Sustainable Home – Page 4 – Gently Sustainable

14JanJanuary 14, 2019

How to Make Do with What You Have

In today's economy, it only makes sense to learn how to make do with what you have! When you don't have the money to spend, learning how to make do is a critical skill set! Learning to "Make Do" is really about harnessing our personal creativity and resourcefulness to meet a need or to solve a problem. I think it would be a good idea at this point to unpack this a little word "need". "Need" is a very subjective term that is used incorrectly most of the time. How many times do you hear that word from others during any given...

By KellyFinancial Resilience, Sustainable HomeGreat Depression0 Comments

10JanJanuary 10, 2019

Re-purposing Ideas for Everything You Own

I'm excited to introduce you to Jo M, one of the owner/operators at "The Cockeyed Homestead" with her post "Is it Dead Yet? No, not Quite!" Jo M and Melody M are two 60ish year old widows with a common goal, to live the most organic and self-sustainable life possible! While Mel is a converted "city gal", creative designer and builder, Jo has been an urban homesteader for 40+ years! Together, they have combined forces and are turning a once abandoned acreage into a homestead! Here's their post "Re-purposing Ideas for Everything You Own"! Is it Dead Yet? No, Not...

By KellySewing, Sustainable Home0 Comments

06JanJanuary 6, 2019

use it up wear it out make it last or do without

Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without: Part 2

How many things in life do you think you've completely worn out? Not sure? Let's take a look with "Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without: Part 2!". Other than the patience of our parents when we were children, I doubt that many Americans use all of their possessions until they had absolutely NO usefulness whatsoever. So, does this make us all bad people? Of course not. But our lack of resourcefulness does explain a lot of things about our lives. It explains why most people struggle to get their finances in order. It explains why our dumps and...

By KellyFinancial Resilience, Skill Building, Sustainable Home0 Comments

04JanJanuary 4, 2019

How to Make a Simple, Reusable Market Bag

Since we're focused on "Using It Up" this week, it's a great time to get more acquainted with how to re-purpose and/or up-cycle clothing! Let's learn "How to Make a Simple, Reusable Market Bag", we can sew this up in about an hour! I can hear some of you mumbling that you don't have a sewing machine and you don't know how to sew. I understand. But can I encourage you to make the leap and find a starter machine to learn on? I see nice machines all the time on Facebook for under $50. From there, just jump on YouTube!...

By KellyFabric Arts, Homemaking, Sewing, Skill Building, Sustainable Home2 Comments

04JanJanuary 4, 2019

How to Create a Sustainable Wardrobe

My desire to create a sustainable wardrobe has definitely been a process. On one hand it seems as though it should be an easy process, yet I found it to take a bit more thought and consideration than I had originally expected. I'm sharing my personal experience with "How to Create a Sustainable Wardrobe"! At first, my goal was to just be a good steward of what I already owned, committing to wear everything until it wore out. There's nothing wrong with that thinking, and to be honest, I've done this for years primarily for monetary reasons. I also don't enjoy shopping...

By KellyFinancial Resilience, Minimalism, Skill Building, Sustainable HomeDress Sustainably, Fast Fashion0 Comments

01JanJanuary 1, 2019

How to Meal Plan for a Month

One of the fastest ways to get your budget under control is to manage your groceries more efficiently. What better way to do that than to learn "How to Meal Plan for a Month"? Planning for a month of meals isn't as hard as it might sound, and since I've been doing it for decades now, I will share my tips and tricks to get it done quickly and without pain! This meal plan is going to be personal to you, in other words, no one else's plan is going to look exactly like yours. That's ok! You're cooking for your...

By KellyFinancial Resilience, Homemaking, Sustainable Home0 Comments

31DecDecember 31, 2018

Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without

Do you remember the mantra from The Great Depression "Use It Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without"? This phrase was responsible to helping people to get through one of the most difficult periods in American history. But did you know that this mantra is still just as powerful and effective today? Can I ask you a question? Can you imagine what your life would be like if you weren't able to separate yourself from anything until you had completely "Used It Up"? But first, let's define "Use it Up"... To Exhaust of Usefulness or Use Synonyms include: Absorb, consume, burn, deplete,...

By KellyFinancial Resilience, Homemaking, Sustainable Home10 Comments

31DecDecember 31, 2018

How Should You Buy Bees? Nucleus Colony VS. Packaged Bees

It's that time of year again! Many beekeepers, new and experienced, will start to look ways to purchase their bees this year. But should you purchase a nuc or packaged bees? I'll try to answer that question in "How Should You Buy Bees? Nucleus Colony VS. Packaged Bees". You can find bees for sale all over Craigslist, Facebook and the like, if you're having trouble finding bees for sale, look under beekeeping clubs on Facebook, there should be listings there. However, the question will quickly become whether you should purchase your bees in a package or in a nucleus colony. Let's look at...

By KellyBeekeeping, Growing Food, Skill Building, Sustainable Home, The GardenBeekeeping, Nucs vs packaged bees8 Comments

28NovNovember 28, 2018

How to Make a Christmas Wreath from Scratch

What smells more like Christmas than fresh greenery? It makes your entire home smell wonderful! So why not learn "How to Make a Christmas Wreath from Scratch" this Christmas? This is a no-cost, no-waste, sustainable project, which makes it all the better in my book. You can throw it in the compost pile after the holidays! You will need: Fresh cut greenery Floral wire or some other flexible cord that can be wrapped tight A round frame of some kind (a wire hanger will work or some twigs bound together) Wire cutters Ribbon if desired Finding fresh greenery doesn't have to...

By KellyHolidays, Sustainable Homehow to make fresh wreath0 Comments