Old Fashioned
LeeH31
Posts: 312 Member
So, my DH has decided I am a throwback to a previous generation. I will use the broom to sweep my kitchen instead of the vacuum. I hang my clothes out to dry on my reel-in clothes line. I scrub my dish towels, dish cloths, and cleaning cloths on a scrub board. When we used to burn firewood for heat I used the sledge & wedge to split the logs. And I enjoy it. I bake bread from scratch. I can food from the garden. Making sauerkraut and apple butter are regular fall rituals.
Anyone else out there prefer the "old" ways?
Anyone else out there prefer the "old" ways?
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Replies
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So, my DH has decided I am a throwback to a previous generation. I will use the broom to sweep my kitchen instead of the vacuum. I hang my clothes out to dry on my reel-in clothes line. I scrub my dish towels, dish cloths, and cleaning cloths on a scrub board. When we used to burn firewood for heat I used the sledge & wedge to split the logs. And I enjoy it. I bake bread from scratch. I can food from the garden. Making sauerkraut and apple butter are regular fall rituals.
Anyone else out there prefer the "old" ways?
My mom does or used to do everything on your list but using the scrub board. Although someone used to - I remember seeing one at her place, which was formerly my grandfather's, and before that was owned by a family for 100 years who left many items behind when they moved. I used to play with skirts with hoops when I was little.
My partner and I are moving in with her (and my brother) next month and are modernizing:- Adding a dryer
- Adding heat to 4 rooms
- Adding central AC upstairs
- Adding ductless split AC units downstairs
- Complete renovation of the former big living room
I do like using the clothesline seasonally, but want to have a dryer as a backup, and fall - early spring.
She now gets wood cut and split, but back in the 70s we got logs, which she cut, my father split, and my brother and I stacked.4 -
I do use some modern appliances but in general, yes, I prefer an older and slower way of living - even if it means more work for some things. I especially like cooking and baking from scratch. This year is the first year I actually canned - I had done refrigerator pickles and freezer jam before but nothing that could be stored at room temperature. It was fun and very satisfying!
I'm very lucky in that I can walk most anywhere I really need to go, too. When I have to drive I find it annoying now. 😅4 -
So, my DH has decided I am a throwback to a previous generation. I will use the broom to sweep my kitchen instead of the vacuum. I hang my clothes out to dry on my reel-in clothes line. I scrub my dish towels, dish cloths, and cleaning cloths on a scrub board. When we used to burn firewood for heat I used the sledge & wedge to split the logs. And I enjoy it. I bake bread from scratch. I can food from the garden. Making sauerkraut and apple butter are regular fall rituals.
Anyone else out there prefer the "old" ways?
I assume you are in US?
Where machine drying clothes is the norm? ( and also you use the term 'fall')
Here in Australia drying clothes on the clothesline is very usual. Some people have a dryer but most still wouldn't use for all drying and many people don't own one at all.
Broom sweeping also common for hard floors, certainly wouldn't be considered a throw back.
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The only one of these that seems unusual to me is the hand scrubbing of the cloths. The rest are perfectly common in the UK.9
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paperpudding wrote: »So, my DH has decided I am a throwback to a previous generation. I will use the broom to sweep my kitchen instead of the vacuum. I hang my clothes out to dry on my reel-in clothes line. I scrub my dish towels, dish cloths, and cleaning cloths on a scrub board. When we used to burn firewood for heat I used the sledge & wedge to split the logs. And I enjoy it. I bake bread from scratch. I can food from the garden. Making sauerkraut and apple butter are regular fall rituals.
Anyone else out there prefer the "old" ways?
I assume you are in US?
Where machine drying clothes is the norm? ( and also you use the term 'fall')
Here in Australia drying clothes on the clothesline is very usual. Some people have a dryer but most still wouldn't use for all drying and many people don't own one at all.
Broom sweeping also common for hard floors, certainly wouldn't be considered a throw back.
I'm in the U.S., and have never used a vacuum on a hard floor. Must be a regional or, I suspect more likely, generational thing. I use a broom or a dust mop.
When I was growing up, we had a large basement with an indoor clothesline, so I hung a lot of my clothes to dry, but also used a dryer. Where I live now, I feel like there's too much dust thrown up by traffic to want to hang clothes outside, plus I've had enough transients cutting through and resting in my yard that I would worry about becoming an involuntary contributor to their wardrobe.
I've never used a scrub-board, but I know my grandmother did when my mom was little, until they got electricity and she got a "washer" (as I understand it, it was an open tub with an electric motor to agitate it, with a wringer attached to the side that may or may not have been electric powered).
I bake bread from scratch, although as my household has shrunk, I tend to use a bread machine during the warmer months, as one loaf is plenty and I try to avoid heating up the oven in the summer.
I don't can, although I helped my mother make jelly when I was growing up -- mostly the picking and sorting and washing the fruit, and occasional stirring duty or keeping an eye on the paraffin as it melted. She stopped doing it before I was big enough to pick up big pots of boiling fruit or juice to strain and pour. Anyway, I don't use jelly that much, so it really wouldn't make sense to make it now.
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Also, did anyone else think this thread was going to be about cocktails?35
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I darn my socks. Does that count as old fashioned?5
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paperpudding wrote: »So, my DH has decided I am a throwback to a previous generation. I will use the broom to sweep my kitchen instead of the vacuum. I hang my clothes out to dry on my reel-in clothes line. I scrub my dish towels, dish cloths, and cleaning cloths on a scrub board. When we used to burn firewood for heat I used the sledge & wedge to split the logs. And I enjoy it. I bake bread from scratch. I can food from the garden. Making sauerkraut and apple butter are regular fall rituals.
Anyone else out there prefer the "old" ways?
I assume you are in US?
Where machine drying clothes is the norm? ( and also you use the term 'fall')
Here in Australia drying clothes on the clothesline is very usual. Some people have a dryer but most still wouldn't use for all drying and many people don't own one at all.
Broom sweeping also common for hard floors, certainly wouldn't be considered a throw back.
I'm in Italy and like you dryers are not the norm. I have a reel in clothesline. I use a broom to sweep up the kitchen, but the vacuum is used for the rest of the apartment-- our floors are marble, with some rugs.
I wash my cleaning (microfiber) cloths by hand, and cook from scratch.
Growing up on a farm, and being the only girl with 5 brothers, I am used to working like this.4 -
I was hoping as my answer would have been a Singapore Sling in Raffles, Singapore where they were invented.
(The question being most memorable drink)
As for the old fashioned (not the drink).
I do sweep and mop my floors throughout the house and hang my washing out to dry.
(I have a dryer that is used in wet weather)
Hand washing, only my fragile stuff. I’ve spent enough years having to hand wash everything (bedding towels etc) because I couldn’t afford a washing machine, that I would not do it now for love nor money.
For all the cooking, canning, baking stuff, throughout the years I have done all kinds of variations at different times and do these things now more as a hobby rather than need.
As for chopping wood for fires. I grew up with coal and refused to go down the mine. Now that I have a wood burning fireplace (since 2002), the burning restrictions in general in our area discourage the use of fireplaces so I don’t use the fireplace as a primary source of heat, or attempt to chop wood.
I think all these things as a choice are very different than when they are/were a necessity and I fully appreciate having the choice to pull out the vac or shove the washing in the dryer.
Cheers, h.5 -
As someone else said, the only slightly unusual task listed is the use of a washboard.
The rest are normal everyday tasks for me. I don’t own a tumble dryer, never been a fan of using one when clothes dry perfectly well without using electricity! I don’t use a broom to sweep hard floors but I do vacuum then wet mop them.
I make bread, (although I do use a KitchenAid these days to do the kneading) and cook and bake from scratch always because I enjoy it. I pick the ridiculous amount of grapes from the pergola outside the back door and make jams, jellies, relishes and hot sauces from those every year. I make pickles and chutney regularly too. If I find a product I like, I challenge myself to create a better version because it’s fun!
There’s something quite satisfying and wholesome about doing things the ‘old fashioned’ way. I think people who always opt for the pre-made, processed and automated are missing out on some of life’s little pleasures.
And yes @lynn_glenmont - I thought of cocktails too when I saw the title!
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paperpudding wrote: »Broom sweeping also common for hard floors, certainly wouldn't be considered a throw back.
Broom sweeping/mopping is the norm here (the US) for hard floors too. I've never used a vacuum for hard wood floors (which is what I have), and wouldn't have called myself oldfashioned.
I do use the dryer, however, so long as the item is dryer safe.2 -
Don't do any of that stuff at our house, but whatever floats your boat.
Don't understand a broom vs vacuum on hard floors. The vacuum sucks up the dirt, broom just moves it around with the hope you get it all picked up in a dustpan. Will use a wet Swiffer on hard floors maybe every week or 2.2 -
I only sweep the hardwood once a month or so when I mop with Murphy's oil. Otherwise it's vacuum and maybe a steam mop all the way, baby! So much quicker and I think it does a much better job on the dog hair than swishing it all around with a broom.3
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Oh wow. I don’t do any of the above.
However, every weekend during my entire childhood, we would go to a very isolated area in “Deliverance” country. I was responsible for carrying buckets of water from the spring (where a dipper hung on a tree), our toilet was a log on two Y-crotch poles over a hole, with a plastic tub of lime at hand, no electricity, no radio reception, and I had to help haul and occasionally split firewood. We were the last place in Georgia to get electricity and phone service- even got in the newspapers for it. Once we got electricity, at least we had lights to read and cook by. Still no radio or tv.
If it rained, the river rose and we couldn’t cross the 2x4 “bridge” back to the car and were stuck- once for a week. I don’t know how mom managed to feed us, since everything (food, clean clothes) had to be mandhandled over the bridge in big plastic garbage cans and the nearest “grocery” was a wee country store over an hour round trip.
My dad reveled in it. As a little kid, it was fun. By teenage years, not so much. Mom hated being uprooted every week and coming home with barrels of woodsmokey laundry to deal with.
I do, however, crochet and needlepoint, including steel needle crochet, which seems to be a dying art. You can only do so much with doilies, no matter how satisfying and relaxing they are to make. You can’t even give the things away.
I guess some of it stuck, because I did convince my family to do a week long covered wagon trip several times. My husband and I last did it a couple years ago.
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Except baking from scratch I don't do any of the above. Roomba does the vast majority of my floor cleaning and is easily one of my favorite purchases.
I've never lived in an HOA neighborhood, but I've heard it's a common rule in many of them to ban the use of outdoor clotheslines. I guess they think it's a poor aesthetic?5 -
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »Don't do any of that stuff at our house, but whatever floats your boat.
Don't understand a broom vs vacuum on hard floors. The vacuum sucks up the dirt, broom just moves it around with the hope you get it all picked up in a dustpan. Will use a wet Swiffer on hard floors maybe every week or 2.
My vacuum has a switch for carpet or hard floors. The brush roll used on the carpet can damage the finish on the floors - we have real hardwood. I do sweep in between because the vacuum is heavy (well, my kids do, but they tend to not get everything) but when I want to make sure I get every crumb, yep, it's the vacuum's job.1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »Also, did anyone else think this thread was going to be about cocktails?
Me!2 -
Not for me, but whatever floats your boat. All of the common areas in my house are either tile or hard wood and the bedrooms are carpeted. Our Miele vacuum has a head for hard surfaces and a different head for carpets. The vacuum sucks up the dirt as opposed to just pushing it around with a broom.
Between me, my wife, and my two boys our washer and dryer are running pretty much everyday. I'm not sure exactly when we'd find the time to hang clothes and I used a scrub board in boot camp and that was enough for me and didn't get my clothes nearly as clean as a washer would.
Our house is about 15 years old, so no heating by wood...nice radiant heat. I do split wood when I'm camping with an ax. My wife bakes bread from scratch on occasion and we cook from scratch quite a bit. We don't have a big enough garden to need to can anything and it's mostly herbs anyway. We live in the desert and it can be difficult to grow here unless you're in the river valley close to the Rio Grande...the soil around my property is like moon dust.
I personally like conveniences in life as it allows me to do other things I would rather be doing. As an example, I have a pool and a robot cleaner for the pool. One of my boys had a soccer game last Saturday morning and it was going to be a very warm afternoon and he wanted to have friends over to swim after the game. It needed a good cleaning so before we left for the game I threw the robot into the pool and turned it on. When we arrived home 3 hours later it was done and cleaned and the kids could jump right in. My alternative would have been to spend an hour + vacuuming the pool manually and missing my boys soccer game or telling the kids they'd have to wait until later after we arrived home so that I could clean the pool.
In general, there are a lot of ways I'd rather spend my time than manually doing chores that can be done conveniently with things like washers and dryers and vacuum cleaners and other modern technology.10 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
I personally like conveniences in life as it allows me to do other things I would rather be doing. As an example, I have a pool and a robot cleaner for the pool. One of my boys had a soccer game last Saturday morning and it was going to be a very warm afternoon and he wanted to have friends over to swim after the game. It needed a good cleaning so before we left for the game I threw the robot into the pool and turned it on. When we arrived home 3 hours later it was done and cleaned and the kids could jump right in. My alternative would have been to spend an hour + vacuuming the pool manually and missing my boys soccer game or telling the kids they'd have to wait until later after we arrived home so that I could clean the pool.
Kids today! They have it so easy! My friends and I WERE the pool cleaners when I was a kid
We usually had to vacuum or skim before we were allowed to swim.
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I only sweep the hardwood once a month or so when I mop with Murphy's oil. Otherwise it's vacuum and maybe a steam mop all the way, baby! So much quicker and I think it does a much better job on the dog hair than swishing it all around with a broom.
Dogs here too and I also vacuum with a stick vac rather than sweep. From fall to spring the hair generates enough static that it flies up in the air and sticks to vertical surfaces if you sweep it. Sweeping is only successful when it's very very humid.
I'm all for the labour-saving devices, although I will line dry some clothing, except in winter.1 -
Wow! Didn't expect that much response! I do appreciate the conveniences, especially when I am pressed for time. When I worked full-time it would have been dreadful to have to do those things. But now that DH and I are retired I have found great delight in practicing what I learned when we were first married and poor.
We have all the conveniences that we need, but I have found that there is a certain satisfaction in knowing I can keep our clothes and home clean, feed my family, and entertain myself with or without electricity. That it isn't necessary to have it all. Having too much stuff never did anything but make me anxious. But to each their own, or whatever floats your boat! The days I can, I do, the days my fibromyalgia makes it impossible, I use the conveniences available to me.
@paperpudding everyone here seems to have a stick broom/stick vacuum-rechargeable of course!
@lynn_glenmont HA! I like those, too!
@MargaretYakoda you betcha that qualifies!
@middlehaitch yes, having the CHOICE definitely makes a difference. Some things I do regret-like getting a front load washer (hate it), and wasting money on new appliances when they become obsolete and unfixable within a few years. When we first married I had my parents old Coldspot fridge. That thing was new in 1948 and still going when we did our first kitchen over in 1993. Finally gave out just before 2000. My range was a gas behemoth from 1950. Cooked like a dream but DH wouldn't let me keep it in our "new" kitchen.
@mourvedre- YES. Yes, exactly.
@springerling62 is that y'alls team and rig??? Wow, I am beyond impressed, and a wee bit jealous!
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I am not agaisnt labour saving devices per se - but I find it interesting people think brooms just move dirt around - well, no, you sweep it into a pile and then into a dustbrush and it really is no more effort than vaccuuming (unless you have a roomba, I guess)
hanging clothes on the line is not that time usage either - and the electricity saved by using free sunshine is considerable and IMO the clothes are nicer when dried in fresh air.
ETA - some people here have stick vaccuums too and/or vaccuum hard floors with a regular vaccuum cleaner - and many use brooms.
I wouldnt say there is a universal or even majority Australian way on this3 -
PapillonNoire wrote: »
I've never lived in an HOA neighborhood, but I've heard it's a common rule in many of them to ban the use of outdoor clotheslines. I guess they think it's a poor aesthetic?
That is a massive cultural difference.
Here in Australia it is assumed every house has a clothesline - even if you rarely use it,(most people do use them, at least some of the time and many do not even own dryers) it is a thing that houses have.
I might ask, in a conversation about laundry - Do you have a dryer? - because not everyone does.
I would not ask Do you have a clothesline? - it would be a given that you do
(unless you live in a high rise apartment, perhaps - of which there are none in my town)
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@LeeH31
Noooooo. Not our horses and wagon. Belongs to the lovely people in and around Jamestown ND, who put on the annual https://covered-wagon-train.com/
We’ve been four times. If you have young children, it’s the best possible family vacation. Horses, chores, games, skits. They just ask that you dress in period clothes, put the phones away, and everyone participates in one chore, per day, ranging from cooking to washing dishes to “biffy digging” for the four-hole portable outhouse.3 -
@springerling62 oh my, that does sound like great fun. I would probably have begged to groom those wonderful steeds. I think horses are the most beautiful animal in all their amazing varieties. I have seen the power and beauty of a herd of horses thundering across a mesa in Colorado, and the amazing Lipizaners performance, the awesome strength of horse pulling contests, and ridden bareback for hours in the woods while the deer and foxes just stood and watched us go by. I love everything about them, can you tell?
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paperpudding wrote: »PapillonNoire wrote: »
I've never lived in an HOA neighborhood, but I've heard it's a common rule in many of them to ban the use of outdoor clotheslines. I guess they think it's a poor aesthetic?
That is a massive cultural difference.
Here in Australia it is assumed every house has a clothesline - even if you rarely use it,(most people do use them, at least some of the time and many do not even own dryers) it is a thing that houses have.
I might ask, in a conversation about laundry - Do you have a dryer? - because not everyone does.
I would not ask Do you have a clothesline? - it would be a given that you do
(unless you live in a high rise apartment, perhaps - of which there are none in my town)
Not sure it's so much a cultural difference vs a climate difference. If I understand correctly most of Australia's population lives in a temperate climate as opposed to the IUS where many live in areas where snow and cold temperatures are common. Not very good for clothes lines, so dryers are a must have. When it is a nice day, people generally are used to the convenience of just throwing something in the dryer. Not to mention it's not too easy to dry clothes on a line when it's dark outside and many people may be running the washer and dryer after a work day.4 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »PapillonNoire wrote: »
I've never lived in an HOA neighborhood, but I've heard it's a common rule in many of them to ban the use of outdoor clotheslines. I guess they think it's a poor aesthetic?
That is a massive cultural difference.
Here in Australia it is assumed every house has a clothesline - even if you rarely use it,(most people do use them, at least some of the time and many do not even own dryers) it is a thing that houses have.
I might ask, in a conversation about laundry - Do you have a dryer? - because not everyone does.
I would not ask Do you have a clothesline? - it would be a given that you do
(unless you live in a high rise apartment, perhaps - of which there are none in my town)
Not sure it's so much a cultural difference vs a climate difference. If I understand correctly most of Australia's population lives in a temperate climate as opposed to the IUS where many live in areas where snow and cold temperatures are common. Not very good for clothes lines, so dryers are a must have. When it is a nice day, people generally are used to the convenience of just throwing something in the dryer. Not to mention it's not too easy to dry clothes on a line when it's dark outside and many people may be running the washer and dryer after a work day.
Yes of course climate is a factor too.
Australia, like US, is a big country geographically - so some people live in cooler, wetter parts than others.
I don't think all of US is colder and snowier and less daylight hours than all of Australia though - surely Southern/ mid states of US are not so.
And I'm sure we have similar work days here too.
I think it is mostly cultural - just googled and there are umpteen references to people in US battling for right to have clotheslines and states making No clotheslines by laws illegal and blogs by Americans surprised at clothesline usage here.
Something that would be unheard of here - it is a given that a house/ unit/ flat has a clothesline - with possible execption of high rise apartments.
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MargaretYakoda wrote: »I darn my socks. Does that count as old fashioned?
That's actually something I keep meaning to learn how to do. It annoys me to have to toss socks I like in the dust cloth bin when everything except one toe has plenty of wear left.0 -
Wow! Didn't expect that much response! I do appreciate the conveniences, especially when I am pressed for time. When I worked full-time it would have been dreadful to have to do those things. But now that DH and I are retired I have found great delight in practicing what I learned when we were first married and poor.
We have all the conveniences that we need, but I have found that there is a certain satisfaction in knowing I can keep our clothes and home clean, feed my family, and entertain myself with or without electricity. That it isn't necessary to have it all. Having too much stuff never did anything but make me anxious. But to each their own, or whatever floats your boat! The days I can, I do, the days my fibromyalgia makes it impossible, I use the conveniences available to me.
@paperpudding everyone here seems to have a stick broom/stick vacuum-rechargeable of course!
@lynn_glenmont HA! I like those, too!
@MargaretYakoda you betcha that qualifies!
@middlehaitch yes, having the CHOICE definitely makes a difference. Some things I do regret-like getting a front load washer (hate it), and wasting money on new appliances when they become obsolete and unfixable within a few years. When we first married I had my parents old Coldspot fridge. That thing was new in 1948 and still going when we did our first kitchen over in 1993. Finally gave out just before 2000. My range was a gas behemoth from 1950. Cooked like a dream but DH wouldn't let me keep it in our "new" kitchen.
@mourvedre- YES. Yes, exactly.
@springerling62 is that y'alls team and rig??? Wow, I am beyond impressed, and a wee bit jealous!
I have a fridge my parents got new in 1947 that's still running -- although there was a period of months when the whole thing became a freezer, and broke some glass bottles and exploded some beverage cans, which was a pain. Eventually it decided to go back to being a refrigerator (with a small freezer). Now I mostly store things in the refrigerator section like whole grains and whole grain flours that won't mind if that happens again, plus freezer foods in the small freezer.4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jum7DsNZqO0
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