What does making do mean?

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.

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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.

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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.

Old fashioned homemaking ways that worked

With the ‘mad panic’ that seems to be surrounding the ban of supermarkets supplying plastic bags for our groceries (not in our group), I got to thinking how we seem to be reverting back to the old fashioned ways of living, like our parents and grandparents lived. That’s why old fashioned homemaking ways worked and didn’t need changing.

No surprise here. It’s because it worked! When I started living on my own, I continued living this way because I knew it worked. I lived with it all my life so saw my Mum and grandmothers do it. I wasn’t tempted by something new nor did I have to buy ‘that particular thing’ because everyone else was doing it. Why reinvent the wheel?

FOOD WASTE

 

I can remember we wrapped our non fruit and veg scraps in newspaper and they went in an unlined metal garbage bin that the ‘garbo’ would collect once a week. Now, we have 3 wheelie bins!

 

Fruit and vegie scraps went into the compost for Mum’s garden. Lawn clippings went into the compost as well.

 

Produce was bought loose or put into paper bags or ‘sacks’. Our groceries were put in paper sacks and this paper was an invaluable source of paper, for FREE! We always used this for covering our school books. Now, someone decided it was a good idea to cover your children’s books in contact paper! Huh? Why go to that much trouble? I’ve never done that once. In fact, I don’t even cover them now.

MEAL PLANNING

Menu planning? What was that? Our mothers and grandmothers kept a well stock pantry and used what was in season. They made everything from scratch and if they didn’t have an ingredient, the substituted or made something else, not run to the store for that one thing.

People spend way too much time thinking about, planning, writing it down or using an app thinking about what to have for dinner on a particular night. I think about what we’re having the night before or that morning.

It’s so much easier to do it this way. If you keep a well stocked pantry, you can see at a glance what you can make. Since having children, my meals are easy to make an on the table in 20 minutes or less. I’ve got a lot better things to be doing with my time than writing on menu boards what we’re having. What we’re having will be put in front of you at dinner time. That’s how I was raised.

SCHOOL STATIONERY

Don’t get me started on the amount of stationery that our kids need at the start of the school year. I can remember we had one exercise book for composition, a pencil, eraser, sharpener and ruler. That was it. Now the kids have to have about 12 of everything! And, they get exercises to do on printed paper which then have to be glued into the exercise book! So much paper and so much waste!

WASTING PAPER

When I started working, most documents were typed on a typewriter with carbon paper for the copies. Heaven help you if made a mistake and when were a lot of carbon copies. With the introduction of computers it was supposed to be saving paper but paper use is out of control with reams of it being bought by every household and business every single day and then thrown away.

I must admit, I was pleased to see the end of carbon copies. Just really shocked at how much paper is wasted today.

I can remember both my Mum and Nanna saving every envelope (or unwanted piece of correspondence in the mail that the reverse side could be used) and used it for scrap paper to write notes or shopping lists. I don’t think my grandmother ever bought a note pad in her life!

MAKE DO AND MEND

If it broke, we fixed it. If we needed something for our family or our home, we made do. We didn’t always just run to the store to buy what we needed.

I am so surprised to see so many people with hems falling down or hems of jeans scuffed and worn out because they don’t know how to do up a hem or sew on a button. If you have the “tools of the trade”, you can easily make do and mend.

BEAUTY REGIME

I don’t think my mother ever wore foundation or makeup other than lipstick and my Nanna? She never wore anything. In fact, I think she used Sunlight soap to wash her face and that was about it.

Now we have fake nails, fake eyelashes, any number of skin lotions and potions, skin treatments etc etc. My Nanna and mother had beautiful skin, right up until they passed away. I must admit I’m pretty proud of my skin for my age as I haven’t bothered much with skin treatments either. The time and money that we worry about with these things, it’s any wonder we don’t have time to keep our homes tidy.

Why reinvent the wheel? Why do what everyone else is doing that is trendy or you need to buy those things to do it? Do what works or has worked for years.

Main Bedroom Makeover on a budget for $50

It was time to give our main bedroom a bit of a freshen up and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money so this main bedroom makeover was done on a budget of $50.

I’ve been slowly going through our house, making over each room. Not that it needs it but it’s nice to change the look every now again. I will always try and use what I already have or else I find it a challenge to source second hand items. I’d made over my daughter’s room in a ‘peacock’ theme and my 10 year old son’s bedroom in an African Safari theme but wasn’t sure about a ‘theme’ as such for the main bedroom.

I’ve inherited so much vintage linen over the last couple of years with the passing of my Nanna, my mother and my mother-in-law and to me it’s so precious. So much hard work, passion, love and talent has gone into every piece and I just can’t bare to part with any of it. I’m really going to give my vintage linen collection a good cull and if I can’t use it now, I’m going to have to part with it. It’s just taking up too much space in my linen cupboard. Part of my collection were these two hand embroidered linen cushion covers. They are just beautiful.

My husband didn’t really mind what colour scheme I used. I didn’t want to make it too feminine but he thinks what I’ve done is really refreshing.

My Inspiration

I wanted to incorporate the light blue colour from the feathers of the fairy wren, the cream colour of the bedspread I’ve had for years and the latte colour of the ‘new’ second hand curtains I’d recently scored.

It wasn’t like I was getting new furniture. There wasn’t any need. The bed was still fine although we will need a new mattress one day soon. The bedside tables were still functional as was all the other furniture in the room. I had plenty of linen and décor items to make it over but I just need to inject a bit of colour based on the fairy wren embroidered picture and those two hand embroidered cushion covers. I looked for ages for a throw rug for the end of the bed and saw many for anywhere from $29 right up to $100. This light blue (what looks like a single bedspread) was only $3.50 from the thrift store.

I had bought the curtains recently from the thrift store. There were 3 drops of a beautiful cotton type fabric which had a thread embroidered through each one. They were also lined with a separate cotton lining and a concealed cover on the tabs at the top. You wouldn’t believe it but they were $10! Four would’ve been better as this little ‘awkward’ window we have above the bed is just too wide for one curtain.

Making Good Use of the Space

I decided to look online for something in that light blue colour and found a pair of sheer tab top curtains for $12, brand new on ebay. I tried centering the bed right under the window but it didn’t leave us much room beside our closet. It does play with my OCD but I will get over it.

The framed picture on the other side was another thrift store find. It’s a beautiful embroidery of Australian native flowers which I think compliments the flowers embroidered on the cushion covers. I’ve had this for ages so put it to good use.

Putting Vintage Pieces out on Display

Another couple of pieces in my vintage collection were these hand crocheted pillow cases from my Nanna. I’ve always loved them since I spotted them when we were going through my mother’s things. She had obviously received them when Nanna passed away but I don’t recall her ever using them. I was reluctant to as well but I thought ‘why not?’. You can put any coloured pillow case underneath. I thought the latte colour worked well.

The two light blue fluffy cushions were a brand new purchase. Not something I do usually. I did look for absolute ages at the thrift stores and usually I’m pretty lucky finding what I need but not in this case. The post Christmas sale at one of the big fabric stores had these on special for $12 each so I grabbed them. They were the perfect colour and are so, so soft. The ‘Love’ cushion was already in my collection.

The other pieces were already in my collection. The doilies belonged to family members, the lamp shades were thrift store finds ages ago and brand new for about $2 a piece, replacing the shades on the existing lamps. The oil diffuser was a special souvenier from my husband and my weekend away when he proposed to me. (It’s lasted 2 years.) The cream coloured bedspread I’ve had for years and it was a thrift store buy for $10 and it’s light for the summer months, not that we have it over ourselves. All in all, just a bit of a change to the colour scheme and a few accent cushions and colours in prints and curtains.

Total Cost of the Makeover

The breakdown of the makeover is as follows:

• 3 x curtain drops from the thrift store = $10
• 1 x pair sheer light blue tab top curtains (new) = $12
• 2 x fluffy light blue cushions @ $12 each (new) = $24
• 1 x light blue throw from the thrift store @ $3.50
• Total = $49.50

I’m really happy with how it feels every night when we get into bed. A nice calm environment and using the vintage linen pieces that belonged to my Nanna makes me feel a lot better than having them tucked away in the linen cupboard for no one to see. You really can change the look of a room for very little cost using what you already have and buying just a few new or second hand pieces.

 

What does frugal mean

What does frugal mean? It probably means a lot of different things to a lot of people. It also probably means something totally different to say people from our grandparent’s generation. To them, it was just a way of life.

Today, it might mean to a lot of people that you’re doing it tough and it’s the only way you can live. To those of us who do live a frugal life, it’s a whole different thing. It is a way of life but it’s for a totally different reason.

When I was young

When I was a young girl, helping Mum around the house, she would do things like wash the plastic bags and reuse them. She’d put new elastic in our underwear when it overstretched and when they were thread bare, she’d only then buy new ones and use the old ones as dusting rags. Mum would put a stocking over the broom to get cobwebs that were on the ceiling not buy a brush specific for brushing cobwebs. The vegetables scraps went in the compost.

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Our banana peels went in the staghorns for fertiliser. Orange juice was of the freshly squeezed variety and the skins were boiled up for an all purpose cleaner. I could go on and on with Mum’s frugal ways but to her, it was a way of life. Mum and Dad were a one income family with a mortgage and 3 daughters and I don’t remember once feeling like I was missing out on anything. We played club sport, went on camps and sporting carnivals. They bought us all the sporting gear we needed and the shoes to match. We had an annual 2 week holiday every year for as long as I can remember. All those little frugal things she did allowed that to happen.

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My Nanna’s Generation

As for my grandmother, she was even more frugal. The big hardware stores around now would’ve gone broke long ago back in my Nanna’s generation. I don’t think she ever set foot in a hardware store to buy a plant pot. She would use a jam tin or yoghurt container, that is when she actually bought jam or yoghurt. She nearly always made her own from the produce she grew. She sewed all her own clothes. She made hats to match, she only owned 3 pairs of shoes. One pair for going out and to church, one less casual and yard shoes. I don’t think she owned slippers because when she was in her pyjamas, she was in bed. She was up dressed and ready for a day’s work up until she passed away at 93 years of age.

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Not a single thing was wasted. It was reused and recycled. She didn’t buy it if it couldn’t be recycled. She saved the small bits of soap (only Sunlight soap used for bathing and washing) to be used for creating suds to wash the dishes. She saved every envelope and that was her note paper. Nanna used to crochet plastic bread bags and create toys or cover coathangers with them. To her this was a way of life. In my eyes, Nanna and Poppa were probably wealthy dairy farmers. They retired to a beautiful property on the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland after working hard for nearly 40 years on their farm but still, they kept their frugal ways.

Make conscious purchases

Being frugal isn’t just about living a life less wasteful. It’s making conscious purchases. It’s about thinking about every single thing you purchase or are about to purchase and ask yourself “do I need it, is going to last, can it be repurposed for something else”. 

We are so blessed in this generation to have all the modern conveniences but still we want more. We have become so wasteful. If a TV goes “on the blink”, we throw it out and buy a new one. They are designed not to last like they used to. Same with just about every other appliance.

Be self sufficient

No one wants to mend clothes these days. I see so many young men and women walking around with the hems coming down from their pants or skirts. No one knows how to mend. Everyone is so time poor, they don’t feel the need to be prepared enough to make a nutritious hearty meal at home but spend an exorbitant amount of money on takeaway that has nothing nutritious in it but rather is laden with calories our bodies just don’t need.

Everyone wants two cars, a house full of furniture and knick knacks just because a store advertises it. Instead of getting a mortgage on a house you can afford, people are getting the most expensive house with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a double car garage, dishwasher, built ins and the list goes on. No one is living within their means let alone living a more ‘frugal’ life.

Frugality isn’t a poor man’s way of life but rather a way of life that does make you rich. It makes you rich in a more satisfying way. You won’t have the stress of debt because you won’t need all the latest http://www.mazdacx3.org/forum/members/194-Paulsen things. You will be satisfied with the things you need. You’ll soon find your savings will go through the roof, you’ll be on time with paying your bills and you’ll have money for a regular family holiday that will create lifelong memories for you and your family.

My 10 rules for a frugal life

These are my 10 rules for living a frugal life:

1. Before buying anything, ask yourself do you need it.
2. Buy secondhand first. There is absolutely nothing wrong with second hand clothes, shoes, furniture, homewares, cars etc. 
3. Don’t be too proud to take something for free. 
4. Buy food in it’s raw state and not packaged.
5. Don’t throw out any food. Know what’s in your cupboards and fridge and plan your meals. If it’s nearly at it’s use by date, freeze it until you can use it.
6. Don’t feel the need to have everything at once. 
7. Before you throw it away, ask yourself can I reuse this?
8. Get the most wear out of your clothes by mending and upcycling.
9. Don’t get caught up in advertising campaigns from stores. (See Rule # 1.)
10. Instead of feeling satisfied by buying and having stuff, think about having experiences that will last a lifetime and won’t harm the environment.

You don’t need to implement them all straight away. Just changing one thing at a time will help you get to living a more frugal, better way of life.

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Save the planet…yes, really!

I wouldn’t say I’m a “greenie” but commonsense must prevail. I want this planet I live on to be around for future generations and the way consumerism is taking over the world, I’m afraid that Mother Nature will give up one day and there won’t be anymore planet Earth to live on. Our natural habitats are being destroyed at a rate of knots to make way for new houses, new stores. Our rainforests are being cut down to make way for growing crops like soy beans to be fed to chickens so they can end up as chicken nuggets for the big takeaway companies. Does that sound ridiculous to you? It does to me!

In the space of 30 years of my life, I have seen such a drastic change to our way of life. The frugal way of life I was raised in and the generations before me has been taken over by an instant gratification, keeping up with the Joneses’ mentality that just doesn’t make sense to me. Social media has a large part to play for instilling in most of us a ‘fear of missing out’. Just because ‘someone’ posts a new outfit they’re wearing or a new homeware, for example, well we must get it because that person is a ‘someone’,they’ve got it and we’ve just got to have it. 

Forget bargains

It’s not a bargain unless you need it. You don’t need that $8 whatever from KMart just because it’s in the catalogue. KMart will have you back there in a fortnight’s time purchasing the next $8 whatever and your home will be full of KMart whatevers until it becomes out of control and the only place for these things is the tip. That’s when I’ll come along and pick it up for 50 cents from the secondhand store because I want to turn it into a gift for my children’s teacher at the end of the school year.

Instead of thinking about being frugal as something old fashioned, something that our grandmothers did or something stuffy or second-rate, think of it as a way of life that can only lead you to a less stressful, less cluttered, more meaningful life, before it’s too late for your children and your children’s children.

In the news

Speaking of being frugal, I was lucky enough to be mentioned in an Australian news article a couple weekends ago. (Thanks Denyse for letting me know.) I was very surprised and felt very honoured. It seems a lot of the younger generation are finally seeing that the frugal life is not so bad after all. Young, professional woman are taking up the challenge to copy the latest fashion trends by sourcing out vintage or designer brands from thrift stores.

Roadside Find

The challenge that goes with picking up a ‘roadside find’ for free and giving it a lick of paint and a bit of elbow grease could quite possibly become a family heirloom. I found the above 2 outdoor chairs (there were 6 but I only needed 2) on the roadside and covered them with hessian (burlap), pillows and everything else we had. Even though I could’ve afforded to buy them new with new cushions, I didn’t want to. Why would I pass up 2 chairs for free? Not heirlooms but functional pieces that were needed for a new spot in our garden. I didn’t need them straight away but rather waited until I spotted something that would suit. The freebies just popped up at the right time.

Frugal means so much more to me than recycling and making do. It’s definitely a way of life that shouldn’t be lost and everyone should be adapting it, as a matter of urgency.

It's better to stand out from the crowd

I have a small blackboard on the wall beside my back door and I’ve been leaving subtle messages or ‘words of wisdom’ for my children to read and the last one I wrote was “it’s better to stand out from the crowd than to fit in”. It got me thinking about how I’ve applied that to all aspects of my life, for most of my adult life, and not follow trends or buy things just for the sake of buying or having them or that everyone else has them.

I just recently watched a really interesting documentary about Steve Jobs “The Man in the Machine”, the founder of Apple, and it really hit home about how much “standing out from the crowd” can be applied there for me. You see, I’ve never owned an Apple product nor know much about them but I’m so glad I never jumped on that bandwagon. I was impressed with his vision and determination but how he marketed his products to make people think that they couldn’t live without them just made me mad. Also, how cheaply the products are made at the risk of people’s lives just for the sake of making a dollar. At the end of the day, that’s all that company cares about. Their shareholders.

I only have to look at my own children and how obsessed with their iPads they are. (I didn’t buy them. Their father did as a way to communicate with him when they are here with me.) It really is near an addiction. I do put limits on their use and maybe they weren’t swayed by Steve Jobs’ marketing ploys but the people who queue for days only to be the first to get the new iPhone is beyond craziness. 

Fashion

I like to stay up with the latest fashion trends but it doesn’t mean I go out and buy everything new from the fashion outlets. I use what I already have or pick up what I need (and I mean need, if I have enough clothes that will do, I won’t buy anymore clothes). Year after year, season after season, people are convinced that they need the latest fashion styles and spend up big, whether they have the money or not, for what? Just so they can fit in? I’d much rather stand out from the crowd. I love my own individual style. I wear what I feel comfortable in and whether it keeps me cool in summer and warm in winter. Shouldn’t that be enough?

Homewares

Same goes for homewares. With social media being a huge marketing tool for homeware stores, there is this must have mentality from consumers that they just have to go and buy the stuff whether they need it or not. Our home should be our safe place. A safe and secure place where we can eat our food, rest our head and take shelter from the elements. It shouldn’t be filled with cheap Asian imports especially because retailers are telling us we need it. It’s outrageous. In 6 months time there’ll be another lot of stuff just waiting for consumers to buy it and the stuff they already have will end up as land fill.

Environment

I know we need an economy to make the world go around but at this rate, at what price? There is so much harm being done to the environment manufacturing all this stuff. Why not just use what we have? What’s wrong with hand making adornments for your home from fabric scraps or repurposing old furniture with a makeover? How individual would that be? Wouldn’t that be much better than following the crowd? I know that’s what I prefer to do. It does the same job at the end of the day.

Lesson

And as far as the lesson I’m trying to teach my kids, as they approach the teenage years, the message couldn’t be more appropriate. Already we’ve had one incident with my 11 year old daughter wanting to fit in because her friend convinced her to do something she shouldn’t have. I’ve explained that although it may not seem fair now, when she is older it will all make sense and she’ll realise that we were only out to protect her because of the love we have for her. Standing out from the crowd and being an individual will always be a better lesson for my children to learn whether that goes for behaviour, fashion, homewares, the car they drive or anything they do with their life. 

We were born an individual. There is no one else like us in the world so why not stand out from the crowd and don’t be a sheep. Don’t be fooled into following trends. It’s harmful on the environment and your wallet. Save your money for an experience and not stuff.

The Law of Nature

My husband is a mad, keen surfer and has been since he was a young boy. He grew up right on the coast in New South Wales so surfing was one of his greatest past times. We got talking the other night, as we always do and a huge wave popped up in my Facebook feed and I showed him. We started discussing how there’s just about nothing in the world that could stop the force of a huge wave, not even a sea creature. You’d just have to ride it out, pretty much like the surfer is doing in the above photo. It just got me thinking about how powerful nature is and what we, as humans, are doing to it.

source

I’m in no way a ‘greenie’ but I do try to do my bit to avoid buying goods packaged in plastic but I know I could do more. The law of nature is the most powerful thing on this planet. It will dictate the outcome of a nuclear war. It will start to show us what happens when we manufacture too many artificial substances that can’t be broken down and endanger species, and human life. Nature will let us know when we upset the balance in greenhouse gas emissions and when subsequent black holes in the ozone layer emerge. Mother Nature will always have the last word. And when it does, we’ll be all twiddling our thumbs wondering how it ever got to be like this.

I hope I don’t see it in my time nor my children’s time, but one day Mother Nature will decide she’s had enough. What are we doing to the place we live in? Are our lives that empty that we have to fill our homes with inanimate objects or the latest cheap homewares just because they’re cheap? Do we really need that many clothes, shoes, handbags etc made in factories that have no thought for the environment, or human condition for that matter? Do we need to put everything we buy in plastic bags just for convenience without any regard for the damage we’re doing to the planet? 

I can remember when I was growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s this is all we had to collect our rubbish. Mum usually put the vegie scraps in the compost, there was very little packaging to dispose of and cardboard was usually recycled into some container to store something or be used for craft projects. 

Now we’re buying these plastic storage tubs to store stuff we don’t need or because it was a bargain or because our house is just about busting at the seems with too much stuff. My Mum didn’t own any of these as long as she was alive. Everything in her house was used or stored in a cupboard. It was just enough. My grandmother was even better at not bringing unwanted ‘things’ into her house and making do with just about everything. Nothing was ever wasted. I’m sure there were many other people of that generation who were like that but where did it go wrong? Companies trying to make too much profit all with no thought for the land we live in. It’s such a damn shame.

All I’m suggesting here is to take a hard long at things you buy and ask yourself do you really need it? This ‘stuff’ is being manufactured at a rate of knots and the shelves are being emptied by consumers who are so easy influenced by well styled photos and the thought that this is going to make their home look all that nicer when in fact all you’re doing is harming the very planet you live on. 

 

 

The Story of Stuff, the Original

I first saw this video clip 9 years ago and it really hit home. If you’ve got a spare 20 minutes, you need to watch it.

Stop buying bottled water.

Say ‘no’ to plastic bags.

Recycle, reuse, make do with what you already have. 

Think twice before you buy something. Do you really need it?

Let’s take action. We’ve only got one planet Earth. It can only take so much before it decides to say ‘enough’s enough’. Please give a thought to Mother Nature and the planet you live on before it’s too late.