I have always loved this quote:
What fabulous rules to live by. If you follow this advice you’ll save tons of money and not end up with a house full of stuff you don’t need. Mr Chiots and I try to live by this rule. When we first got married we didn’t have a dining room table for several years, we simply ate on the sofa or floor. We had hand-me down furniture and a really old TV someone gave us. We have replaced most of these items over the course of the 12 years we’ve been married, but we’ve always waited until things have died before replacing them. Using things up can be difficult in our society that emphasizes hip, shiny, new and trendy. We look at magazines and watch TV shows and then notice that our old hand-me down sofa looks dated, old and doesn’t match the curtains. We start to feel inadequate because our stuff looks shabby. I’ll admit, we went through a phase where we bought some shiny new items, but that phase is over. Now when we think we need something we usually try to figure out something we have that will do the job. If we can’t do that we try to find it secondhand or used. We only purchase new as a last resort (except in certain areas, like cordless tools, certain appliances and some business equipment).
We’ve saved a lot of money in our garden by using native rocks gathered from the woods surrounding our property to build our retaining walls, edge our flowerbeds and to use as stepping stones. Since we live on a very sloped lot, we need small retaining walls to help with erosion (don’t want to lose all that hard work amending the soil). We could have easily bought stepping stones and retaining wall stones, but that would have cost us a small fortune. We invested some sweat equity gathering all these rocks (Mr Chiots bearing the brunt of that work). I think these look much better than the ones make of man-made stones. They’re beautiful and FREE!
Using items you already have, instead of purchasing is kind of like a scavenger hunt. It’s fun trying to think of things in a less conventional way to fulfill a need that you have. I have to laugh every time I make tea because we don’t have a proper teapot, even though we’ve avid tea drinkers. Our teapot is a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup that gets used for cooking and as a teapot several times a day.
There are times when making do is a little more work than buying new. When we built and installed our rain barrel system we wanted it to be high so we’d have some water pressure and so we could store things underneath the barrels. We didn’t want to go out and buy wood for the platform, so we tore out half of our deck and used that lumber. We didn’t like the dimensions of our deck anyways and it wasn’t build very well, so we killed two birds with one stone so to speak. Sure it took a lot longer and was a lot more work than a trip to the lumber yard, but we ended up with a studier smaller deck and a free rain barrel platform.
Wear it out – gardeners know about this rule. The garden is usually the final stop for those clothes that are no longer fit to be seen in public. Do I really need to say anything about these? This photo was take a year and half ago and these jeans are still in service, but barely. I’m sure they’ll end up as something else in their second life after they can no longer be worn.
Do you have any great examples of living by this quote?
I’ve only recently come across your blog. Great post! You make very good points. I agree that making do can sometimes entail a little more mental puzzling, but there is a definite payoff. One of the hardest things to overcome is our society’s mentality that we can buy whatever we want, even when we really can’t afford to in so many ways.
My best example of living by this quote would be my straw bale chicken coop. I was able to scrounge most of the materials I needed from previous projects. The block for the footer, a third of my bales, the chicken wire and hardware cloth, the 2″ x 4″ framing for the top plate, and the metal for the roof were all scavenged. My final cost was minimal.
Thanks for your post.
FABULOUS POST. I learned that mantra years ago when i became hooked on the “tightwad gazette” series by amy dacyczyn. As a matter of fact, theyre stacked on my coffee table right now to re-read. One of our biggies is HEAT DOWN to 58 at night 62-64 during the day…66 if we have company. I do not buy, to just buy…i must need it. Since my hubby works for a supermarket, i know whats going on sale, i coupon and stockpile, only things that will definately get used. I cook most things from scratch. We STOPPED the vicious cycle of giving presents for birthdays and holidays, that was a HUGE savings. Also, CRAIGSLIST free listings are amazing..we get as much used/salvaged stuff as we can for projects…i look back and cant believe what a snob we were in the 80′s when it was all about the cars, and the malls…the one thing i need to learn to do is cut down on my showers…its my one vice. Oh yes..i have a teapot just like you LOL!..great post!
btw…i have a pair of jeans that are far worse than yours..and covered with paint to boot…i live in them when puttering around the yard doing chores!
So many I can’t even tell you–scavenged bed headboards, scavenged lumber for projects, rigged up hay mangers . . . it goes on and on.
I am finding, however, that the best applications for this philosophy are for kids’ stuff. Like, why on earth would I buy a table specifically made for changing diapers when I have more furniture in my house already than will comfortably fit and a dresser with a pad or towel on top works just as well?
When we bought our house, the basement had 2 rough rooms made of plywood and 2x4s. The rooms didn’t work for us, so we ripped it out. At the same time we tore down our old shed that was too small and in an inconvenient place. The wood from those projects was used to make a new, larger shed and our chicken tractor. The wheels on our tractor are from an old baby stroller as well. It took us a while, but we used every possible piece from both projects.
We definitely follow this strategy. Our cell phones are ancient nearly 10 year old devices, most of my jeans end up like yours (then get composted) and I visit the free stuff on Craigslist and Freecycle often. The rain barrel system you’ve set up is very cool. I wish I had rock on my property to landscape with!
Ha! I have tea steeping in my pyrex measuring cup as I read this. Hilarious. I _had_ a teapot at one time, received as a gift, but it didn’t work for me. It was a pain to clean and wasn’t a good size for just one cup if thats what I wanted. I re-gifted it to someone who thought it was just perfect.
I must admit, I’m new to the do without philosophy and not by choice. But I’ve learned to enjoy the hunt for what I need. We make a game out of reusing and recycling. How many weeks can we go without needing to sit our trash out for the city to pick up?
I have always been a big believer in purchasing quality and would much rather spend more on a well made item that will last or have meaning than just purchase something to fill a space or because it saved me a buck. I have very little art in my house, but what I do have is originals made by an artist I have met and whose work I love. I much prefer homemade crafts than mass produced “replicas” and I love supporting the artists who put their hearts into their work.
John Deere – Van Brunt 12 foot drill by LAJ2006
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laj2006/2821934104/
Himself still uses this to seed the grain.
All of his “new” composting stuff is built from good stuff being recycled and/or reused.
Even the paint for the multi-tumbler is purchased as left-overs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laj2006/527085117/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laj2006/2684639885/
We live by this as well. Although I make a point not to make my lifestyle choice a depravation for anyone in my family. If something calls for new, then new we get… but we always look at used places first and so mostly, we buy used. You would be amazed (or maybe not
) at what a little purpose and manifestation can do for a trip to Goodwill. Just yesterday I needed dump trucks for Logan’s birthday party, and a rain jacket for him. Found both! For under $13 I got exactly what I needed and didn’t put an ounce of pollutants into the world to do it.
Living mindfully is such a nice way to be.
BTW, your pathway is AMAZING! It looks fantastic. Great job.
Val
Great Post….I’m envious of your rain barrels (and even more envious of the need for so many barrels:)
We built our entire raised bed garden last year with wood from my moms old deck and our chicken coop is a reworked playhouse from a friend. Not sure if it’s being a good steward or just being cheap that compels us….but I guess it doesn’t matter in the end!
Oh yea, I have 385 gallons of rain water when they’re full. We built the system so that we can easily add barrels. We’re hoping to eventually hook the front garage gutter into them and add more barrels.
Recently I made a new door curtain for the front dor and for the cupboard under the stairs (using second hand fabric, sheets given by a friend and purchased fleece blankets). The old curtain from under the stairs was an old cotton bedspread, bought second hand, used as a bedspread, then dyed green and made into that curtain. Then I made the bedspread/curtain into two bathmats, each double layered and sewn with zigzag stitch round the edge and with straight stitch a couple of inches in.
Those jeans would make it back to the garden in the form of a scare crow! My kids love to use up old clothing by making them…
My wheat grinder is a hand-me-down, as is my bread mixer, much of my glassware, silverware, so is my slow cooker, griddle, and bread slicer. I am always willing to take and reuse that which is no longer needed by others.
My van is 18 years old and has almost 270K miles…I’ve been making due with it for a long time!!!
Superb post Susy, Kim
I grew up with that philosophy. My parents were married at the beginning of the great depression and that had an effect on things. We recycled before the term had been invented. I remember helping my dad tear down a chicken house for the lumber and even straightening and using the nails. I’m tearing down a house that was given me for the lumber and roofing to be used to build a small woodworking shop. I’ve got more time than money. One just has to learn to think out of the box. The siding on our house is the reject pallet boards from a pallet factory. At $2.00 a pallet it only cost us about $30.00 to side the house (in addition to the near $90.00 for staples!)
I always love these types of posts as someone always manages to come up with a new use for something that I might have overlooked.
I think my next project is going to be to make a quilt for each of the boys out of my husband’s old comforter/sheet set. Now that he is 33, I think he is a tad old for the cars and trucks, don’t you?
My husband once turned the frame of his old king-sized water bed into a swing set for our toddler. Since then, we’ve not had to be so careful…until now. Nothing like retiring into the teeth of a demi-depression to turn us all back into our grandmothers. Mine lived by this rule and preached it to her ungrateful children every day. Wish I could thank her! I’ll thank you, instead.
Our current couch first arrived at my great aunt and uncles log cabin in the 1960s. It then went to my grandmother for a few years and then my parents had it in their family room. We have now had it for a few years and it has lost its legs and a few springs; we have pillows under the cushions to keep it from eating our guests and the cat has scratched the sides up quite a bit. Some time this year we will probably finally put it to rest. It’s almost to the point that you can’t even sit on it anymore and with parents getting older we need something a bit more friendly for their visits. I’ll have to rmember this though so I don’t get the urge to go too shiny with whatever we get to replace it.
Love the rock work you did – I desperately want to do the same, so will be on the lookout for rocks…well…for a long time…
Thanks Kevin. We gather them in the woods in the spring when the ground is still bare and they’re easy to find.
They are beautiful, but when you have to plant a tree and you find 15 of these big rocks in the hole, they’re a pain. But we make lovely walls out of them so it’s kind of like a treasure hunt.