Radical Simple Living

Changes at Home

Assuming that your house is de-cluttered and that you have left those things that you really need you are probably at the ‘replacement only’ phase – that time when you don’t need to buy anything for the first time you only need to replace things when they are past repair. This, of course, will not be the case if you are expecting a first baby or you, or one of your family has developed a medical condition that needs specialist equipment, but for most of us we do have all that we need in terms of material goods. A simple lifestyle should not be about replacing things just because they are out of fashion, or because we would like a change them; things should need replacing only if they are no longer fit for purpose. All simple households, certainly mine, has ‘heritage items – those things that are regularly used and have active life still in them, but would not be your choice if you were buying them today. For these items consider simplifying them, furniture can have the paint stripped off back to the natural wood, or furniture can be given a fresh look by painting it. Chairs and sofas can be transformed with a throw or simple cushion covers. Very ornate furniture can be transformed into something more functional; we have a large pre-war German sideboard which makes a wonderful cupboard for produce storing!

When replacing any item, durability is important. I once several years ago stood waiting outside a huge DIY store; I watched large numbers of people coming out with trollies bursting with goods happily loading them into their cars. Turning around I could just see the entrance to the towns ‘dump’ which had similar people queuing up to discard unwanted goods. It stuck me then that some purchases from the DIY store probably only had five- or six-year active life before they would be taken to the dump and disposed of to landfill – this is why our planet is in trouble!

Replace items, when needed, with things that will last, things that can be recycled, things that can be handed on, things that will not be victims of fashion trends. This kind of replacement may cost you more money, but over a lifetime, it will save you more money, time, and inconvenience.

Wood

Where possible buy things of wood. For the price of some item made of MDF or plastic or plywood or some other substitute you can buy something made of real wood, it may be second hand, but it is still a better buy. Wooden items last longer, are more easily repaired, and decorated, they generally look better and are less environmentally damaging to manufacture. Eventually at the end of a long and useful life wood can be burnt for energy – no wood need ever go to landfill. Choose wood for flooring and kitchen worktops and cupboards when yours need to be replaced and choose wood that was grown close to you, native hardwoods and not tropical woods that have been harvested from rain forests at considerable environmental cost! You should never need to buy wood that comes from another continent unless you live in the Antarctic! Wear and tear on wooden floors and worktops can be made good by sanding down every decade or so, a laminate floor is useless when wear and tear have taken their toll. You can buy reused timber for flooring and furniture, and it looks aged, faded and wonderful. If you have any carpentry skills yourself, then use them to make and repair your own furniture where you can.

The Shakers developed furniture making skills and the products of their labours has outlived the Shakers themselves. The furniture always manages to capture a simple form, but with inbuilt practicality and durability. Few of us can aspire to own real Shaker furniture, and few of us have the carpentry skills to make anything quite so simple or so beautiful, but we can follow the Shakers in their aim to have houses with useful, long lasting, well designed and well-made items of furniture.

Paint

To keep your house looking clean and simple paint it, forget complicated ideas of wallpaper or other textured surfaces, paint is the simple solution. Use only three or four colours throughout of paint throughout and you can save money by buying larger pots and always have some spare to ‘touch up’ where necessary. If you live in an old property with uneven and irregular walls, then don’t worry too much about that, if the surface isn’t perfect, it will look all the better for painting. Light paint shades help to make rooms look bigger, look brighter and contrast with dark furniture well. Avoid fashion colours that will make your home look dated very quickly and distract from the atmosphere of simple quiet space that you want to create. Always try to buy paint, which is minimal or low in volatile organic compounds, it is far more pleasant to use and will cause less harm to the environment.

Fabrics

A simply home should be easy to clean and, for this reason carpets are not as acceptable as a wooden floor with rugs, you can easily sweep a floor and wash it when it needs it, carpets on the other hand need to be vacuumed cleaned and occasionally shampooed. In any case, nothing looks more simple than a wooden floor. For windows simple curtains with wooden poles are best. Avoid strongly patterned curtains which will ruin any simplicity they you have established in the room otherwise. Chose light curtains for summer, but heavier curtains will hold in the warmth better. Washable curtains will save dry cleaning bills. Old curtains can be turned into any number of things with some simple sewing machine work, cushion covers, bedspreads, tablecloths and throws, you may need to think about dyeing the fabric.

What you Own

Removing clutter

An important aspect of simplicity inside your house has to be lack of clutter. To de-clutter a house may take a long time, but is worth the effort and, once you have opened up some space you will reap the benefits. Many people get attached to objects, but many others are reluctant to get rid of things because they paid good money for them in the first place, this is a mindset that you have to get away from, if you paid a lot of money for something that now has to go then that is it? Avoid selling things, it causes more problems than it solves, the easy way to get rid of unwanted things is to give them to charity, small items can be donated to charity shops or community jumble sales and bigger items of furniture and electrical goods can often be removed from your house and redistributed to needy families. Above all, don’t throw things away if they can be recycled or reused by others, waste is never a simple solution to any problem, it just moves the problem elsewhere.

What to get rid of

Two years is a long time, if you have things that you have not used for two years, then chances are you can do without them. All those things that ‘might come in handy one day’ probably won’t, get rid of them. If you have more than the necessary number of items in your house, three televisions, two toasters, fifteen egg cups etc. then reduce the number to reflect your needs. If you have things in your house that were given to you as gifts and you don’t need or like them, then give them away. If you have collections of things that were once a prospective hobby decide if this was a passing fad, if it was then give them away. If you ‘attract’ items like ball-point pens, coat hangers, notebooks or keys that no longer fit any lock, then give it all away. If your children have grown out of equipment, toys and games give them away, don’t do this behind your children’s back, and involve them fully in the de-cluttering process. If you are friendly with a family with children just a bit younger than yours, then why not pass clothing and other items to them.

Recycling

For anybody truly wishing to lead a simple life, given our knowledge of finite world resources and pollution, you have a duty to recycle whatever you can. Don’t throw anything away that can possibly be recycled. Your local authority will have the means to collect together for recycling, paper, glass, plastic and metal they will also make safe and recycle used batteries and broken light bulbs. Most authorities also do a splendid job on taking electrical equipment and stripping out the recyclable materials. Charities collect any number of objects and materials including clothing, shoes, curtains, books, CDs, DVDs and spectacles, some also take used postage stamps and ‘brick-a-brack'. (You may consider CDs and DVDs redundant technology, but many still collect them.)

Don’t assume that what you give away has to be in good condition, charity shops generally ‘sell on’ unusable clothing to make industrial cleaning cloths or even blankets. Make sure that your house has recycling bins on each floor and make sure that everyone in the family uses them, sorting the recycling gives useful lessons to younger members of the family.

Reusing

Get in the habit of reusing objects and materials in useful ways, used jars and bottles can be used for bottling (called canning in North America) your produce, containers can be used for storage and waste wood can be used for burning in wood-burning stoves (if you don’t have one give your wood to someone who has). Unwanted CDs and DVDs, especially those given away as promotional material, can be used to help scare birds away from your growing crops. Worn jeans can be turned into shorts in seconds by using a pair of scissors and the removed legs can be stuffed and made into draft excluders for the gaps under closed doors. Knitters will be able to unpick unwanted garments and remake them into something more appropriate. The Amish use old shirts, dresses and petticoats to make those astounding quilts, if you can use a sewing machine, or can sew well by hand, you can make good use of much unwanted clothing.

A Simple Place

“Home is the nicest word there is.”

~Laura Ingalls Wilder

Living space is important to us all; from the earliest times of human habitation the home has been a place of shelter, a base, a storage area, a sanctuary and sometimes a fortress. A simple home can be made in any dwelling so don’t imagine that you must have a country cottage with a large garden; start with the idea of making the most of what you have. If you are unhappy where you live - it may be noisy neighbours, lack of privacy or lack of space - then you should consider moving. It may be an upheaval, but it could mean a better rest of life for you and your family. If you are unhappy in your own home, then you are unhappy; you need to do something about it!

Living out of town would seem to offer the most conventional solution to the problem of how to live more simply. For one thing, you are more likely to be able to grow your own food and indulge in some effective foraging; country living is also more likely to provide you with those two blessed additions to life, ‘peace and quiet’. However, country living may give you some additional problems such as transport (especially if you have a job some distance away), isolation and greater energy costs. Towns and cities can provide a suitable home for those who wish to live simply, especially if your home has sufficient garden area to grow food or access to an allotment or shared growing space.

As far as the home goes, the most important thing is peace. Peace does not just mean lack of noise; it means lack of stress, lack of conflict and freedom to enjoy what you are doing. All of these things can be worked towards, but let’s start with noise. If you have children in your family, they will create some noise; this is how it should be. Children make some reasonable noise as they enjoy themselves and, unless it is at some antisocial time of night, or early morning when they might disturb neighbours, let a reasonable degree of noise alone. However, you may be producing other noise which is layered on top of natural family noise and may encourage everyone to raise their voices. Sometimes people are actually eating together with television and washing machine and dishwasher all noising away in the same room!

You could try to work for the bulk of your day without music, without radio and especially without television. Use these things when you ‘want’ to use them, but avoid using them as background noise; in fact avoid using anything as background noise. Try to make your home a place of simple quiet. It is sad that so many people use devices like radio and television to cover up the noise from other peoples' electronic entertainment, and some even use noise to stop themselves thinking! You might like to consider moving radios and televisions out of rooms used for eating and sleeping in or getting rid of them and doing without them altogether. Avoid using washing machines and dishwashers when the family is gathered together; to make it a more peaceful time all-round. Most devices have timers and you can easily arrange for the noise to be happening when you are out of the house.

If you need personal time without noise and distraction and find it difficult to establish, then do try to get up early in the morning before others can disturb you. For many, it is the only way. Noisy neighbours are a menace, and you may well want to consider moving house if the problem is not solvable by negotiation.

Above all, your home should be as stress-free as possible. Do your personal best to avoid arguing and shouting at children or partners. The home is a very important place where you and your family live together, so every effort must be taken to find ways around problems that do not involve direct, and energy sapping conflict .The Hebrew word ‘Shalom’ is often translated simply as ‘peace’ but it does mean more, including the concepts completeness, prosperity, and welfare; use the word often in your home and try hard to work towards its full meaning.

"If you have an important decision to make, or you find yourself in circumstances where you know not what is best to do or answer, spend at least one night in meditation. You will not be sorry."

Amish ~ Rules of a Godly Life

Whether you rent your home or buy, you have some choice in where you live. For most people the restricting factor is money. Whatever your income, think carefully about where you want to live and what you want to do with your life that involves the home. Never buy as an investment. We live in uncertain times and houses are for living in, not for trading. However, if you like your home and you like your area, chances are you won’t have any problems when the property eventually goes back on the market. If your home is too big then downsize; if your home is too far from your work, then consider moving closer; if you want to live in the country then do it! Where there is a will there is a way. It may involve other deep life changes, but it will be worth it! If none of these solutions are acceptable then you will have to make the most of your current situations, whatever the drawbacks.

Consider carefully how rooms are allocated within your house; most of us inherit room use from the people who lived there before, but you can be fairly radical in what you do. For instance, if you have three children in three bedrooms, why not look at two of them sharing and the third room being changed into a study area which they can all take advantage of? Look at how you and your family spend their time and make sure the usage of rooms matches this. If you have an underused room, consider changing its function to something more useful, and above all, don’t fix and fit things that don’t need fixing and fitting, free standing furniture is much more adaptable to new positions and even new functions. You can move it around as circumstances change.

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”

~ Maya Angelou

Reject Technology?

As a basic rule, if you want to live simply, it requires you to examine the ethical and environmental consequences of your choices; you cannot do things or make changes to your life unless it is very clear that you are not damaging the lives of others, nor ‘impoverishing the earth’. We know more about the environmental consequences of our actions today than those who pioneered the homesteading movement in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so we can design a life where simple and green ideas are fully compatible.

Simplicity and Technology

A sceptical viewer of the movement towards simplicity may think that it is just a move against technology. They will see many practitioners of a simple life as being Luddites who, unable to cope with the changes that technology brings, opt out and decide not to use it. Such claims are often levelled at the Amish of North America. They live a life that seems like living in another century to many onlookers. It is certainly seen as ‘quaint’ or ‘charming’ for sure but can also be considered to be restrictive and sometimes even austere. A closer examination of the Amish, however, reveals that while some contemporary technology is rejected, other aspects are embraced. For instance, while the Amish will not have computers in their homes, they are happy for their children and themselves to use pocket calculators. While electricity is not supplied to houses, LPG (propane) tanks are used to provide gas for cooking. While telephones are not found in Amish houses, they are used in Amish businesses, including farm buildings. While the Amish wear traditional clothing, they are able to make the clothes from modern synthetic materials. Washing machines are found in most Amish homes, the power coming from small generators connected directly to the appliance. From these few examples we can see that the Amish do not reject modern technology, rather they are very selective in how they use it! We would be wise to do the same and consider the impact of new technology on our lives before falling over ourselves to embrace it, sometimes based on nothing more than the skilful marketing techniques of those who would wish to sell it to us.

Simplicity and change.

It is both true and clear to us that change has always taken place. Changes in society, changes in technology and the evolution of new ideas. However, it is the rate of change which causes us to catch our breath at times. Try explaining to any child of ten or eleven years of age what the world was like when you were their age ~ striking differences will be revealed and the child will wonder just how you got by with such a staggering lack of communication channels and the pure ‘smallness’ of your childhood, as compared to theirs. So much of the world around them is filtered through electronic gadgets nowadays, and the level of information is both daunting and dubious in its accuracy, as well as offering a view of the world that is often slanted, commercial and sometimes divisive.

To some extent, simplicity does have built within it the power to resist those economic problems which have cast great waves of uncertainty around the globe. It acts as a buffer; spending less of your income leaves a surplus and provides you a safety net; moreover, being self-sufficient lessens your reliance on others. If you are growing your own carrots, then the price of carrots in the supermarket is not a problem to you! If you buy less the rate of inflation affects you less, if you consume less, then the power of advertising upon you is lessened and your independence increases.

Above All

Don’t assume that simplicity can be used as an ‘add on’ to your life; neither can complexity be removed. Simplicity must be woven into your life and everything that you do. Strands of it will hold your life together in ways you never expected; it will add strength and beauty and make the fabric of your life into a wonderful, yet simple tapestry. Simplicity will not restrict your life but enable you to redefine your life in terms of reduced complexity, sustainability and sound ethical values. Simplicity gradually affects more and more areas of your life, until it is making a real impact on you, your family and those that know you. Don’t expect the world to understand all that you do but do expect people to notice your life and think about their own.

Simple Ideas

The simple answer is from the past, before much modern technology had been developed. It is wrong to look too fondly on things that we imagine came from some kind of ‘golden age’ because such an age never occurred. The distant past had a number of advocates of the simple life, Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, and others, but it is the not-too-distant past that this blog will draw most heavily upon. In the last fifty to one hundred years, we have seen probably the most dramatic changes to everyday life that have ever been witnessed, so we are not far removed from a way of living that seems strange to us now, but almost within our grasp. Like ‘the day before yesterday’ those times have gone, but if we work at it, we can capture the essence of them and select those things which have been lost which should have been cherished and nurtured.

We gather most of our impressions of how things were done in the past from books, films, paintings and photographs, but these can give artificially simplistic ideas about what the past was like. We may be able to see a reconstruction of an 1850s kitchen, but we can never be aware of the levels of light, the smells, the noise etc. … we are left with a fairly ‘rosy’ impression of what it would have been like. Life has always been very hard for the vast majority of people on the planet; what seems to us to be a nice or even a fashionable little pastime, like making bread or growing potatoes, was just another part of the great drudgery of living and ‘making ends meet’. We do not want to return to simple drudgery to live however; we want to live simply, but happily. We want our simplicity to be a joy, not a burden; to achieve this we need to use technology carefully. We need to look at technical advancements and, whilst never accepting them merely because they exist, we need to evaluate them carefully to see whether they can help us live the way we aim to live; that is what technology is for!

Various movements and individuals have tried to develop a simple approach to life developed from spiritual/philosophical ideals. Among them are many Buddhist groups, and those following the monastic lifestyle in the Celtic, Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions. In more modern times various religious groups such as the Mennonites and Amish, the Quakers and the Shakers have all developed a simple approach to life from which all of us can learn. More recently still, secular ideas of minimalism have made an impact on the lives of many. Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, and others have written of simplicity and those writings have influenced countless numbers of individuals, and persuaded many to change their lives, some a little, others vastly.

‘Minimalism’ isn't the same as ‘simple living’, though some overlap of ideas is common. It may be a minimalist that sits at a table in a white room eating an apple, but it’s the simple life that gets you outside growing those apples, harvesting those apples, cooking those apples. A simple kitchen will have lots of tools for doing the job, the kind of thing that a minimalist wouldn't want. I'm not against minimalism in any way, and we could all look at minimising things in our lives, but this blog is about radical simple living, and that’s very different!

One often-overlooked source of ‘modern’ simplicity comes from Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid. Reid was a key member of the Scottish Enlightenment and a founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, which argued that the feelings and actions of humans were governed by basic principles of common sense. This may have been a strong influence on Samuel Smiles, another Scot, who wrote several Victorian best sellers including Self Help (1859), which provided the English-speaking world with hundreds of easy-to-remember quotes on self-improvement. One can sum up Smiles’ philosophy as “keep clean, and work hard”. It is surprising how often Smiles is quoted (usually unaccredited) in self-sufficiency books and websites. Much of the ‘homespun’ advice to families up to the middle of the twentieth century comes from Smiles. I have also found Smiles quoted in a political setting where his words are used to promote that kind of ‘rugged individualism’ which usually boils down to the idea that we all need to look after ourselves and the state should not be involved. I don’t think that was what Smiles was saying at all, but feel free to disagree with me on that!

“The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.”

“A place for everything and everything in its place.”

“The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning, whereas the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom.”

-Samuel Smiles

Common sense still has to be at the heart of our simple life. We need to do things because they are the common sense way to achieve our goals. Cooking, housekeeping, growing food and bringing up children all require a ‘common sense’ approach, otherwise they are not simple at all.

‘Victorian’ homes were traditional places where people from all classes tried to display as many material possessions as possible. Wallpaper, curtains, potted plants, pianos, vases, plates, framed pictures and other artefacts filled drawing-rooms and front parlours. To our eyes these look like rooms full of clutter, a mishmash of styles and functions. William Morris (1834 –96) and others led a movement towards a more simple way of furnishing homes, using well-designed craftsman-made items. This became known as the ‘Arts and Crafts Movement’. To be honest, it still looks a bit cluttered at times to our modern eyes, but the move towards less items of better quality was an important one and one we should aim to learn from.

Morris very openly drew on medieval ideas to develop his style and that led him to the use of traditional materials and craftsmanship, sometimes producing a monastic feel to his work. He did come up with a famous maxim for all those who seek a simple, yet beautiful space to live.

also need to note that Morris was concerned for the wellbeing of the craftsmen who made the objects and materials he used, and in this we see the start of some kind of realization that the goods that we use need to be ethically sourced.

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” ~ William Morris

Homesteading

Homesteading is a familiar lifestyle for many in North America. Use of the term in the United States dates back to the Homestead Act (1862) and hit its heyday in the period between the end of the American Civil War and the start of the Twentieth century. Perhaps most of us get our concept of homesteading from the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and its companion books, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This view of a homesteading family as seen through the eyes of Laura as a girl, has had a potent effect on many who read it as children. In my experience any conversation with a self-sufficient homesteader gets back to the influence of these books very quickly. I have heard all kinds of theories about the alleged ghost writing, or at least the heavy editing, of these books (by her daughter), but nothing distracts from their charm.

It is a little known fact that many African-American families were given plots of land to start up homesteading after the Civil War in an initiative developed by Abraham Lincoln himself. Homesteading is still an important way of life for many in America and it is interesting to note how strongly those who adopt it believe they are the inheritors of that pioneer spirit which drove their great grandparents ever farther westwards.

Homesteading has its followers among those on the liberal left who see it as an expression of political disobedience and a way of avoiding corporate interference, whilst those homesteaders on the right regard it as a stand against ‘big government’ and see it as the last refuge of individualism in modern America. Perhaps it is just that most homesteaders see it as a way of life which allows them to develop strong family and community ties and lets them become self-sufficient, free to make their own decisions.

In Western Europe the homesteading movement has never gained momentum, with most self-sufficient growers and farmers calling themselves ‘small holders’ and less likely to see their choice of occupation as being a political or philosophical statement.

Counter Culture

Hippies are not normally considered as the inspiration for a simple lifestyle, but they did have a profound effect on western society. Starting famously in 1967, “the summer of love” in San Francisco, they developed the spirit that was to lead many to live an alternative lifestyle. So many alternative lifestyles were developed, that by the 1970s, a whole range of “counter cultures” were on offer. Most significant of these to our cause were the “green movement” (not yet to become a political force) and the related movement towards self-sufficiency. This was helped by some influential books of the time; “Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World” by Helen and Scott Nearing (1970) in the US and “Farming for Self-Sufficiency - Independence on a Five Acre Farm” by John Seymour (1973) in the UK, followed by his “The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency” (1976). A great deal of attention was also given to the publication of “Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as If People Mattered” (1973) a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. These books changed many peoples’ lives by convincing them that they do have the ability to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on modern industrial and agricultural techniques. These movements may have started without the development of the ‘Hippy Movement’, but the general sprit of the age led to new ideas about how to live taking root more quickly than might have been thought possible.

What ideas support Simple Living today ?

Just three things are important;
The desire to live more simply and avoid a life that is more complicated than necessary
The need to care for and cherish the environment
The belief that simplicity is a gateway to greater understanding of the true values of life and/or a more spiritual approach to life.

Throughout this blog I will work on the assumption that simple living, environmentally ‘green’ living and ethical living are all so connected that one cannot truly be doing one without having given some attention to the other two! To me, these ideas are encapsulated by the American Quaker John Woolman, a man who thought hard about the consequences of his everyday actions and took steps to live in a way that was compatible with his beliefs.

“The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.”

~ John Woolman

(C) Ray Lovegrove 2015 2022

Radical Simplicity?

Simple living changes people. Simple living changes how you see the environment, your neighbours, and yourself. Radical simple living changes how you view the society you live in, it makes you question the values by which we run our lives and the way governments behave. It may even convince you that deep fundamental change is necessary, not only in your life, but in the lives of everyone on the planet, the other life forms on the planet, and the way our management of the planet needs to be questioned. Make no mistake simple living is much more of a force for change than you may think! Even vegetable gardening!

“In our society, growing food ourselves has become the most radical of acts. It is truly the only effective protest, one that can—and will—overturn the corporate powers that be. By the process of directly working in harmony with nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the world we change ourselves.”

~ Jules Dervaes

Why Live Simply?

The reasons for adopting a simple lifestyle are often only perceptible to those who do so. Ask any practitioner and you will get a range of answers varying from those who see it as a way of ‘opting out’ of the system to those who see it as a spiritual path which helps them to add an additional dimension to their lives. As for myself as a Quaker, I see a simple lifestyle as a way of focusing my attention on important things whilst clearing away the physical and mental clutter that goes with life in a post-industrial society. Those ‘more important things’ include my family, and a kind of three-pronged communion with God, my community and myself. For you it might be very different, but while our reasons for travelling the road to simplicity may differ, our direction is the same ~ the desire to live a more simple, more satisfying, more rewarding life. In this ‘new life’ we accept the need to be more self-sufficient, less dependent on the consumer-led society around us and more satisfied with what we have. We do not expect a simpler lifestyle to give us more money, more material possessions, more power over the lives of others or even more time, but we do expect that the quality of our lives, and the lives of those we come into contact with, to be touched by the beauty and grace-like calm of simplicity.

In hard times, like the ones we are living through right now, a simpler lifestyle might prove the way to spend less money, make ends meet, to become less dependent on a system which seems to let us down. I see nothing wrong with this as a motive at all, greater simplicity can help you to live through economic challenges, it has done this for centuries. It's better to face hard times with a plan, and with a purpose, rather than have changes forced upon you, or to try and hang on to that lifestyle that you can no longer afford.

“Try to live simply. A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength. Do not be persuaded into buying what you do not need or cannot afford. Do you keep yourself informed about the effects your style of living is having on the global economy and the environment? ”

Advices and Queries: Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain 1994

My grandfather Sidney Albert lived simply. He lived in a small house in the country, grew his own vegetables, kept a few chickens and all his food was cooked at home in the kitchen. His house had no electricity or gas; it was kept warm by a wood burning stove and lit by oil lamps and candles. I was very young when he died, but I do remember him wearing a collarless shirt, black worsted trousers, braces (that’s suspenders in North America) and a waistcoat (a vest in North America). He never ever went out without a hat and only went out when he had something important to do. Each day he tended his garden, ate his home-cooked supper, read by his oil lamp and finally went to bed. My sister and I were always fascinated by his outside lavatory which consisted of a very small shed over a deep hole over which was a shelf, with a large hole in it on which you sat!

Before you leap to conclusions about my grandfather let me clear up a few points; he was not Amish, neither was he Quaker (although I am, but please don’t let that worry you), he was not a member of some austere socialist ‘back to the land’ movement, nor a hermit like transcendental philosopher. In fact, he was a retired stonemason who voted Conservative and read the Daily Telegraph. Those ‘important’ outings I mentioned were usually to the village store or, more rarely, to the local Anglican Church. This was not too long ago either, the early 1960s, before the small group of cottages in which his home was situated was connected to mains water or the electricity grid. And geographically he was not, as you will have guessed by now, in rural Ohio; rather he lived in Berkshire in the UK. A noisy motorway now runs not far away from where his simple and tranquil retirement took place.

The big difference between simplicity now, and simplicity then, is that in his day, rural living was simple! He didn’t choose a simple life, he just accepted it. Today, complexity of life is the ‘norm’ which we are all expected to accept, and a simple life is a choice that we make and an aspiration that we work towards. Living simply today is voluntary - it is also an act of nonconformity and may even be seen as a radical act of passive resistance – it’s really up to you!

"The attraction of simplicity is mysterious because it draws us in a completely opposite direction from where most of the world seems to be going: away from conspicuous display, accumulation, egoism, and public visibility — toward a life more silent, humble, and transparent than anything known to the extroverted culture of consumerism."

~ Mark A. Burch

Glass Jars

For much of I my life I have been involved with a wonderful, and for most of us mysterious substance; glass. I should explain that before my life as a homesteader, I was a chemist and worked first in pharmaceutical chemistry and then as a chemistry teacher. Cabinets full of glassware were my playground and I never lost my love and respect for retorts, conical flasks, delivery tubes and bell jars.

Even before them my childhood was filled with what we call in the UK 'jam-jars' (and what I presume are called 'jelly jars' in North America) filling my bedroom with tadpoles, caterpillars, germinating seeds and slowly growing crystals.

My love of glass jars continues to this day and I spend much time in the summer and autumn, quickly filling them with preserves, pickles and bottled fruit; then, over the winter and spring they are slowly brought out, and their contents appreciatively consumed. You can freeze produce, it's true, but nothing looks so beautiful, or tastes so good, as home 'canned' produce. You can, of course, buy jars for the home preserving of produce, but my simple home policy of 'recycle, reuse, repair and reduce', leads me to reclaim used jars and reuse them time and time again. In fact, it is cheaper in the UK to buy a jar of Polish pickles, eat the pickles, then wash and use the jar, than it is to buy an empty jar!

My rules for jar reuse are simple;

· Only use those jars which have labels stuck on with water soluble paste. Reject all jars in the store if the labels are stuck on with 'science fiction gum', it is too difficult to remove these gummed on labels, but you might have some luck by filling the jar with warm water, leaving for a few minutes then peeling slowly from one corner. Most jars with heavily gummed labels can only be sent to the glass recycling bin. If possible determine the way the label is stuck on before buying the product, wrinkly labels are generally pasted on and are the easiest to remove by soaking.

· Even if you cannot reuse the jar always save the lid. Lids, as a rule don’t have as long a useful life as the jars themselves and it is always useful to have spares.

· Keep a store of empty washed jars. Keeping them with the lids on prevents dirt and dust getting in and stops spiders making a home in them. You need to wash the jars before you store them and again before they are sterilised for use.

· Always gently lever off jar lids, if you pierce them with a small hole they will be of no further use to you.

· Never buy gummy labels to put on your own produce jars, always use paste which is easier to clean off for next time. You can make a paste from flour and water (adding some salt acts as a preservative), or buy decorator wallpaper paste and mix a spoonful with water. Keep your made-up paste in a jar.

How to use your Jars

Buy dried goods in recyclable paper, polythene or ‘cellophane’ bags and empty them into appropriately sized screw top glass jars. Don’t use a jar too small or you will be left with half a packet that won't fit! Label your jars and store them out of direct sunlight. Use them for preserving your produce, jams/jellies, chutneys, pickles canned/bottled fruits etc. Salads can be made directly into a jar, with a little dressing, and placed in the refrigerator for later in the day, packed lunches or picnics.

More Uses

Jars make excellent vases (in fact, I like them better than vases). A jar with a candle in is a perfect table decoration, outside or in! Drinking from a jam jar always makes the drink, taste more ‘rebellious’ Cloches made from jars are excellent and the weight of the jar makes them fairly windproof. In my garden I raise runner beans, French beans and sunflowers in this way.

You can keep some frog-spawn or tadpoles for a few days to give your children, and yourself, the joy of watching them grow. Choose somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight and then put them back in the pond. You can take some from the pond every few days to watch their development.

"My earliest childhood memory is watching the sunlight through a jar of amber full of wasps."

Amanda Harlech

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