What Our Great-Grandparents Learned from the Great Depression

If you’re familiar with history at all, you know that there’s really nothing new. Same crap, different decade, different target.

I’m 30, and my grandparents were born mostly during the 1950s, but their parents? They saw the Spanish Flu, WWI, the Depression, and WWII. Actually, one was alive for the Civil War as well. And they were, by all accounts, dirt poor.

They had to learn to make-do with what they had, and have passed on that mindset to future generations.

Ok I’ll admit, it was maybe slightly easier for them to reuse materials that were better quality in the first place. Namely - most things didn’t come in single-use plastic. 

But the idea can work for us in the (20)20s, same as the (19)30s. And probably into the (20)30s if we’re being honest here.

Why use what we have NOW?

We won’t be getting into the nitty gritty of current events, because I’m sure you already know more than you care to know about what’s happening. But if it’s not clear - I’m referring to the economy - which is a result of certain government actions. Worldwide result, it seems… sorry about that, on behalf of most Americans.

All I will say is - they want us to feel hopeless, and divided. (Whoever you decide “they” entails). They want us to feel powerless, so we don’t try and do anything about it. So we just sit here and take it. 

We need to stand together, and help each other through this mess. Just as our ancestors have done again and again. 

This puts me in a tricky situation, as I do kinda need you to buy things so I can pay my ever-inflating bills, but I completely understand if things are tight. So I’m shifting focus in the coming months to education and other services. More to follow...

With so many boycotts, economic blackouts, etc going around, I see so much resistance and/or helplessness.

We are perhaps a little too attached to our retail overlords.

"What's one day going to do?" "What difference am I going to make to these billionaires?" That's EXACTLY what they want you to believe.

Guess what, it's already working. (See a certain electric car manufacturer's stock prices).

We’re handing our money to faceless corporations every single day for stuff we don’t actually need, a lot of which we will never use. They (corporations) are getting too comfortable with our excess, and taking it for granted. They have to manipulate us to buy more and more - with rewards points, “limited time” deals, “flash” sales…

...and we fall for it.

If we only bought necessities and a few extras, that's one thing. But getting multiple packages a day, spending hours and hours browsing stores in-person and online who have nothing you need, feeling like everything has to be "aesthetic" or matchy-matchy - who is this benefitting? Not you, my friend.

Listen, as a consumer myself, and a small business owner, I get that the people want their shiny things. If you have money leftover for fun stuff, please consider finding a small business from which to impulse shop, instead of Daddy Corporation.

 

I suppose this list could also be called “weird stuff I’ve seen my grandparents do, but actually made sense as an adult who realized being an adult is expensive.”

Let’s start with one we all know and love - saving grocery bags. 

I’m fairly new to the suburban lifestyle, especially new to a uh, blue state... so I always had grocery bags laying around. But we used them.

Most commonly to line the tiny bathroom trash cans, because buying tiny trash bags is a waste of money when you get the grocery bags for free. (Wally bags we called them, because Walmart, even if they did not come from Walmart).

Going to the pool and need a place for a wet swimsuit? Or on vacation and need a laundry bag? Scooping cat litter or dog poo? Kid got a dirty diaper? Need to throw away something really stinky but your big trash bag isn’t full yet? GROCERY BAG. 

I don’t recall having too many of them, like we were never overflowing because we would use them so much. 

One could also argue that reusing them in this way is more eco-friendly - because recycling takes a lot of energy, and there isn’t much plastic in one of those bags. And it’s hard to find a place to recycle them at all, since you can’t put them curbside.

(Seriously every dang time I remember to bring my bag-o-bags back to the grocery store to recycle in their little bin outside, it's nowhere to be found.)

Dare I say it’s better to reuse them if you have them, than it is to just use reusable bags and buy new can liners, dog poo bags, etc. Unless you’re also in a progressive area and have to pay 5 cents each, and they’re so thin that every single one has a hole in it by the time you get home… ugh. 

 

Next up, saving grease.

This might be a Southern/Appalachian thing, I feel it’s less ubiquitous than saving grocery bags anyways. 

I remember my grandmothers would keep a metal container near the stove, and deposit the grease from cooking - mostly bacon.

Then they use it later to make gravy, or put on top of nearly-done biscuits in lieu of an egg wash.

I’ve been vegan my entire adult life, so I don’t have much grease to save, but I do quite enjoy the Beyond Breakfast Sausage patties. They actually come in just a cardboard box, no plastic. They produce just enough oil in the pan to make “sausage” gravy.

Side story but relevant - my grandpa had a school friend, who always had really shiny, slicked-back hair. Very fashionable in the 50s. That is, until it got hot outside, then you’d smell him before you saw him. Can you guess what the “pomade” was? Yep… lard. Not sure if his family couldn’t afford pomade, or he snuck into the lard while mama wasn’t looking. Probably both. I can’t say I recommend this particular money-saving hack, but I also can't say I've never used baby powder as dry shampoo. 

Next up - I have a feeling you might already do this - but save containers.

Same grandpa had a workshop, and would save every screw, nail, nut, bolt, and scrap of wood he found. Aside from a small drawer organizer he probably got for free in exchange for work, everything was kept in butter bowls, pill bottles, Cool Whip containers, cut-off cardboard boxes, and pickle jars. And lots of Metamucil containers… All clearly labeled with the biggest Sharpie I’ve ever seen. 

Now I’m seeing TikToks of the zero waste girlies using those plastic berry containers to organize things in drawers - can’t believe I didn’t see any of those in the shop.

Shoe boxes were kept to store pictures or craft supplies.

On the rare occasion they got new bedding, they’d keep that clear vinyl bag to store old linens.

Need a spray bottle for water or homemade cleaning solution? Clean one out and reuse it.

As with the plastic bags, I never saw the container-saving get out of control either. Don’t save it unless you have something to use it for immediately. But think about it before you shop for organizers. 

Saving glass jars and reusing is pretty great, because recycling glass uses a lot of energy. More things should come in aluminum, which is basically infinitely recyclable.

Let's not forget the cookie tin sewing kit!

This one strikes a nerve for me - make rags.

Imagine my eyes rolling, because this is the main retort I get when people see that I sell NonPaper Towels. “Aren’t those just rags?” “Why not just use rags?”

At least I get a lot of free content ideas from answering these questions repeatedly.

Although NonPaper Towels are the metaphorical bread and butter of my personal income, I think rags do still have a place in the home. I suppose a NonPaper Towel could become a rag in the later stages of its lifespan.

Growing up, everyone called any small-ish towel a “rag” - wash rag for your body, dish rag for your dishes, snot rag for your snot. Then I leave home, and everyone I’m not related to absolutely recoils when I call things a “rag” like it’s derogatory.

I believe most people understand “rags” to have a dirty connotation, like cut-up bits of old holey and stained t-shirts that you use for dirty jobs around the house or garage. Cleaning up paint, grease, pet barf, etc. Not something you’d want to use around your kitchen where you prepare food. NonPaper Towels are a step between paper towels and, well, what existed before the invention of paper towels, which wasn’t that long ago.

And that solves the problem I hear of “oh these NonPaper Towels are too pretty to use, I wouldn’t want to get them dirty!”

So I’m NOT saying to NOT buy NonPaper Towels, which will save you money on paper towels… but I am saying you can also use old worn-out and holey t-shirts, tank tops, heck even underwear, as cleaning cloths. As long as it’s a knit material, it won’t fray when you cut it, so no sewing required.

Please use these items instead of donating - I promise your thrift store receives so many that they literally either throw them away, or make them into rags to sell. I’ve personally been in a facility where they do this, t-shirts come in by the truckload. They have enough.

Speaking of clothing - take care and repair!

If you properly care for clothing, even the cheaply made kind, it will last a lot longer.

Long story short - air dry when you can, even if you have to hang stuff on your shower curtain. Dryers kill. Use a portable fan if they’re not drying very fast - it shouldn’t take more than a day.

Seriously, I air dried all my clothes for the past 5 or 6 years. In that time frame, I didn’t have to buy any socks, underwear, undershirts… until recently.

We adopted a kitten, and he’s all grown up now, but he still won’t leave the drying rack alone. It’s a fun game to climb it and then “oh boy, mom is playing chase with me!” when I try to get him off it. So I resorted to the dryer. For everything except jeans and my beloved flannels.

After a month or two of that, I had to scrap half of my underwear, a few pairs of short socks, and several sleep shirts because they got so stretched out and thin. Thanks, Walter.

As a kid, I always had "good clothes" and "play clothes." 

Though the play clothes were mostly cutoff pants that I outgrew in height faster than width.

Now I have painting clothes, and hair-dying shirts.

Pair of pants that have a hole I don't care to fix, wore to paint my bedroom, bent over and accidentally booty-bumped the wall - those are now my paint pants.

You could have a paint shirt, yard clothes, cleaning onesie, they're your clothes. Call me weird, but I like having a uniform for different tasks.

Speaking of uniform - one thing our grandparents and great-grandparents remember vividly was aprons! I happen to make some out of upcycled materials, if you're interested. Wear an apron or overshirt to protect your clothes from stains and holes.

Start with these "uniforms" and repair them as needed. Who cares if you are just learning to sew and it looks wonky?? You gotta start somewhere.

We're in the golden era of information. Not just about clothing repair, but you can find tutorials on repairing just about any item in existence.

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Side note, this list has been all "little" stuff, but a "big stuff" thing you can do is car maintenance! Don't forget to change oil regularly, keep tires inflated properly, and rinse the salt off if you're in a snowy area. Just those three things can prevent costly repairs.

Think twice? I don't even think once.

Ok I don't know where I heard that, but it has been stuck in my head for a good while.

Think about where your money is going.

Can you save on your water or electric bills?

Can you cancel at least one subscription you don't use?

Do you really need that new thing, or do you already have something you can use instead?

Are you moving anytime soon? For me, that's a huge motivator to not buy stuff, because packing and unpacking is a nightmare I relive every few years. And no, you will never "declutter as you pack" as much as you'd like to think you will. 

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Be kind to yourself and your neighbors, and let's stick it to The Man where it hurts - their pocketbooks!