A Bit About Sustainable Living

The other day, I googled sustainable living tips. The topic is constantly popping up on my social media. You know the stuff… “live greener”, “reuse, recycle”, “living a sustainable lifestyle”. Since it seemed a worthy idea and trendy, I toyed with the notion of making it a focus for my writing.

Truthfully, it was more like I was daydreaming about doing the whole sustainable thing on the new piece of property. I could see myself blogging about it, organic drink in hand, whilst my free range chickens, uh...hmm...free-ranged around the yard. I’d make goat cheese and raise sheep for wool. It could be a Thing.

After some research, it appears that particular kind of lifestyle is already a Thing. There were TONS of blogs about homesteading and living sustainably. People have A LOT of advice on how to do it. I waded through some of it, and hmmmmm.

Maybe it’s growing up in West Virginia.

Maybe it’s the result of having a practical streak.

Or... maybe...I don’t know...it’s the product of opening my eyes and observing stuff….but what a lot of people are calling sustainable living, some of us just call being poor.

By the way, there ain’t nothing wrong with being poor.

Well, there are things wrong with it, but not what most people think. Living in poverty is hell-ish and stressful. And folks seem determined for you to stay in poverty, ‘cause they’re so afraid of anyone cheating the system, they can’t allow anyone to get even a little bit ahead. The thing is, most of us live a few failed paychecks away from financial disaster. It can happen to anyone. ANYONE. So there should be NO SHAME in being short of money.

(Ok, billionaires aren’t living on the brink, but you get what I mean. The majority of folks aren’t shooting themselves off into space to burn through the excess funds.)

As far as how all of this applies to sustainable living, growing up where I did, I had occasion to see what folks do when they’re pinching pennies. I’ve watched customers pay for gas with jars of pennies. I’ve seen people cut mold off of food. I remember people eating beans and corn bread because they were cheap. I can still remember outhouses because plumbing was a luxury.

All of these trendy internet sites made me realize poor people are experts at sustainability.

For example:

--- A lot of the bloggers suggest growing your own kitchen garden to cut down on your grocery bill. (Potager garden is the sophisticated name for such an area. They like to mention how these gardens used to exist in the old days.) As they point out, with such a garden, you’ll have fresh fruit and vegetables, plus you’ll help reduce pollution because there will be less need to transport produce long distances. (All of which is true, by the way. I’m not disputing those facts.)

But….

Ya’ll, that practice never went away!

Folks in West Virginia have always had “garden patches”. I’ll bet kitchen gardens stuck around in a lot of other places, too. Fresh veggies at the grocery store are so dang expensive! If you want to save a few bucks, you grow your own.

Those same folks also do a lot of canning. Again, to cut the cost of going to the store.

And….Let’s talk about meat for a minute. (Please excuse the upcoming dip into politics.)

The discerning reader (or even a not-so-discerning reader) has probably figured out I have a liberal streak in me that’s a mile wide. It’s true. That being said, I don’t want to take away anybody’s guns.

You know why??

I still know people back home who hunt deer because they can’t afford to buy meat at the store.

While I might (lightly) argue a person could consider a vegan lifestyle (I’m not vegan), if you choose to eat meat, I’m not going to be advocating to take away your means to cheap food. I consider hunting (when done to put food on the table) to be the meat version of a garden patch.

((I’m not going to get into gun regulations here because that’s not what we’re addressing.))

---Ever heard of a rag drawer? Because, another internet tip is to eliminate paper towels and paper napkins.

Rag drawers directly address paper towel use. My husband got me started on having one and since we’ve been married, I’ve met other people who have them. The idea is to save all of your rags in one place and use them rather than a paper towel because paper towels cost money.

Ron takes it a step further. When he needs a paper towel, he rips the smallest piece possible for what he needs. It drives me batty because I’ll go for a paper towel and there will be a quarter size chunk (the size of an actual quarter) missing and something about that makes my brain fritz out. But, the reason Ron does this? You guessed it! His mom had to be careful with money and he picked up the habit from her. ((Ya’ll should see me puzzling over the state of my paper towels when she comes to visit and I have to deal with both of them tearing off teeny little bits.))

We’re gonna dive deeper on saving paper products. It may be too much information for some of you. My apologies!

Back in the outhouse days, do you think households had ultra-soft deluxe quilted 4-ply toilet paper hanging on the wall?

No!! They couldn’t afford it. They used whatever else they could find. Pages from store catalogs, newspapers, rags, leaves….whatever. It was the ultimate version of the “reuse” idea.

Again, those folks did it because they had no choice.

--- Speaking of “reuse”, reusing glass and plastic containers was the tip I read most often.

Take a peek in any fridge belonging to an elderly person. The jelly jars aren’t just for jelly. The butter container isn’t just for butter. And the spaghetti sauce jar is likely to have used cooking grease. Fixed incomes mean you can’t waste money on expensive plastic ware.

--- Catching water from your gutters was another big suggestion. Do a bit of reading and you’ll learn there are poverty-stricken places across the United States (and the world) without access to clean water. When that’s the case, you catch water wherever you can, and you boil it to make it safe for drinking. I grew up around communities where this was the case. Here. In the United States of America.

For people in these areas, it isn’t a choice, it’s daily life.

---Shopping in thrift stores isn’t a recent suggestion, but still pops up.

I realized it was a popular trend among affluent people over ten years ago.

This one speaks for itself. Come on! The “thrift” in the store name implies it’s for folks wanting to save money. Somehow, it became trendy for everyone. And now, the idea is getting rolled up into the sustainable movement. Which, yeah! It IS better to make use of already existing stuff. I’m just pointing out folks on a budget were making use of thrift stores WAAAAAAAAAAY before they became popular.

So.

I realize I come across as being fired up on this topic.

Thinking about it, I’m not angry at the bloggers who make the suggestions. They support good ideas.

I think what bugs me is the “we all have to do our part” framing when unfortunate folks have been doing their part (at least in these ways) all along. No one ever mentions them. I feel like they don’t get the credit they deserve.

In a similar fashion, we’re skipping over expert advice when we only consult those with money on how to save money. Yes, a venture capitalist or financial advisor will have good money tips, but folks who are actively living on a budget do, too.

We can’t assume someone is wasteful or bad with money simply because they don’t have a lot of it. Not everyone who is impoverished squanders away their money, just as not every millionaire worked hard for their money. Also, it’s helpful to remember wealth can build up in families over time, and many minority groups are struggling to catch up.

(Hint: Luck, chance, and history always play a part in circumstances, both good and bad.)

People in tough circumstances figure out how to survive on very little.

My advice to anyone who wants to lessen their impact on the Earth, or wants to live on a budget, or wants to enjoy a simpler life...talk to people from every age and every income bracket. Not just the so-called experts pushed on us by social media. Chances are good your elderly relative who has survived depressions, recessions, and wars can tell you a thing or two about how to use less stuff. And you won’t have to read about goat cheese or see any annoying pop-up ads while chatting with them!

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~~~ Bit of a disclaimer here: I don’t want to come across as a hypocrite. In my head, I hear my son Zach pointing out that I’m not poor. (He is the voice of my conscience when it comes to sociological issues.) I am not currently poor, but have been in the past, and I’d like to think I haven’t forgotten my roots. As it turns out, old habits die hard. While reading the sustainable living blogs, I realized Ron and I practice almost every one of the suggestions. Figuring out why was the inspiration for this piece of writing. ~~~

~~~ Also, yes, I appreciate the irony of saying “don’t just listen to experts pushed by social media” while writing for a blog post on a social media site. In my defense, I’m pushing a narrative that runs somewhat counter to mainstream and I’m trying to point to the experts “over there” who are often forgotten. ~~~