OS tips in today's Guardian

sleepless_saver

Some good ones (and some I would never ever do:o) here

redspot24

I just wish I could get hold of some mutton fat from somewhere!:rotfl:
It's a really interesting article and I thoroughly agree with the author - those who lived during WW2 and the austerity years really knew how to be OS! I'm writing a PhD on the housewives in the 1950s and 1960s and these thrifty ideas stayed with people for a lifetime. I'm always amazed at what they were able to do with so little - it's been great to find this forum and realise that such ways haven't been lost :j

Bexstars

thanks

will have a read this afternoon

amyandoli

I had a pile of clothes that had a stain that are beyond mend, but my mum taught me to keep these things in a bag as dust rags. Now I have my sewing machine from xmas, I plan to turn these things into (possibly Very) shabby chic items for the house and as gifts. My nan swears by olive oil for hands, not quite mutton fat...:eek:

sleepless_saver

redspot24 wrote:

It's a really interesting article and I thoroughly agree with the author - those who lived during WW2 and the austerity years really knew how to be OS! I'm writing a PhD on the housewives in the 1950s and 1960s and these thrifty ideas stayed with people for a lifetime. I'm always amazed at what they were able to do with so little - it's been great to find this forum and realise that such ways haven't been lost :j

One of the contributors mentioned that 20 years ago this way of life was considered eccentric, whereas today she's asked for advice. I feel like I've lived through this as I used to think my in-laws very odd for re-using envelopes, using milk cartons to pot plants and so on. I do these things now:rotfl:and my children think I'm weird.

Topher

We live somewhat in a 1940s idyll (i.e. we can escape to 2007) I've collected quite a few WW2 household books, and some from the 20s onwards. Have you seen the Make Do & Mend book/leaflet?
Thanks for the article ref.
T

mouseymousey99

I'vr just borrowed The Wartime Kitchen & Garden (BBC books) from the library its full of stuff like this, fascinating.....

melaniec_2

amyandoli wrote:

I had a pile of clothes that had a stain that are beyond mend, but my mum taught me to keep these things in a bag as dust rags. Now I have my sewing machine from xmas, I plan to turn these things into (possibly Very) shabby chic items for the house and as gifts. My nan swears by olive oil for hands, not quite mutton fat...:eek:

My Mum is in a patchwork group and she has made some lovely snuggle blankets from old 100% cotton shirts. My bf always saves his shirts for her.

Incidently we always get out snuggle blanket out when we are cold saves on heating - well some time it suppliments the fact we can't get any more out of our bad heating situation!

Three_Dancing_Dragons

I can't imagine EVER being desperate enough to recycle porridge.

dolly_day_dream

melaniec wrote:

My Mum is in a patchwork group and she has made some lovely snuggle blankets from old 100% cotton shirts. My bf always saves his shirts for her.

Incidently we always get out snuggle blanket out when we are cold saves on heating - well some time it suppliments the fact we can't get any more out of our bad heating situation!

We survived for 5 years with only a gas fire for heating - the boiler had broke and there was no way I could afford to get it mended. I made up patchwork quilts in much the same way as mentioned and they were placed over backs of the furniture. If you got too cold you just wrapped one around yourself.

We now have central heating but the quilts remain and are in constant use.

[Deleted User]

Three_Dancing_Dragons wrote:

I can't imagine EVER being desperate enough to recycle porridge.

I can, I lived through the last war and it's surprising how enterprising my late Mum was .Nothing was ever wasted food,clothes ,paper anything.If she could find a way of reusing it, it was reusued .
My first doll was rescued from a bomb site by my elder brother Johnny,brought home, washed and tided up, and although she had one eye,one leg and looked a bit sorry for herself my Molly-the- Dolly was much loved by me as there were very few dolls around in those days .I learnt to knit by making a few clothes for her from odd bits of wool that my Mum gave me .She knitted almost constantly .She had two very heavy handed sons who seemed to wear thiings out all the time .My late Dad had a cobblers last, and shoes were repaired on it .Blakey's steel tips on my brothers shoes. It wasn't so much that they needed to do this ,my Dad had his own shop towards the end of the war after he came out of the army, it was that things were in such short supply, and if things were worn out, then it was very hard to replace them.
I read through the article and some of the following emails and some of the things in there I have been doing automatically for years .Recycling isn't new it has been around for quite a long time .Poverty and shortages are the great mother of invention. My Mum's generation rose to the challenge beautifully I wonder if todays generation could do as well with the sort of lack of things that she had to put up with constantly .As a little girl I always seemd to be que-ing for something or other.I remember getting an orange, and my Mum being so pleased that she cried. the skin she used as zest in a cake, and the orange was divided up fairly between us three children.
My Mum, bless her, could find a meal out of almost anything for her brood