When you think of simplicity you may have images of times long past; of gardens and home-grown and build-it-yourself. While this was the way in times long past simplicity has grown to mean so much more in today’s modern age. Sometimes we forget that the root of simplicity is simple. When times change things that were simple become less so. This can mean that things we don’t normally consider simple actually are–at least for some people!
Soap:
In our grandparent’s day almost all soaps were homemade. When the hogs were slaughtered in the fall the fat would be rendered, the crackins devoured and lye leached from wood ashes combined into a mixture that solidified and was used to clean everything from the body to the home.
This process is far from simple: it is hot, smelly, backbreaking and sometimes dangerous work. You stand over a hot fire stirring the fat, carefully duck to avoid being splashed by the lye. You carefully pour the steaming hot mixture into molds and gently move it to a place where it can solidify undisturbed.
Which is simpler: going to the store and buying a bar of soap or making it from scratch? Consider that most of us no longer slaughter animals so the fat has to be purchased or acquired elsewhere; wood ashes are almost impossible for a city dweller to acquire to leach for the lye so that has to be bought as well. Is it worth the effort?
Laundry Detergent:
Back in the day lye soap was used to wash both dishes and laundry. They didn’t add Borax or Washing Soda to it–they just sliced small slivers off and added it to the wash water. Now in order to make laundry detergent we can either purchase some of the soaps designed for the purpose or grate those same soaps up to create either a powdered or a liquid soap that is gentle enough to use in our modern day washing machines.
With modern laundry soaps becoming harder to acquire (rumors that a popular one, Octagon, has now been discontinued run rampant) we have to go online and pay enormous shipping fees for the ingredients needed to make our own from scratch.
Which is simpler: hunting down the necessary ingredients, paying exorbitant shipping fees for bars which we grate, melt and mix together or going to the store and purchasing some laundry detergent off the shelf?
Dishwashing:
Back in times past there was one choice if the dishes were to be cleaned: we washed them by hand or not at all. Now we have dishwashers available; place the dirty dishes, add some detergent and push a button.
Which is simpler: taking the time to do them by hand or inserting them into a machine that can clean them while we go on with our life?
Clothing:
In my grandparents’ time clothes were made by hand. When a shirt or pants wore out they were repurposed into the quilts that kept the family warm. When the quilts wore out they were used as lining in new ones and the circle began again. Many were lucky to have as many as three outfits: two that they rotated during the week and their nicest one for Sundays. Now you can find new clothes on every street corner. Dumpsters and thrift shops are overflowing with discarded outfits.
Which is simpler: Making an outfit from scratch or picking one up from Goodwill?
Laundry:
On laundry day the big kettle was placed over the fire built outside. One had to stir the laundry constantly to keep it under water–especially when bleaching the whites. All items were scrubbed piece by piece, rinsed and then hung dripping wet on the line to dry. Afterwards an iron was heated on a fire or the woodstove, liquid starch was splashed onto the garment and it was ironed until stiff.
Now you can either drop off your dry cleaning at a store and have everything done for you or you can put your laundry in one machine, wash it, place it in another to dry before hanging it up, no ironing required.
Which is simpler?
What do you think?
Which of these methods do you think represents simplicity in today’s time? Why do you feel this way? In our modern age, should we use the one and discard another? Why? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Thank you for your support!
13 Comments
Good questions, I’ve asked them myself. Sometimes I wonder if we have too many choices. I don’t have a dishwasher and my dryer just broke again.. I’m not terribly missing either one right now, but I only have to do for one person usually– so not a big deal. I’ve often thought that fewer clothes–but better made ones would be very nice, but they are not so easy to come by, I get a few new things each year and it seems they look like rags by the next year. So thin they make them now.
Well, I can add little to the wonderful comment by Pokeberry Mary( awesome name!) and the delightful article written by yourself. These are questions that i think about probably a little too much!
Finally, the the age of 38, I started handwashing my dishes, without resenting it. Despite living most of my adult life without a dishwasher, I looked at dishwashing as a chore, almost a punishment, but one day, I ‘grew up’ enough to not hate it, and actually like it. I feel it caused me to grow up in other ways as well.
I started making my own laundry soap, my own cleaners, and changed almost all cleaning products/procedures in my home soon after the dishwashing revelation. Now, almost all of my cleaning is handled by some combination of vinegar, lemon, baking soda, borax, or ammonia. My ‘beauty routine’ involves Ivory Soap and Almond Oil, with some Burts Bees. I use these products on my whole body. I try to think- if I can’t make it myself, it has to be made in the USA.
Made in the USA is the newest change we’re making. If we must have it new, it must be made in the USA. We try other ways of getting an item first, but if it’s a need, and we can’t get it used, we try to get it from a local vendor, and made in the USA.
Annie, I have used some of your recipies from youtube, and made the laundry soap, etc. I liked them a lot. However, I have one bar of octagon soap, that I won’t be using. I would like you to have it. If you feel comfortable, e-mail me and we can figure out how to get it to you. I am a longtime reader who has commented before.
Annie, these are great questions and for me the answer comes down to the fact that unlike past generations I have a choice which conveniences to take advantage of and which to use my time to make myself. While past generations didn’t have the choices we have today, I believe they were better off for it. I do not want all the chemicals that are found in most of our products today from food to cleaning products.
I think for many people simplicity today is often thought of mainly in terms of money, space and time. Making liquid laundry and dish soap from bars of soap is popular because it saves a lot of money. Just like having less stuff results in people needing to spend less time cleaning and less money to buy and upkeep it. So unless being “more simple” helps one better live the life that they want and reflect their values than it is not simplicity in the minds of most people. For example if one wants to be able to grow more food they could replant their back yard with wheat grass and likely get a larger wheat harvest than they could eat in a year, but the trouble one would have to go through to harvest, thresh, grind into flour and bake with it would be very high. So unless one is either has a lot of time but not money, highly values locally grown organic food or enjoys “playing farmer” in their backyard it will not be worth their time and effort to do so when it is so easy and cheap to buy bread and flour from the store.
I think there is a difference between simple and easy. Buying products that are factory made is easier on the individual than making it from scratch at home. However if you are comparing the actual production processes you would need to compare the process of extracting and gathering raw mayerials, making soap in a factory and distribution to shops to the process of individual production in the home. In that broader context home production is simpler (a less complex production system) but more difficult for the individual.
I WAS RAISED IN HAZARD ,KY. YOU MAY HAVE BEEN RAISED THERE,ALSO BUT YOU ARE MUCH YOUNGER THAN ME. MY HUSBAND IS FROM MISSOURI SO THAT IS WHERE WE HAVE BEEN LIVING FOR THE PAST 7 YRS. I LOVE TO READ YOUR POST AS I REMEMBER MY MOM DOING ALL OF THE THINGS THAT YOUR GRANDPARENTS DID.
HOPE YOUR DAUGHTER IS DOING BETTER!!!
Hi Geri!
I was raised about halfway between Jackson and Hazard so I know the town rather well
Thanks for visiting!
Great Questions. I appreciate it when people actually encourage one to think, instead of just blindly telling everyone what they “should” do…
As for me, I was just thinking this week, that it would be great if each appliance in our homes would clearly be labelled in this manner “As of Feb 19 2013, the cost of using this machine once is 49 cents for example. This would be helpful also for flushing toilets, as who actually knows how much it costs us to flush one? Any guesses?
Also, how about your microwave…any idea how much it costs to heat up a pizza pop for 2-3 minutes?
These electrical products could be easily labelled with current hyrdo/water/gas prices taken into consideration to at least give us consumers a rational starting point when we make decisions about how we are going to live.I’ve heard excuses about inflation and the volatility of utility pricing, but sorry I don’t accept those answers. There is no logical reason why we as consumers can not have access to accurate up to date estimates as to what ONE use of ONE appliance would cost….. THat would give us power again as consumers to make that crucial decision whether we want to live with dish pan hands, or a happy dishwasher and a higher water and hydro bill
Knowledge is always power….especially for those willing to act on what they know to be true.
We gave up on the dishwasher a few years ago. I never seemed to do a good job getting dishes clean. We always pre-rinsed the dishes, and at one point I figured it wouldn’t be much more effort to just soap up a sponge and wash them.
Now we wash them by hand and I’ve been happy witht the results. It doesn’t take much longer to wash them by hand than it did to load and unload the dishwasher. The dishes get cleaner and last longer.
I agree with Eric. And save on electric bill
Just discovered your blog – really interesting! Seems most things weren’t simplier back then at all. Carla – there are ways to do this – there’s little meters you can plug into your power socket that measure and could calculate for a device. Then you could use your bills to work out how much it costs. In my opinion, so many things are negligible to the overall cost. The big costs are heating/cooling and cooking.
Another great article, Annie. I agree, simple living is rarely that simple. The satisfaction of making or growing your own is in being skilled in at least some of the processes of life so that if you cant access factory produced stuff for some reason (price or even war), you can still get along. I find my skills in gardening, preserving, cooking, sewing and making do give me a deep feeling of security. Living in NZ, the materials to make soap and laundry powder are more expensive than the products, but I might have a go at making them once or twice, just so that I know that I can. For me, the true simple life comes from learning what I can do without, like a need to buy stuff to feel okay. this allows me to have greater peace with my finances and feel that even if I lost my job, I’d be just fine
Deb, that was a wonderful profound statement….
“not needing to buy stuff to feel okay”.
That really sums it up nicely. We don’t need to become a slave to fashion or home decor dictates from some corporate person who doesn’t care whether we are spending above our means on useless fashionable items that make the corporation richer and us poorer.
The benefits of self discipline are multitudinous ( is that a word?”)
There is real liberty when we discover what we are willing to live with and without and keep happy and fulfilled.
Thank you Deb for your comment.
God bless.
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