By Alaina Lightfoot
My grandmothers were many things. Wise, kind, the best at giving hugs, and the best at baking cookies, as I’m sure your own grandmothers were. When I look around at things as they are today, I often wonder what my maternal grandmother, who lived her life as a farm wife, would have thought of the fast pace of our current world. I don’t have to wonder what she could have taught me about the ongoing efforts I make to live more sustainably, though. I learned those tips from watching both of my grandmothers throughout my life. In fact, you may have noticed these patterns in your own life if you were fortunate enough to have spent time with older relatives growing up. I’ve compiled five of what I consider my grandmothers’ best sustainable living methods. Practices which came to them as naturally as baking cookies and loving their grandchildren.
Minimize Your Daily Travel
I don’t mean this tip in the sense that we should be more conscious about our vacations (although that is an important thing to consider, that’s a point for another day). I mean that if you think back, you may remember your own grandmother having some kind of “errand day.” Mine lived on a farm 15 miles from the nearest town. When she would go shopping, she’d do it for a few weeks at a time, and she’d compress all her errands into one day so as to not have to drive back and forth multiple times. By doing this, she saved herself countless trips and probably loads in carbon emissions from her drives. Think about what errands you can squeeze into the same day or even the same side of town. Many people do this naturally! Taking it a step further, many people in the 1950s and 60s who were in more urban environments would walk between multiple stores, minimizing their drives as much as they could.
Reuse and Repurpose
I’m not encouraging you to turn your home into the kind where no yogurt container is thrown away, but think of what ordinary things you have on hand that can be reused. Who hasn’t opened a butter tub in the fridge at Grandma’s only to find it contains leftovers? Or pried open a biscuit tin only to discover it full of sewing supplies? Do you need the latest in aesthetic zero waste storage solutions, or would rinsing out that old pasta sauce jar work just fine? Our grandparents were prolific at getting their money’s worth from things and, as a result, often diverted perfectly good items from the landfill while managing to not contribute more to the waste stream by buying a new product they didn’t really need.
Find the Substitute
There’s an old saying from the WWII Era in the United States: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” That last tip, “do without,” while great for the environment—as it means not rushing out to buy the latest of something every time it’s available—can seem daunting. I like to think of it as a challenge. My grandmothers certainly did! Instead of thinking of it as “doing without,” I think of it as finding the substitute. Do I need to run to the store just to buy another can of black beans, or will pinto work okay in this recipe? Do I have to have the latest crop top this season, or can I repurpose a shirt I have on hand? I noticed my grandmother would alter clothes that were going to be passed down for each of her four daughters so that they would feel fresh and new. This helped divert waste from landfill and cut down on consumption of new goods too!
Read related article: One Step Toward Zero Waste
Gardens Are a Girl’s Best Friend
Don’t tell Marilyn Monroe, but in my grandmother’s opinion, a garden, not a diamond, was a girl’s best friend. While it may not be practical for everyone to grow their own food for a litany of reasons, you may have something you can grow for yourself in your home. The shortest supply chain for food, and therefore the one with the least environmental impact, is the food you grow at home. Sure, not everyone has time for a full-fledged garden, but maybe you could grow a tomato plant on your back porch or start an herb garden in your window. Don’t be afraid to start small and try something new. I personally didn’t inherit my grandmother’s green thumb, but it may be worth a shot to see if growing some of your own food at home might work for you. If you’re in an apartment, a dorm, or another small space, try looking into some creative gardening solutions online. You’d be surprised what you can do with limited outdoor space!
No, Plastic is Not Okay
Grandma may not have had a cute reusable tote bag she took with her to the market, but she did opt for paper bags, because the plastic ones weren’t as widely available or popular in her era. If you’re able, opting for paper bags over the thin plastic ones that are extremely difficult to recycle, can be a huge help for the environment. They’re sturdier and can fit more in than plastic bags as well. Try to opt for this green option like Grandma did, whenever you can.
Our grandparents may not have mastered the art of sustainable living, but like many things in our lives, they laid incredibly firm foundations for us to build on and learn from. Take into account their wisdom. Just because something is the way it has always been done doesn’t automatically mean it’s the better way to live. However, when it comes to these tips, it turns out Grandma really did know best.
Alaina Lightfoot is a freelance writer with a passion for making sustainable living simple and accessible. Her work has previously appeared in The Crazy Wisdom Journal’s fall 2020 issue. Alaina also recently published her first book, Namely Art and Love. She is local to Toledo, Ohio, but loves taking frequent trips with her husband and their dog to Ann Arbor to explore.
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