I’ve taken the below principles of a life-serving and applied them to our current moment:

Practice thrift, frugality, and debt-avoidance

Transition from net consumers to net producers

Minimize waste

Barter and trade

Use what you have 

Spend money where it matters most

Introduce children to the concepts of a life-serving economy early

Understand “enough”

This post will cover #5-8.

In the time of COVID-19:

5. Use what you have

Bartering is about using what our community already has. This is about looking at we already have. Part of practicing living with less is living with better. That means choosing quality and durability over convenience and cost. If we have fewer things, but those things are things we choose carefully, to love and to last, then we are more likely to invest time in caring for them.

Using what we have can look like, “if it’s broke, fix it.” I’m learning to mend (join me at a Superorganism Mending Circle) right now so I can take better care of the things I already have. I’m also loving the book Mending Life from the Far Woods as a mending resource. 

Another great example of people using what they have right now is all of the mask makers! So many companies and people with sewing skills are repurposing the things they have to make things they need. It’s this type of resourcefulness that we’re going to need to carry with us into this climate collapse future. 

6. Spend money where it matters most

In all times, everything is political, but you might have to look for it. But in times of crisis, politics show themselves in the breakdown of the normal.

Spending money where it matters most is at the heart of life-serving economy principles. “Vote with your wallet” means recognizing that spending money on something is showing support for that business, for the way that thing was produced, for the materials used to make it. It means selecting the things we spend carefully and knowing that everyone did the same, we could collectively “vote” to support the things we believe in and vote things we don’t out.

If we don’t like Jeff Bezos’ workplace policies, the insignificant amount of good he’s doing with his disproportionate amount of wealth, or if we are listening to the Amazon workers striking for better conditions in this pandemic, we can vote by not shopping at Amazon. Buying or sourcing something locally isn’t going to put Amazon out of business if I do it. But it could if we all do.

COVID-19 has forced our focus to shift from global to local. Whether we support our small businesses and local producers now matters (especially if the government is voting with its wallet and showing them they don’t). 

7. Introduce children to the concepts of a life-serving economy early

At a time when so many children are now being home-schooled, now seems like the perfect time to start talking with whatever kids are around us about all of the different ways we can participate in an economy. They can make something to gift or trade with their neighbours, they can help grow the food they eat, they can learn to repair their things and mend their clothes, they can learn to save or to thrift well. If we want a life-serving future, we better start talking with those who will be creating and living it.

8. Understand “enough”

From Radical Homemakers: “The magical trick about ‘enough’ is that it is not discovered by deciding what you must do without--that can feel like a form of deprivation. Rather, it is perpetuated more by feeling satisfied and filfilled with what you have and jetitisoning the burden of the excesses.”   

The idea of economy is independent from the idea of a profit and growth driven economy. Radical Homemakers remind us that we can participate in the economy in really fulfilling meaningful ways when we shift from a “growth economy” to an “enough economy.” An “enough” life-serving economy allows us to define true wealth as family, friends, community, nourishing food, interests, security. At the end of the day, everything else is unnecessary.

This is a hefty one, so I’ve divided it into two posts. In the words of Radical Homemakers:

The essential job of a radical homemaker is to “build a bridge that crosses us from the dominion of an extractive economy” to a life-serving economy where we fulfill material human need rather than pursuing the generation of “wealth for its own sake.”

The message here is not to return to a subsistence economy (that’s not entirely possible or desirable for everyone to do anyway). Instead, it’s about reframing our economy to a human scale, focused not solely on profit but instead on fulfilling the needs of those around us.

I’ve taken the below principles of a life-serving and applied them to our current moment:

Practice thrift, frugality, and debt-avoidance

Transition from net consumers to net producers

Minimize waste

Barter and trade

Use what you have 

Spend money where it matters most

Introduce children to the concepts of a life-serving economy early

Understand “enough”

This post will cover #1-4.

In the time of COVID-19:

1. Practice thrift, frugality, and debt-avoidance

In a post-coronavirus economy where I know more people unemployed than ever before, these principles seem like no-brainers. The key here is that when things return to whatever new normal emerges, we remember that we were okay with less. That capitalism and the societal pressure and systems that encourage us to want more, buy more, make more, work more, usually aren’t actually essential for us to live well.

2. Transition from Net Consumers to Net Producers

Radical Homemakers writes: “These people do not see the performance of their own bread-labor (labor for basic needs) as a hardship… The work of Radical Homemakers is, almost inadvertently, rich with meaning and purpose.”

In some ways, I have never seen the people in my circles produce as much as I have during quarantine. Or at least, producing in a way that is for themselves and their own needs or purpose. In normal times, they might be producing work or value for an organization, for the systems of capitalism all around us. But in recent weeks there’s been a shortage on yeast and flour?! People are doing the hard, patient work of sourdough baking, not because they are being asked to, but because there is meaning and purpose in producing for themselves.

The Radical Homemaking mindset asks us to continue to remember, when things become the new normal, that there is joy and value in producing to sustain ourselves and our community. 

3. Minimize waste

Waste is a matter of perspective. My coffee grounds can be my garden’s food, my hand-me-downs can be my sister’s new favourite outfit. Radical Homemakers are skilled at working thoughtfully and making use carefully. And they also think critically about whether something others might waste could be a resource. There was a section in the Minimum Viable Planet newsletter the other day about thinking in circles rather than straight lines.

“Danae went on to elaborate on the idea of getting things done while getting things done. She writes:

‘if I'm weeding, I'm simultaneously gathering mulch for my fruit trees -

if I'm shredding paper, I'm creating mulch for my raspberries -

if I'm sweeping, I'm adding to the kitchen compost bin -

if I'm mowing orchard pathways, I'm gathering nitrogen for the compost tumbler -

if I'm changing water in bird baths, I'm watering mints planted at the base of bird baths.’

I love the idea of a circle of actions, a thing that helps another thing. It’s circular economy without all the bureaucracy. It’s circular thinking without going in circles.”

The concept of Cradle to Cradle (the design text by the same name is one of my stand-bys) is useful here. A cradle to cradle perspective believes that things should be designed so that the end of the lifecycle feeds positively into something else. Waste = food, trash = resource, etc. Rather than just thinking through the lifecycle of things we purchase or create to their disposal in the least bad way we can, cradle to cradle asks us to consider how we can design their demise to be a net positive. In a time where we’re making due with what we have, stretching out our resources, and drawing on our community, we can begin to see how unnecessary so much of our waste really is.

4. Barter and trade

I spent the last two years living in Toronto, where an app (previously a facebook group) called Bunz was a huge part of my life. Bunz is basically a marketplace based on bartering, where users would post items they had and what items or services they were searching for in return. I had someone come by and fix my speakers, I got a laundry hamper for a roll of film, a bucket of paint for a bottle of wine, etc. etc. There were all sorts of spin-off facebook groups too, a Bunz group for people in need of someone handy or offering their handiness, a Bunz group of people wanting to practice cutting hair and people hoping to have theirs cut for free. It was the most amazing example (and snapshot) of how resourceful, plentiful, and rich the Toronto community was without actual currency entering into the equation.

In quarantine times, I’ve seen informal Bunz-style networks springing up all over the place. Mutual aid groups, care-mongering pages, and, of course, the drop-offs of sourdough and baked goods and the products of new hobbies being dropped off on friends and neighbours doorsteps. There are so many things I am good at and can give, and so many things I am bad at or uninterested in that someone right around the corner could love doing. Seeking local, alternative, already-made options rather than the most convenient, cheap, or newest option is a practice. The more we do it, the better we get at it, the easier (and often more lasting and cost-effective in the long-term) it becomes. 

Times like right now when people have less to spend are good times to remember that there is so much out there already, it’s just not equally distributed. If we do a better job of making the things we don’t need or use anymore available to those we might appreciate them, we can find networks where others will do the same for things we might need too.

From Radical Homemakers:

“Though the romantic idea of homemaking brings to mind concepts like self-reliance or self-sufficiency, radical homemakers recognize that, in fact, their homemaking is only possible through a recognition of their relationships with others.”

“Radical Homemaking is about building self-reliance, but it is not about becoming self-sufficient and living apart from society. ‘There is really no such thing as self-sufficiency,’ argues Sylvia Tanner. She makes the point that Radical Homemaking is not about independence; it is about interdependence, or, perhaps, ‘inter-reliance.’”

Homemakers know the importance of nurturing relationships with family, friends (chosen family), and community. I see the concept of nurturing relationships broken down into knowing, valuing, and maintaining the relationships around you. 

In the time of COVID-19:

For me, right now, that knowing, valuing, and maintaining relationships looks like:

1. Who is my community?

Literally, knowing my neighbours. Who are they? Do I know their names? What they’re like, what they need, what they can give? And if I don’t know them or have a relationship with them, how can I start one? Do they need anything right now that I can help them with?

This applies to the people who are my physical neighbours but also to the local businesses and systems that create my larger community. Do I have a neighbourhood grocer? Who runs it? Is there a market nearby, if not? How can I meet some of the farmers and learn more about them and what this has been like for them?

2. What value do I bring to my community? What value do they bring to me?

Radical homemaking is seeing our home as beyond the physical walls of our house. It is learning to value what skills, resources, and contributions (tangible and intangible) are around us and making clear what we have to give in return.

Valuing relationships is about understanding how much relationships can enrich our lives. It’s knowing that the couple across the street had lawn equipment we could borrow and then sharing the cake and ice cream we made with them in thanks. It’s going through our old art supplies and dropping off the great stuff we’ve outgrown for the little girls next door. It’s knowing that the boy two houses down loves taking care of our cats when we’re out of town. It’s our neighbours knowing we like spicy food but not green thumbs and having them drop off an accidental spicy pepper harvest. Valuing our neighbours is not expecting things to always be reciprocal or transactional, it is knowing that when we’re generous and open about what we can offer our community, they will do the same in return.

3. Don’t wait to maintain relationships until you need them.

A time of crisis is a good time to remind ourselves that we should be appreciating and maintaining our community not only when in crisis or when we need them, but all the time.

Staying at home right now feels a lot less limiting if we can see our home not just in the walls around us, but in the network of relationships that make up our lives.