With the rise of modern technology, there isn’t much value placed on the habits of our grandmothers, and that’s a shame. Truth is Grandma’s have many habits from their youth that left them better off that the majority of millenials.
I’ve come up with a list of 6 Habits Your Grandma Has That You Should Too. If you take up even one of these habits you will be better prepared for the world, with or without modern day technology.
1) Save Everything Useful. Likely your Grandma or even great grandma grew up during the times of the Great Depression. They saw empty store shelves and had no money to buy things even if those shelves weren’t empty. So when they got something useful, they held onto it. Everything from reusing plastic bags to saving tools and other useful things keeps these women prepared no matter what. Perhaps this is why grandparents often seem so magical to us!
2) Cook from Scratch. When I was 18 I was painfully aware that the only food I knew how to prepare came from a box, with directions and ingredients to get it done. Learning to cook everything from scratch makes you extremely versatile in any situation. It also makes people think you’re magic because you can do things like say, make better pizza than you can buy from a pizza shop!
3) Store Food and Other Perishable Supplies. I knew an older woman once who had 3 different storage locations of dry goods in the event of the collapse. I know that might have been a bit overkill but having an airtight organized place where you can save everything from canned goods to flour and sugar is essential. If things do go wrong, you likely have yourself and friends covered. Otherwise you can always rest assured being prepared for literally anything.
4) Share Life Learning Experiences. Communication has changed in so many ways and somewhat as a result of technology has become very superficial. Most communication is done online often using the medium of memes or something else. While relatable, memes just don’t offer the same value that sharing your stories, in person can have. It allows other people to learn from your mistakes instead of making them just like you did. Leads to a happier population!
5) Grow Your Own Food. Most people I talk to have a Grandma who liked to garden. Maybe she just had roses, or a plot in her backyard. Maybe she was more exciting and had a few fruit trees, like peach or apple. Regardless Grandma’s house could always be a place to be counted on for fresh delicious food. If there’s one thing you get from being able to garden, its comfort in knowing you’ll always have fresh food.
6) Save Family Recipes, On Paper. Lots of Grandma’s out there have that recipe box, one they turn to whenever they go to make an old favorite of their kids or even their grand kids. These are often recipes passed down for generations, written by hand in ink that you can literally just see the history. Lots of these recipes are being lost and lets face it….the majority of food blogs are just re-brands of each other with different photos and maybe an ingredient or two changed. How many times have you tried an online recipe and it just not work out? Now how many times have you gotten a handwritten recipe from Grandma and it worked out? Exactly.
There’s a lot more habits to learn but these will set you well on your way to being a strong, self reliant human being regardless of if you have access to the internet.