and shoes (whether they’re secondhand or not), they will last better than the cheap fashion and shoes that are available now. If you launder it well, it will last a lifetime. If the hem falls down, you sew it up or the same if a button falls off. If there’s a hole in your sweater, you fix it. Jobs like this literally take minutes. If an item of clothing does become so threadbare you can’t where it anymore, check the fabric and decide if it can be used for something, cut off the buttons or anything else that can be salvaged. That’s how our Nanna’s button tins came about. I’ve still got my Nanna’s!
Home Decorating
Maybe it’s because I’m a creative type that I would much rather shop from existing items in my home than buy something new and upcycle it and create something brand new. I am not tempted by the latest must haves advertised in catalogues or on somebody’s Instagram feed but am always thinking “how could I make that myself with what I already have?”
This not only applies to decorator items but useful items like storage, bath mats, etc for example.
Source
My mother and grandmothers were always doing that. In fact, their home decor was very minimal with only a few treasured possessions like trinkets received as gifts that had sentimental value or something like a vase full of fresh flowers from the garden or a vase of crafted flowers made from bits of leftover yarn or paper. That also meant less dusting and more time to spend on creative pursuits.
There are videos and tutorials on just about anything and everything to create lovely home decor items for your home. You will have an individual style and won’t have to worry about changing them over every time a store brings out a new catalogue.
Houses, Cars & Big Ticket Items
I am actually surprised when I hear of people saying they need to buy a new house because they don’t have enough storage or they don’t like the kitchen. Each to their own but does anyone know what it feels like to put up with things for now? Do you want a 4 bedroom home to turn one of the bedrooms into a playroom for the kids or do you have a family of 6 children?
The Cowey family at The Patch: John and Augusta Cowey with children Robert, James and Ester. Robert Orlando Cowey collection, National Museum of Australia.
Source
I just can’t help but think back to colonial times in Australia when homes were a shack for the mother, father and however many kids. My maternal grandmother was one of 12 children and my paternal grandfather was one of 14. They didn’t have 10 bedroom homes. They had regular sized homes and made do fitting in beds into rooms and doubling up kids into beds so everyone had somewhere to sleep.
Have we become so influenced by what we see compared to what we actually need that we stretch our budget so far, both parents have to work and we go into a mountain of debt to afford these things we don’t need?
A car is a vehicle to get you from point A to point B. A house is a roof over your head to keep you safe from the elements. A working refrigerator will keep your food cold whether it has an ice maker and double doors compared to a regular refrigerator you can afford.
It’s got nothing to do with being able to afford it. I can afford to buy the latest fashions, pay $300 (or more) per week on groceries or have a new car every 2 years but do I want to? No. Do I need to? No. I learnt from a young age what it means to make do. It’s less stressful, less harmful on the environment and you can save that money for an experience the whole family will enjoy.
