10 Sustainable Lifehacks Of Our Grandparents

Did you know that Grandma and Grandpa have the best tips and tricks for sustainable living? That is logical because a generation that already understood and knew a time without plastic, for example, inevitably led a life without plastic.

Therefore, in this article, I would like to give you sustainable tips for everyday life that we can learn from our grandparents.

1. PLANTING FOOD IN THE GARDEN

Be it herbs or larger foods like potatoes, carrots, or rhubarb. If you have the opportunity, like our grandparents, you should plant your food in the garden. This is zero waste in its original form because there is no trace of plastic packaging or other garbage here. Plus, you can be 100% sure that food from your garden hasn’t travelled very far and hasn’t been treated at all.

By the way, having your garden is also a wonderful start in the vegan life and extremely easy on the wallet. This sustainable tip from Grandma & Grandpa is worth its weight in gold.

2. MAKE YOUR MEAL

Preparing your meals is not particularly difficult; Grandma and Grandpa somehow succeeded. It doesn’t matter if it’s pasta or bread. You can do everything yourself from scratch and without harmful additives. Get inspired by our DIY blog. With this sustainable living hack from our grandparents, your daily life can also become sustainable.

3. REPAIR IF SOMETHING BREAKS

Repair is an important principle of the zero residue lifestyle, as we call it today. Our grandparents used to fix everything because then, not everything was available 24/7. In Berlin, for example, there are now regular meetings in repair cafes where people help each other, for example, to give toasters or shoes a second chance. This sustainable living hack from our grandparents saves money and natural resources.

4. DRIVING A BIKE MORE THAN A CAR

In the past, not everyone had a car, and not everyone could travel the world, as is the case today. So our grandparents were consciously or unconsciously very conscious of the environment. If possible, get on your bike and get out of the car. If you want your everyday life to be sustainable, you need to seriously, take this sustainable living hack. You can learn more about this in the article living without cars.

5. REDUCE AND BE HAPPY

“Before we had nothing” is often heard from older generations, and that is true. Because our grandparents didn’t have a smartphone with the best no-waste apps and they couldn’t even ask Google Maps for the fastest route. Grandma and Grandpa only had what they needed to live. And they were happy. Today, the reduction in minimalist way of life is back in fashion, a sustainable tip that conserves natural resources and your own wallet.

6. LEARN TO SEW

What do I do if my sweater gets stuck in a corner and I have a hole in my sleeve? Or has a zipper come loose from the zip-up sweater? With a very high probability, this sweater ends up in the trash with many people today, or at least it is taken to the used clothing collection. Because we’ve largely forgotten a valuable and now sustainable hack for our grandparents’ everyday sewing. Since I can’t do it myself, I bring my sweater to Grandma. It is a bonus and not at all unpleasant if you can sew yourself.

7. PREFERRED REUSABLE INSTEAD OF DISPOSABLE 

Think of all it takes once. This is a basic tip for a sustainable daily life. The disposable plastic cups are used for 1-2 drinks and then end up in the trash. So why don’t we drink out of washable glasses and avoid plastic waste? It would be sustainable and you can reuse the glass in the spirit of the Zero-waste lifestyle. Grandma and Grandpa used to have no plastic and somehow got along with their cups and glasses. And they packed their purchases in containers that they had brought with them and did not ask for plastic packaging.

8. BRING YOUR FOOD

Our grandparents used to cook everything at home and take it with them when they were away. The meals came in glasses without any problem, so Grandma and Grandpa were able to transport their food without plastic. There are no one-way plastic bowls, no questionable one-way salad. Everything prepared yourself and possibly even from your own garden. Packing your own food in a stainless steel lunch box or mason jar is one of the many important sustainable tips for eco-friendly everyday living.

9. USING CLOTHING THREAD 

Right, the good old clothesline dries sustainably. Because the dryer does not need electrical power. Also, no limited metals are mined for an expensive dryer, such as those known as rare earth in smartphones. And what did our grandparents use to fasten the clothes on the rope? They used plastic-free wooden clothespins. Simply letting clothes air dry is a valuable, sustainable living hack that we can learn from grandma and grandpa.

10. BUY UNPACKED FOODS

Today, unpackaged stores are popping up like mushrooms, and that’s really nothing new. Because our grandparents used to go to the supermarket to fill the glasses and cans they brought. Plastic-free shopping was also possible before; we found it too cumbersome. In addition, more and more organic markets and supermarkets offer so-called filling bars.

When I ask my grandmother today what she used to brush her teeth with, she says, “With a wooden toothbrush, boy.” And the wooden toothbrush is all the rage today, like so many things that previous generations have used before.

What can we learn from grandmother and grandfather? When there was no plastic, they showed us how to live sustainably and without plastic. Today we see the problem of plastic waste in the environment and desperately seek solutions to a wide variety of environmental problems. We can learn from our grandparents how we can cope with some things and make our everyday lives as sustainable as possible.

We say: Our grandparents are the best hackers in life! Now we go back to the roots for a short time, and then we march into the future with great and sustainable steps.