At the Punkborough there’s a patch of about 12 square meters that has two metal frames sticking up from the ground. It’s something that has been constructed at the shipyard in Helsingør by my great grandfather when he built the house back in the 50s. Those metal frames are to strip plastic rope in between and are used to dry clothes. I would be so sad to see it go because it’s so convenient to have a place to dry your clothes outside and not using an electrical dryer.
My grandmother used to wash her plastic bags when she had used them. She also used many nights fixing holes in socks for my grandfather or for herself. Materials were precious. Nothing from the garden was wasted. Everything was used as produce.
When I think of it, it’s not really that many years since we did things like this. Treasuring what we have, and fixing what needed to be fixed.
Self-sufficiency and honouring materials
Back then, they were more aligned with non-consumption than consumption. Yes, it was a different time to be living and things were more scarce, but there’s a lot of pointers saying that this is one of the ways forward, or backward if you might say. We can all bring these solutions to the table again. Figuring out how we are going to be honoring materials and produce. Recycling as much as possible, from a viewpoint of.. well life.
Sufficiency on a global scale
-The most sustainable fashion is buying used clothes.
-The most sustainable way of buying new furniture is to upcycle it from old, or finding what you need on the 2nd hand portals.
-Swapping seeds and plants with others, instead of purchasing in the store is the most gratifying way of starting a garden.
– Most vegetable scraps can be regrown
-If you have a place for a drying rack outside, it’s an amazing way of saving electricity
There are so many more things you can do – head over to this Pinterest search on self-sufficiency to find more
It’s a beautiful world, rockers! We need to remember the old times in times like these- taking the best solutions with us for the future. Self-sufficiency is one of the best ways of doing this- honoring what we already have around us.
